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Begiristain: Barcelona Proud Of Making Real Madrid Break The Bank
Winning the treble had more connotations than just a big party for Barça.
Oct 11, 2009 6:25:19 AM
Txiki Begiristain believes that Barcelona should be proud that their success has forced arch rivals Real Madrid into a huge spending spree in order to catch up.
The Blaugrnaa technical secretary was surprised though by the scale and attitude of Los Merengues as they forked out over €250 million on new players in the summer.
Madrid's director general Jorge Valdano has explained how his club had to do what they felt was necessary to stop Barça from disappearing over teh horizon.
"It should give us great pride to read that Valdano stated in various interviews that Madrid had to do in one year what they would normally have done in three in order to put an end to Barca's hegemony," Begiristain was quoted as saying by Sport.
"This season the Champions League final will be held in the Santiago Bernabeu and for five consecutive seasons Real Madrid have gone out at the last 16 stage.
"Now the Champions League is a priority for them.
"It does appear to be illogical and surprising that in a time of a serious global crisis they start spending such quantities of money.
"There was the impression that for Real Madrid money was not an issue and that they could buy whoever they wanted.
"Also, when a big team is willing to pay huge sums for a player the bar is automatically raised for the rest of the players.
"That is something that I can confirm was the case when we negotiated for (David) Villa before signing (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic."
Lucas Brown, Goal.com
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The Blaugrnaa technical secretary was surprised though by the scale and attitude of Los Merengues as they forked out over €250 million on new players in the summer.
Madrid's director general Jorge Valdano has explained how his club had to do what they felt was necessary to stop Barça from disappearing over teh horizon.
"It should give us great pride to read that Valdano stated in various interviews that Madrid had to do in one year what they would normally have done in three in order to put an end to Barca's hegemony," Begiristain was quoted as saying by Sport.
"This season the Champions League final will be held in the Santiago Bernabeu and for five consecutive seasons Real Madrid have gone out at the last 16 stage.
"Now the Champions League is a priority for them.
"It does appear to be illogical and surprising that in a time of a serious global crisis they start spending such quantities of money.
"There was the impression that for Real Madrid money was not an issue and that they could buy whoever they wanted.
"Also, when a big team is willing to pay huge sums for a player the bar is automatically raised for the rest of the players.
"That is something that I can confirm was the case when we negotiated for (David) Villa before signing (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic."
Lucas Brown, Goal.com
Want more from Goal.com delivered right to your door? Introducing "Goal.com Magazine." Subscribe now!
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