The Spanish Liga season hasn?t yet ended, but given the extent to which Real Madrid have underperformed and disappointed, speculation is already rife as to which players the club will sign to try to break a cycle of 3 years without silverware.
It is said that the left-sided player that Madrid would like is Arjen Robben. Madrid, apparently, want a pacy winger who can get into the box (or so says sports daily ?As?) and Robben fulfils those criteria. What a pity they don?t point out also that, once in the box his shots tend to go wide, his crosses verge on the Gronkjaer-esque, and he often fails to see the team-mate standing in front of the open goal screaming for an easy pass.
Still, ?As? considers that Robben is on Madrid?s wishlist, alongside the likes of Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas and Xabi Alonso. We have reported this in the past, but what is now being said is that Madrid?s interest is long-standing: they already informed Chelsea at Christmas that they were interested in Robben.
We wonder how much credibility to give to such a rumour. After all, nothing will happen at Madrid until after their Presidential elections. After all, some of the Presidential candidates are promising Ickle Stevie Gerrard. Good luck to that one.
If it were to be true, however, we wonder whether Chelsea fans would be so upset. The truth is that, from being electrifying last season, Robben has gone seriously off the boil this time around. His two red cards (and his low goal count) certainly haven?t helped. Still, he always has a World Cup during which he could try to redeem himself to the Chelsea faithful.