By DPA,
Madrid: The fans of Real Madrid, the most profligate club in the world, are asking for more signings in the winter transfer window, according to an online poll.
By Thursday, 85 per cent of the readers of sports daily Marca had voted “yes” to the question of whether the club should sign players this winter.
Most Real fans would like the club to bring in a winger and a full-back, as well as a new midfield “organizer”, according to the Marca polls.
Marca said Thursday that Real are interested in Hungarian winger Balazs Dszudzsak of PSV Eindhoven.
Real usually spend heavily in the winter transfer window. A year ago they splashed out on Lassana Diarra and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, as well as taking Julien Faubert on loan from West Hame United.
Real president Florentino Perez spent around 260 million euros ($392 million) last summer on eight players, in the biggest spending spree ever seen in world football.
Perez – an astute construction billionaire – became world-famous during his first spell as president, from 2000 to 2006 by signing the much-vaunted “Galacticos” Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham.
The “Galacticos” team collapsed four years ago and Perez hastily resigned in February 2006.
However, he returned to the presidency last June on the promise of building a second star-studded team and quickly engaged on his record-breaking spending spree, starting with Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United and Kaka from AC Milan.
On Wednesday, at a Spanish business conference in New York, Perez defended his profligate model by saying that “they have called us arrogant for signing the best players in the world, but it is not like that. The only way that Real can survive is by investing in the world’s best players.”
Which is clearly what he intends to keep doing – and which is exactly whet the “madridista” fans want and expect.
Perez also made it clear when resuming the presidency that one of his objectives was to challenge the Spanish and European domination of Barcelona.
The whites are currently second in La Liga, five points behind leaders Barca – who beat them 1-0 last Sunday – although with a game in hand.
Perez’ team were embarrassingly knocked out of the King’s Cup by third division part-timers Alcorcon, but are well placed to reach the knockout stage of the Champions League for the 13th consecutive season.