Ramon Calderon resigns

Maybe Real will stop spending silly money and become more stable. Thoughts?

Probably not. Real has been spending money for years now. Every president that comes in just promises to spend even more money than the last.

One thing that HAS come up again is the pursuit of Arsene Wenger. Florentino Perez is back as a contender for Real Madrid president and has promised to sign Wenger if elected (this according to ESPN Soccernet). He also mentioned Kaka and Fabregas as players he would bring in.

Anybody think either of these three targets will in fact be signed over the summer? Personally I think that while it is possible Wenger will sign, I do not think it is the right move to commit before the season is over because they COULD have just the man for the job right now in Ramos, who is something like 5-1 since taking over (only loss coming to Barca). As for Kaka and Fabregas, they would have to either play Fabregas deeper as more of a distributing midfielder instead of an attacker, as Spain did with him in the Euros, or the other option is to drop back Sneijder or Robben and benching Gago or Diarra. Same with Kaka, although I don't think he could work nearly as well as a defensive/distributing midfielder as Fabregas could. I think both players would fit in well with the Madrid (and Spanish in general) style of play, but it's just a question of fitting all these star players in together to have them work effectively, not to mention managing all those big egos once you DO move and bench some of them.

Any thoughts? (There must be.)

Why would you need to drop back Sneijder or Robben? They are both wingers, and excellent ones at that.

Fabregas and Kaka could play midfield together, with Diarra playing the enforcing role so Fab and Kaka would have license to roam.

And I DO think Real are doing the right thing in pursuing Wenger. Perez is offering him the managerial AND director's role, so he would ultimately decide how to spend money and how to run the team. Wenger + control + money = success. While Ramos has the potential to succeed, why not get a sure fire, proven success?

I just said it's one of the options in order to accommodate Kaka and Fabregas. But okay then, to be clear, you would bench Gago and Higuain? I'm not against the signing of these two players; I'm just pointing out a non-monetary cost of doing so, which in this case is to bench the team's leading scorer (Higuain with 12), who is also an up-and-coming player who just turned 21. The next top scorer is Raul with 7. Even Gago is tough to bench, although probably one of the necessary ones, because he's just 22 and has such a bright future-- he's already a regular fixture with Argentina. They could sell one or two players I suppose, but again, it's just something to think about and I'd be very interested to see exactly how it all pans out.

About Wenger, yeah he very well could be the right choice, but I don't think Real should commit to him this early because IF Ramos continues this run and either challenges Barca for the title or gets to the CL final then I think he's a surer manager for next season than someone who has not had a trial with Real Madrid itself. At least if you wait till, say, the CL tie vs Liverpool is decided, then you'll have more information on how Ramos has done through that point, and since we're talking about hiring Wenger AFTER the season, then it wouldn't be so bad to wait till the first week of March to extend him an offer.