Roberto Carlos paints a picture of another era
It was aired on Channel 11, with Vitor Baía. Made comfortable by being in the house of a colleague, Roberto Carlos abandoned the natural precautions when speaking to the media and acted as he does in private with friends, revealing everything, or almost everything. His deposition was the portrait of an era in which the manager found himself on the outside of the strong relationship between Florentino and his Galácticos. Camacho calling in the players at seven o'clock in the morning or Luxemburgo's order to ban beer or wine were, he says, decisive in their sackings. Del Bosque, who was more prudent, had them training on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.
Beckham's commute
And then there were the private flights, "left, right and centre." In the first year (he didn't mention this, but it was learned later), the Beckham family continued to live in England. Beckham took a private flight after training, spent the afternoon and evening there and returned the next morning. Being a manager in these conditions was heroic and that's how it was, and it lasted a while, except for Del Bosque, with his “molownyana” tactics of slackening off here to tighten up there. Florentino didn't deny his Galácticos of anything, with a pseudo-wedding in Paris in the middle of the season the highlight of that time.
Anarchy at the Bernabéu
One day De Felipe told me that it was no longer Madrid, but something else. A kind of Galactic Football Society in which Los Blancos were the main shareholder, but in which the Galácticos had a significant holding and were managing of the Board of Directors. Due to this, the chief executive (the day-to-day coach) could not control them. That all ended with the resignation of Florentino but, to be honest, as time goes by it is remembered as just a crazy and happy time, in an amusing anarchistic profile. Roberto has revealed much of it now, and he only left out a minute-by-minute account of those Ronaldo birthdays.