Big Clubs - Real Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan, Manchester United & Liverpool - Hunting For Replacements of Legendary Players
With the superiority of Barcelona and Inter Milan in Europe, other clubs are looking to rebuild their squads around new players. Major clubs like AC Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Liverpool have enjoyed a lot of good patches in club football, but due to some reasons, their success ratio has been going downhill for the past two years. The major aim of these clubs is to regroup in order to challenge this superiority in European football.
There are many players who attained a legendary status while playing for these big teams. The whole team revolved around these players, as they played a vital role in the performance of attacking as well as defensive duties for their team. With the eventual retirement or leave of these players, a big void has been created, which is not easy to fill. Although new players can be bought to replace them, no one can actually step up to take the entire responsibility for a team. This leads to a hunt for players who have a potential to be like the iconic figures of old.
On the other hand, Barcelona and Inter Milan currently possess potentially their best squads after a very long time. The presence of players like Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi in Barcelona, and Lucio, Maicon and Wesley Sneijder in Inter Milan gives them probably the best squad in the clubs’ history. All these players have the potential to be termed as legends, as they not only performed for their clubs, but had a greater impact on their national sides as well.
The growth of Barcelona would really be troubling Real Madrid, as it seems now that Barcelona might not let any other team challenge their supremacy. This puts Madrid’s integrity in danger, as they are regarded as the best European club in history. Therefore, Real Madrid is missing the days of old Galácticos, which had incredible players like Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo. Among these players, the one with the greatest impact was definitely Zinedine Zidane. He is a legendary midfielder of Madrid, who singlehandedly won many trophies for his clubs (Juventus and Real Madrid) as well as for the French National side.
It is hard for Madrid to replace a player like Zidane, as many midfielders signed after him proved to be far away from his potential. However, a recent signing under Jose Mourinho, Mesut Ozil, is being termed as a person likely to replace Zidane. Although Ozil has yet to truly prove himself, Madrid is hoping that he turns out to be like his predecessor. This way, Real Madrid would be able to reclaim their dominance in Spain as well as in Europe.
The same problems are being faced by Italian giants AC Milan and Juventus. Both these clubs have a history of far more superiority over Inter Milan, but recently Inter has been humiliating other teams in Serie A. AC Milan is missing their bunch of world-class Italian defenders in the shape of Maldini and Nesta. On the other hand, Juventus has a bunch of aging players who had a great impact on team’s success in the past. Also, Pavel Nedved, their exceptional playmaker, has retired from the club, which has left a big void to fill. The recent signing, Milos Krasic of Serbia, is therefore expected to fill the void in Juventus’ midfield.
In the English Premier League, Manchester United and Liverpool are the two most successful teams. However, Liverpool is having a rough patch for two decades now, as they have been unable to win any titles during this time. On the other hand, Manchester United won a lot during these twenty years, but they also had their problems. Recently, Sir Alex Ferguson is searching for a replacement of Cristiano Ronaldo, but despite signing a few other Portuguese players like Nani, Anderson and Bébé, he has failed to produce a replacement.
For the time being, Inter Milan and Barcelona remains the best clubs of Europe, while other clubs are still in the phase of regrouping. Although they have strong squads, they are missing that edge, which can only be provided by a true world-class player.
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