Real Madrid Corner: Luka Modric signs

News: Real Madrid have finally acquired Tottenham´s highly rated Croatian midfielder Luka Modriç on a 5 year contract for around 35 million euros. The wire-thin creative play-maker has spent the last four years in North London where he scored eight goals in that span, but he was an important spoke in their attack making those around him better and wrestling that extra bit of desire and verve, a dash of creativity and a mop-head of leadership for Spurs.

Is he what Real Madrid need though? Is he worth that amount of money considering that they had an opportunity to buy ex-canterano Borja Valero before he went from Villarreal to Italy? No, and that would have cost them a third of what they paid for the Croatian. I have to say they could have had David Silva from Valencia for less money than they paid Spurs, but Mourinho didn´t want him. He was too slight and not physical enough. It´s been a pattern in his buying policy so it seemed rather odd that he would buy a player who fit that mold, more flair than grit and not physically dominant, in Modriç. It´s a gamble. They already have players like Modriç by the bushel. Granero can run the midfield, and Mesut Ozil is already acclimitated and installed as a first-team regular, but this obviously signals the death-knell for Kaká in that role no matter what the club is saying.

Weather: I be worried if I were a madridista. He might be a special coach, but has ever won consistently when he has been in sole charge of the entire organization. José Mourinho is not a great judge of talent. He had help at Chelsea and at Inter and might have been better served with someone other than a yes-man rubber-stamping all of his transfer moves. His Real Madrid transfers have been spotty at best. He also gets it wrong sometimes in his squad-selection. Can we just eliminate the Sergio Ramos playing in the center of defense experiment? Real Madrid have dropped 5 points in their initial 2 games in La Liga and trail FC Barcelona by that amount because of their inability, primarily by their central defenders, to defend the set-piece. Should they have made a more high profile move for a center-back and move Sergio Ramos back to right back? I believe so. Thiago Silva should be playing in white as we speak and the Modriç signing should never have been cleared.

Sports: then again, no matter what we think Real Madrid will do what they seem to be appropriate for themselves. It is more profitable to buy one marquee player per season to pump up the fan base. The problem this year however is that they are already in the bottom half of the table. They'll regain their form and the fans have been fed their spoils so soon it'll be status-quo for los merengues challenging for another league title with the blaugrana, but there is inherantly something wrong. It's not just the fact that the squad is top-heavy and lacks clear leadership at the back. It's not a lack of training on set-pieces, either nor is it referee incompetence or bias, nor even the fact that the league prefers Barcelona over them. Those are excuses. They have a squad that should be imposing their will on lesser clubs like Getafe, and yet they limit themselves to a defensive posture on purpose. They feel they need to secure the bus before they can rev-up its engines but that sets the bar rather close. They play down to the opposition and if an opponent is talented enough, playing a style in mirror image of Real Madrid, they can win like Getafe did.