FOR REAL?<\/p>\n
Before the Geopolitics World Cup circus gets under way, Real Madrid would like you to know there\u2019s always another show in town. Los Blancos have an odd, difficult relationship with the tournament. Spain\u2019s 2010 triumph involved Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso and Iker Casillas being bolted on to a raft of Barcelona players, somewhat demeaning to any aristocratic pretensions. Back in 2018, Madrid upended the Spain national team by snaffling away Julen Lopetegui to be their coach, such that he was sent back from Russia before a ball was kicked. After Fernando Hierro, a Madrileno final boss, took the reins, the tournament was a bust for Spain, and relations have been strained ever since.<\/p>\n
By little coincidence, there are no Madrid players in Spain\u2019s squad, currently doing the Chattanooga Choo Choo at a Tennessee training camp. All while the National League Braintree\u2019s Tommy Smith and Shamrock\u2019s Ricardo Lopes take the stage for New Zealand and Cape Verde respectively. Though that also had plenty to do with the rubbish season endured at the Bernab\u00e9u, Alonso being offed<\/a>, \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa not much cop as an interim, and some unseemly headlines, including players fighting<\/a> in the dressing room with Fede Valverde hospitalised, and a holidaying Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 landing his private plane at a Madrid airport, 10 minutes before a vital game with Espanyol. The lads at El Chiringuito de Jugones<\/a> have been going potty.<\/p>\n Florentino P\u00e9rez\u2019s answer to the madness? Jos\u00e9 Mourinho<\/a>. Which asks what was the question? Though that depends on P\u00e9rez winning re-election on Sunday to be club chief suit, the first election contested in two decades, one that P\u00e9rez himself called on, performing a reverse Keir Starmer. Club members must cast their votes at the club\u2019s basketball pavilion, with an alternative candidate in Enrique Riquelme, 37, to P\u00e9rez\u2019s 79, a renewable energy tycoon compared with the incumbent as a civil engineering billionaire. Riquelme has promised to buy Erling Haaland and Rodri if he\u2019s elected, vowing to pay the club\u2019s membership fees for a year if he fails to land the Manchester City duo. Use of the former\u2019s image in campaign literature and talk of release clauses set City\u2019s busy legal team into action.<\/p>\n Returning Mourinho to a scene he departed in 2013 resembling the final frames of Schwarzenegger\u2019s Commando, having flamed all in sight, would seem an ersatz populist gesture, though there is more. P\u00e9rez returned to his old playbook in announcing he will pay \u201cat least \u20ac150m\u201d for a new g\u00e1lactico, launching a guessing game: \u201cIt isn\u2019t [Michael] Olise, he\u2019s a great player, but it isn\u2019t Olise. It isn\u2019t [Jeremy] Doku, it isn\u2019t Haaland. It isn\u2019t [Harry] Kane. It\u2019s a player who plays from the midfield, or further forwards. And he isn\u2019t a Premier League player. He\u2019s a total gal\u00e1ctico. But first we\u2019ll talk to his club.\u201d Answers on a postcard. Or not<\/a>. There will meanwhile be 11 Madrid players at the GWC, with coaches and their associations hoping squad members will not be unsettled by transfer talk. Though that\u2019s not the Real Madrid way.<\/p>\n LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE<\/p>\n Join Yara El-Shaboury at 8pm BST for updates on Spain 1-1 England in Women\u2019s World Cup qualifying.<\/p>\n QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/p>\n \u201cI feel very Swedish when I\u2019m working. I look a bit Swedish. Two of my kids were born in Sweden\u201d \u2013 Graham Potter gets his chat on<\/a> with Jacob Steinberg and makes it clear why he\u2019s probably the best non-Swede to take the nation into the GWC.<\/p>\n Den b\u00e4sta mannen f\u00f6r jobbet, earlier. Photograph: Joel Marklund\/BILDBYR\u00c5N\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n double quotation markYesterday Ray Anselmo questioned why Andoni Iraola would join Liverpool, who won something last year and then weren\u2019t satisfied with fifth place and the quarter-finals of Bigger Cup this year. Is it safe to assume that Ray is a Spurs fan?\u201d \u2013 Neale Redington.<\/p>\n double quotation markJon Millard is stout in his defence of AOR musos but I disagree with his comment that Tapestry (Carole King) has no links with \u2018Antipodean Journeymen\u2019. Surely So Far Away and Home Again allude to travels of the two Australasian teams \u2013 the latter probably applying a short time after the teams land in North America. And Where you Lead could apply should one of these teams snatch the first goal in a match? Beautiful is a normal epithet of the game of association football, OK not always bandied about when discussing Kiwi or Aussie football, but y\u2019know. Will You Love Me Tomorrow: of course we will, even when faint hopes are dashed in the group stage. Lastly, I feel the Earth Move is mainly a song about a daily occurrence here in the shaky isles of New Zealand, but should we win a match \u2026\u201d \u2013 Rod de Lisle.<\/p>\n double quotation markA simple request on behalf of the rest of us friendless virtual barflies \u2013 please publish every single response to Jon Millard\u2019s broadside. The fact that Toto, Boston, Journey, and the entire AOR genre all caught strays in one almighty righteous take makes this tea-timely email worth reading, and I for one am here for it\u201d \u2013 Daniel Stauss.<\/p>\n double quotation markTo quote the inimitable Half Man Half Biscuit, \u2018Everything\u2019s AOR\u2019 (football Daily letters passim). Now can we please move on?\u201d \u2013 David Bell.<\/p>\n If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com<\/a>. Today\u2019s prizeless letter o\u2019 the day is \u2026 Rod de Lisle. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n GWC GOODIES SECTION<\/p>\n Yep, the GWC player interactive has arrived<\/a>! Read up on all 1,248 players, from the Paraguay striker called \u201cViking\u201d to the Irish-born Cape Verde defender who received his first call-up via LinkedSky. Once you\u2019re clued up on all 48 teams\u2019 strengths and weaknesses, you can have a go at Bracketology, our World Cup simulator game<\/a> where you can click your way through the group stage and the knockouts to predict a champion. For bookmarking, you can keep tabs on the sharpest shooters with our Golden Boot tracker<\/a>. And if that isn\u2019t enough, print out and fill in<\/a> your own wallchart here. You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n Five of the 1,248 players you can read all about in Big Website\u2019s GWC interactive. Illustration: Guardian Design; Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOR REAL? 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