Was Ramon Calderon Really That Bad?

Calderon is now claiming the Ronaldo deal as his doing and taking some credit for laying the foundation of the Kaka deal and that’s exactly what has happened.

To be honest with you, if for the time being we forget about him having rigged the assembly, I don’t think he was such a bad president. He did speak out of turn once in a while. He did pay over the odds for some undeserving players. However his masterstroke was the signing of Capello who really cleaned the Augean stables. Then he sacked Capello but he may have been under pressure. His next choice Schuster was a surprise for us but even he did the job and the team became even better. His third choice Juande Ramos actually went above expectations. Most importantly he did a lot to eliminate egos in Real Madrid saying he wants footballers and not billionaires at the club. The result was winning back to back La Ligas when everyone in the world could see clearly that Barcelona were superior on paper. Some of the existing players in the squad rediscovered their form and managed to put in great performances. Now all the problems of the Galacticos era will slowly come back.

Also if you look at the Ronaldo deal, it’s quite clear that it’s Calderon’s pact that has been invoked. If it were a fresh deal even Perez would have bargained instead of accepting to pay E94m straight away. Also the foundations of the Kaka deal were laid down latest in January when Kaka refused to go to Manchester City and Calderon was in charge then.

So even though he’s been painted as a big villain, was he really that bad?