Thaindian News

By Duncan Shaw
Madrid, July 31 (DPA) Massive global media attention has been focused on the summer star signings of Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Barca raised eyebrows by swapping top scorer Samuel Eto’o for Inter Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic - plus almost 50 million euros (70.30 million dollars).

Real, for their part, have engaged in the most profligate spending spree ever seen in world football, splashing out more than 220 million euros on Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema, Raul Albiol, Esteban Granero and Alvaro Arbeloa.

In addition, the whites are close to signing midfielder Xabi Alonso from Liverpool, which will take their spending above 250 million euros.

The twin giants, however, have been working even harder to offload unwanted players than to sign new ones.

This is the case every summer, when Barca and Real make room for the newcomers by selling off several rejects. These are good players, but players who have not fitted in at the Camp Nou or the Estadio Bernabeu for one reason or other - and players who might turn out to be bargains for other clubs.

Barca have almost finished their “Operation Exit”. On Thursday Alexander Hleb agreed to go out on loan to Vfb Stuttgart for a season, thus returning to the club where he first caught the eye.

Hleb - who hardly got on the field last season - refused to be part of the Eto’o-Ibrahimovic deal, preferring to return to the Bundesliga.

Defender Martin Caceres, another player unwanted by Barca coach Josep Guardiola, is all set to go on loan to Juventus.

In June, Guardiola managed to offload goalkeeper Albert Jorquera, defender Victor Sanchez and left-back Sylvinho.

The “Operation Exit” of Real Madrid has been much more difficult and numerous.

In June new coach Manuel Pellegrini took over a bloated, expensive, ill-balanced squad of 35, a squad which had failed completely last season.

Sporting director Miguel Pardeza has been working round the clock to offload the club’s unwanted players, but this has been difficult because of the high salaries and low tax rates enjoyed by top footballers in Spain.

On Friday Real announced the departure of veteran defender Gabriel Heinze to Olympique Marseille, on a free transfer. The whites paid around 10 million euros to Manchester United for the Argentine just two years ago, but have now had to let him go for free in order to see the back of him.

This is the kind of bad business that only the really big clubs can get away with.

Heinze is the sixth reject that Pardeza has so far managed to get rid of, after Jordi Codina and Dani Parejo (Getafe), Javier Saviola and Javi Garcia (Benfica).

Pellgrini now wants to see the back of unwanted Dutchmen Royston Drenthe, Rafael Van der Vaart, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Klaas Jan Huntelaar, as well as Michel Salgado, Mahamadou Diarra and Alvaro Negredo.

The most frustrating case for poor Pardeza has been that of Huntelaar. After a month of arduous negotiations, the Dutch striker finally seemed to be all set to leave for Stuttgart - only to change his mind at the last minute.

Huntelaar has returned to training with Real, but Pellegrini completely ignores him and will not pick him for any of the summer friendlies.

Sports daily AS claims on Friday that Negredo and Van der Vaart might be used as part payment to Liverpool for Xabi Alonso, which would kill three birds with one stone for the overworked Pardeza.