seasons greetings

Where the hell did the summer go? Its early August and fall feels like its just around the corner. School starts in 2 weeks! With the new season set to kick off in just a weeks time, theres a couple of things I want to get off my chest.

I spent a decent amount of time in Portugal, Spain, and most recently Germany this summer, all three lovely countries. Although I wasn't there long, it wasn't hard to gauge the interest in the upcoming season in each's respective leagues through the media coverage. I'd say it went something like: interested (portugal), extremely interested (spain), to borderline obsessive (germany).

Its no secret which club all eyes are on as we approach the 2009/10 campaign. The events that have transpired this offseason have undoubtedly thrust Real Madrid willingly back into their favorite position as the center of everyone's attention, and every club has been affected by their off-field antics. If you don't support Madrid, your sure to have some qualms with them and the Manchester Cities of the world. But what about their fans? Real's fans predictably don't have any problems with the way their club went about their business this summer, by simply buying up the best collection of footballers they could get their hands on. Hell, they were given more cash than AIG (almost) to do what they pleased. But is that really the best way to fix a problem? I say no, and the most ironic thing about Real's offseason is that their weaknesses still weren't really addressed (now finally with Alonso, but still...) They haven't really evaluated themselves because god forbid they look in the mirror and acknowledge their flaws, but instead they've just created a media circus, and fired everybody up about the new generation of galacticos.

Incidentally, on my travels there was no country that wanted to talk more about the financial crisis and how unaffordable life in the city is than in Spain and Madrid. Well, didn't your government just give Real a blank check of your money,taxpayer, sir? How can they not put two and two together? Mindboggling.

My point is Spainards are quick to jump on any train without looking where its going. They just want the results without putting in the gruntwork. You've gotta take the good with the bad, thats what makes the success so sweet (at least thats what us oriole fans have to believe). Bayern could have sold Ribery, and they probably will next summer. But it was nice to see somebody not give in to the big bully and handover their lunchmoney. I'm not saying Germans are better fans/people than spaniards, but they can't be as fickle.

BTW, what an active summer. Huge names and talents on the move that didn't get that much recent hype, Eto'o, Ibrahimovic, Aqualani, and more to come on their way out of Madrid for sure.