Robinho departure highlights Real Madrid transfer fiasco

Real Madrid's last-minute sale of its unsettled Brazilian striker Robinho and the Spanish club's failure to sign a replacement highlight its disastrous recruitment for the 2008-09 season.

The Spanish champions signed only one new player – Dutch international midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, who joined Real for five years from German side Hamburg.

The club's top transfer priority, Portuguese international striker Cristiano Ronaldo, ultimately decided to stay with Manchester United after weeks of being wooed by Real, partly due to pressure from the English club's coach, Alex Ferguson.

This first refusal was followed by snubs from two Spanish internationals, Santi Cazorla of Villarreal and David Villa of Valencia, who were either happy to stay at their clubs or miffed at being Real's second choice.

Real president Ramon Calderon had wanted Ronaldo, who scored 42 goals last season to fire United to the Premier League title and European Cup triumph, while Real coach Bernd Schuster had wanted Cazorla and Villa, who helped lead Spain to victory at Euro 2008.

The German coach also wanted Real to hold on to Robinho, who on Sunday told a news conference that he wanted to join Chelsea, saying Schuster was not his father and “he can't force me to do anything”.

Real then decided to accept a last-minute offer of 42 million euros for Robinho that arrived on Monday, the last day of the transfer period, for the 24-year-old Brazilian international.

Not from Chelsea – but newly-flush Manchester City.

The offer from the club — made possible due to its looming takeover by Arab investment fund Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment — beat Chelsea's reported offer of around 30 million euros.

“The kid was in bad shape,” Calderon told radio Cadena Ser after the deal was closed, adding Robinho begged him to let him go to England.

“I talked to him several times. When he talked about his situation, he cried and demanded to leave Spain, he was desperate. He didn't care if he was going to Manchester City,” he added.

“His departure from Madrid is not only due to sports-related reasons, there is something else which I don't understand.”

While Real was negotiating Robinho's departure on Monday, it made its own last-ditch offer of 60 million euros for Villa, the top-scorer at Euro 2008.

But in vain.

Schuster admitted Monday that his side had lacked strike power after losing their season opener 2-1 to Deportivo La Coruna at the weekend.

“I didn't see any striker on the bench. I looked to my left and there was none. We have no other choice but to attack the season with what we have,” he said.

Real signed Argentine defender Ezequiel Garay from Racing Santander at the end of the season but under the terms of the deal the player will only join the club in the 2009-10 season.

In addition, midfielders Javi Garcia and Ruben de la Red, who helped Spain win the Euro 2008 title in June, have rejoined Real after a season with Osasuna and Getafe respectively.