It goes on and on and on!
Chelsea to meet Madrid on Saturday
By EuroBlue
Date: 21/8/2003
Chelsea are still interested in Claude Makelele. Despite probably having closed a deal for Alexei Smertin, and being said to be close to Hernan Crespo, Roman Abramovich is set to meet Real Madrid's President in Majorca over the weekend to try to push forward a further signing.
In today's 'Marca' (or the Real Madrid 'Pravda') journalists have managed to contact Claudio Ranieri to ask him about Claude Makelele. Of course, the bit that Marca highlight is when Ranieri says "Above everything, we respect Madrid", followed by "Madrid is a friendly club, and we don't want to create problems". Nevertheless, as regards Claude Makelele, Ranieri refuses to be drawn, one way or another.
It would appear that Chelsea have not ruled out Makelele. Tactically, however, Chelsea have understood that, whilst the player was causing trouble at the club by refusing to train, it was better to take a step back. For that reason, Ranieri is quite cagey, measuring every one of his words when the Marca hacks try to press him. "Chelsea are very tranquil about this issue. Above everything, we respect Madrid", he says.
Needless to say, the journalists persist in that line of inquiry, to try to draw Claudio to say something about Makelele. "We are friends of Real Madrid. We will stay like this, and that's all", although he does add, very vaguely, that "at the end, everything will work out".
"We don't want to create any problems with this issue, and, in addition, Real Madrid are a friendly club. I would insist that we greatly respect them". To try to halt the probing, Ranieri says "I'm sorry, but stop those questions because I won't say anything else on the subject".
Meanwhile, Real Madrid managed to persuade France's coach Jacques Santini not to line up Makelele in Les Bleus friendly against Switzerland last night. Makelele, of course (like all good French players) has been busy talking to the press about his club whilst away on International duty. He states in 'L'Equipe' that "I think that I have always shown an exemplary attitude towards the club, and I want to state that, at the moment, people are saying many lies about me".
According to his promise, Makelele will return to Spain today, and will also return to training with Madrid - even though he insists that he wants to leave the club. Or receive a pay rise if he stays. His situation can only be resolved once he is back in the fold at the club - which will be seen to have won a battle with the midfielder.
'L'Equipe' goes on to reveal that Real President Florentino Pérez will be meeting with Roman Abramovich on Saturday in Mallorca (it's a tough life) and that Roman will probably come with an offer of €20 million for Makelele. Jorge Valdano, Real's Director of Sport, is denying that such a meeting will take place.
That said, it is probable that Real will be looking to offload the embarrassing midfielder. Indeed, the other Madrid daily, 'As', is beginning to consider alternatives if Makelele moves on, and they decide that the best one would be … Patrick Vieira, who's style of play is similar, and is a great age to make his mark at Madrid. The only problem that they fail to point out: Patrick Vieira signed a new contract with Arsenal only last week…
