Your infatuation with Real never cease to surprise Tim !

spot on Tim, i've been discussing the same issue with fellow Madrid fans over the past week.

Raul needs to be dropped although the veto on the new striker remains to be a material made of speculation by Marca & co i see Raul able to do it without a moment of hesitation , i still see the man as a main culprit in axing Del Bosque and Hierro

He needs to either regain form quickly or retire by the end of the season , its pathetic from me to be wishing him a long term injury after seeing last game formation but that's how it goes . god help Higuain who will a target for Raul and his old guard (Salgado,Guti ) the right thing to do is drop him and never look back at this moment even Saviola offers a lot more

Kirkabir, people come here to read about Madrid, Barca and the other big teams. Being fair to Tim and Simon, they write what they know 95% of the people who come here will enjoy reading. You can't substitue writing about Madrid/Barca with another team, cos there clearly isn't the material to write every day.

With all due respect to the Sporting Gijon et al, no-one comes here to read about them on a daily basis.

Imagine a Spanish person coming to the Premier League equivalent of LLL and finding all the articles about Hull and Stoke. It wouldn't be very interesting would it.

Like all of us, Raúl is fighting a losing battle against time. In the same he replaced Butragueño, who himself replaced Santillana, and so on, Raúl will eventually be replaced, whether it is by Higuaín or someone else.

The over the top adulation he receives from the Madrid sports press now bears no relation to his performance, but he once was the lynchpin of the club, the one around whom everything revolved because he was everywhere, running everything down and scoring bagfuls of goals into the bargain.

He burned himself out 4 or 5 years ago and has not been the same since. Florentino's galactico policy also meant that he was often not played in his natural role, but he had to play anyway because the fans demanded it. He had a good return to form last season and I suspect the fant he was not included in the only Spanish national side to have won anything in over 40 years (I'm not counting the '92 Olympics here) has had an effect on his morale.

I still have not seen any evidence of his all-pervasive power-base at the club, merely rumours and speculation from the anti-Raúl brigade. I suspect he is just a very charismatic guy who gets on with everybody and also works extremely hard. Compare him to Guti who has been blessed with oodles more footballing talent and who has squandered a large part of his potential by not being bothered half the time.

I expect Raúl will be back at some point this season, and possibly all the better for having some real competition for his starting spot. But if he wants to end on a relative high he needs to do it in the next year or two at most - hopefully by lifting that 10th European Cup.

http://allinwhite.blogspot.com

Phil Jones: Not sure I agree at all. There are plenty of places to read about Madrid et al. You say:

"You can't substitue writing about Madrid/Barca with another team, cos there clearly isn't the material to write every day."

Why ever not? Do things only happen at the big two clubs?

I like reading about every club, not just Madrid and Barça. I don't think I'm in such a big minority, either.

well Gonzalo , Portillo father declaration couple of years ago accusing Raul of being the one behind his son being loaned out puts more validity to the rumors ,

the refusal of Del Bosque to take over Real several times in itself is strange, even Hierro who refused to take over a managerial role as a defenders coach under Capello.

I love Real above any player , but i can't help to feel there is something going on

Sid Lowe said before he'll make an article about Raul & will reveal some secrets but it never came out to life and i suspect it has to do with the uproar that the article could cause (as u are another Sid reader i'm sure u remember his hint 2 years ago )

Raul appeal to the right wing "viva Espana" crowd that's a big reason why some fans still prefer to see him , he carry the flag the moment another flag holder comes out Raul will be a distant memory and a very good memory as well no one can deny all he did for Real but as Tim said (all rights to Dylan song Tim ;-) ) times are changing for Raul

one last thing regarding the "all nice guy " "gets along with everybody" as far as i know (and according to many ex-Madrid players) Raul isn't that kinda of guy.. he is more anti-social with few words and short answers , his life is more about his wife & children (not that their is anything wrong with that) but he isn't Hierro for example.. or all around nice guy like IIker

sameoldcabbage

I too enjoy reading about the other clubs and goings on, I think they get covered pretty well here.

Look at the articles posted (apart from the weekend ones). 1 is normally about Real/Barca, then one is about someone like Getafe (as per last week). Even if the headline is Madrid/Barca related, the article nearly always contains news about smaller clubs.

When you say plenty of places to read about Madrid, the thing about LLL is the way its written. Sure you can get news wherever you want, but its nowhere near as entertaining.

If you wrote every day about other clubs, then there wouldn't be anything about the others. There has to be the balance. The simple fact is, Madrid and Barca generate far more news than most other clubs, hence the fact that they are featured more.

Basically - I'm saying I don't think there is some 'infatuation' - anyone who comes here expecting to read as much about Almeria as they do Madrid is kidding themselves. The balance is pretty much spot on I'd say.

In good ol Lion King philosophy - it's the circle of life mate. Higuain needs time on the pitch in his proper position to develop especially as he is finding the confidence he has so often been lacking. I fear that RM won't qualify for the next round of Champions with the current squad  and with injuries on top(good result against Zenith next week essential) which would give Schuster less reason to rotate and more time to leave Raúl on the pitch often leaving the team with 10 or at best 10 and a half men. He knows the selección is now a no - go so won't find that extra that he managed last year.

Beast,

The problem with being able to determine one way or another what power Raúl has is that, unless you know someone on the inside, everything we get is from the sports press which is notoriously unreliable.

A more believable explanation for Portillo being loaned out is that he was simply not good enough. Great goalscoring record in the youth team and the reserves, but notup to scratch when he had to compete with the likes of Raul Ronaldo and Morientes in the Real Madrid side. This is borne out by his subsequent performances in Nastic and Osasune where he's hardly set the world on fire. His father is hardly likely to be an unbiased party and it's easier to blame it all on someone rather than accept that your son is just not good enough.

Del Bosque refused (very tactfully) to come back to Real Madrid because of the way he was dumped by Florentino (not Raúl).

I too have been waiting for Sid Lowe to write that article, but we're still waiting two years on.

I just find it very hard to believe that a single player can have that much say within such a huge football club in successive administrations. It just does not compute. Sure, he's the club captain and has been there longer than any other player. That means he has influence and an important opinion, but to suggest that he *has* to play just does not make sense to me. Can you really see Capello being told who to play by anybody? Capello had lots to say about the club when he left, but not a word about Raúl.

His flag waving and his politics may endear him to some sections of the crowd (not me) but he's never been popular enough that it would bring a president down. In fact, I think presidents have used him as a standard bearer for "what the club represents" more for their own purposes than anything else.

You may be right about him not being very sociable; I really don't know him. I was just speculating as to why he seems to get so much praise from all his team-mates even when he's clearly not at the top of his game.

http://allinwhite.blogspot.com

Game over for Raul now with even his old mate Del Bosque not willing to pick him for La Seleccion. Thankfully there are still enough crackpots at madrid to ensure that his disruptive influence will continue for some time to come.

Hey, I'm with Gonzalo here. Raúl is history. Besides, that name-pointing thing he does is so lame. It's like Ronaldinho and Barça the last two years. Does Raúl's presence really matter for a lot? And, if he does have the kind of back room power you guys are implying ... the man needs to go.

Gonzalo

of course no one knows the inside of the club and if some players indicated some incidents to some journalists it will remain for now as a secret as Raul & those players are still playing , it will be a ladies handbag fight and i believe that's one of the reasons Sid decided to delay his piece for over 2 year now . which brings me to Portillo yes he turned crap but after playing for 1/2 pro sides in Belgium and weaker sides in Spain but i ask you to remember Portillo form in season 03/04 when we lost the liga after leading with over 13 points in March , we had so many injuries and Portillo was banging them, same thing happened to Soldado (who i value highly and you do know that the fans value him highly ) he came back after a stunning season with Osasuna only to be treated like Garbage and Schuster preferring to change the formation then to give our own no. 9 a chance.

Del Bosque situation wasn't just Florentino but the players (Raul & co ) he refused to come back even after Perez left.

as for a player having such influence i actually find it pretty easy to believe i believe you remember how many managers got the sack for benching a galactico and Raul himself back in Perez days, Raul is the crowned king of Real , i'm not saying he didn't earn it all i'm saying that his position with the right wing political figures (and ultras ) give him a powerful position in the dressing room .

Raul addressing Calderon to keep the squad as it is back in May isn't a rumor isn't that what happened mate? only VDV arrived while some other spots (mainly the forward line ) remained weak.

why Luis Aragones kept Raul out despite his form? Raul influence and power is maybe more then meets the eye.. he is an intelligent player on & off the pitch

I truly hope that its just a rumor but i have more then reasonable doubt regarding Raul bad influence on the decision making in Real.

watch the space when Higuain gets the bench or thrown as a right winger to leave space for Raul upfront like we saw against Santander.

P.S good to see u again Adam , hope all is well mate