Real's return remains a real possibility

PRE-SEASON TRAINING:WITH THEIR "mission accomplished" in Ireland according to the club's official website yesterday, Real Madrid will swing past home to pick up Kaka and co before heading to Canada for the next stage of the pre-season build-up.

Shamrock Rovers, meanwhile, will also feel fairly pleased with the way the last few days have gone as they turn their attention now to Sunday’s top-of-the-table clash with Bohemians at Dalymount Park. As for the promoters of Monday night’s game, Platinum One, they appear to already have one eye firmly on next year with the firm’s director of football, Eamon McLoughlin, confirming that talks have been ongoing for four months with another major club from one of the two big Mediterranean leagues about next July while a return visit by Real also remains a significant possibility.

“It was great,” says McLoughlin of Madrid’s visit which draws to a close this afternoon when the club fly out of Dublin. “We’re delighted with the way it all went, very happy although we won’t totally relax until they’ve gone.”

After that, he says, there will be time to reflect in some detail with all of the parties involved on how the past week has gone as well as an opportunity to reopen talks with the other club which is considering an offer to visit either Ireland or another unnamed location as part of its preparations for the 2010/11 campaign.

“With some of the biggest clubs you have to start looking at these things anything up to two years in advance and we’ve been talking to this one for four months now,” says McLoughlin. “Nothing is agreed but things have been going well and having set the talks aside while Real were here we’ll have a chance now to resume work on putting it together.”

If a deal is struck and the club opts to come to Ireland then their agenda is likely to be very much in line with Real’s. Carton House would provide the accommodation and training facilities while a game against Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght would be the most likely combination for the friendly game that anchors the business end of things.

“Realistically, Tallaght is still going to be the only stadium available in 12 months’ time but Monday went very well and it would be even better with the second stand in. There would be less temporary seating to go in and improved facilities at a ground that serves the hotel very well. Obviously there is a lot of talking to a lot of people still to be done but we would certainly be hopeful of being able to stage something similar again in 12 months’ time.”

One possible problem will be the decision this time around of South Dublin County Council to close the stadium ahead of the game in order to get it ready with the result that Rovers were obliged to move a league game across the city to Tolka Park.

McLoughlin, however, insists the situation was not of the promoters’ making and with those FAI officials present having apparently reacted positively to the occasion and with less work likely to be required at the ground once the second stand is in, he is optimistic that it need not be a major issue.

Real officials are also likely to be sounded out about a return when the rest of this year’s preseason is out of the way in a few weeks’ time and the club’s officials are in a position to look to the future. “We’ll certainly be talking to Real about how it went for them and see if they want to go again. That would be great but even if it turned out that they wanted to do something else next summer I think we’ll have a lot of interest in coming here off the back of their visit this time.”

Publicly, the club’s management have certainly been upbeat about their experience in Ireland and first-team coach Manuel Pellegrini expressed considerable satisfaction after Monday’s game with the workout it had provided for his players.

“It was very useful, very important for our pre-season,” said the Chilean. “I think we achieved what we set out to achieve here. Shamrock Rovers were great rivals, very useful opponents and the week has been very useful too, it has been a very comfortable place to stay and a very good place to work on our pre-season.”

The players have generally been happy too although it’s a little hard to imagine Brazil’s Marcelo will have entirely fond memories of Monday’s game. The 21-year-old can play either on the wing or at left back and it was in the latter role that he encountered Seán O’Connor at Tallaght stadium.

Twice the Rovers player skipped past him before shooting prompting one visiting journalist to observe dryly that Florentino Perez would doubtless buy O’Connor too before leaving town. “Usually the right winger is the fastest player on the team,” Marcelo acknowledged yesterday, “but he (O’Connor) was especially quick, a very good player.”