Real Madrid: Ozil departs, but it’s not the end of the world

In essence, things have changed. A lot of things. This ultimately led to Ozil’s departure. Ozil wasn’t great in pre-season and in came this bowed legged wonderkid named Isco. Dribbling defenders in pre-season for fun, assisting Ronaldo, tracking back to defend AND being a potent threat in front of goal. All the things Ozil brought to the table. And more.

After Ozil came off against Betis after performing poorly (worthy to note he was played out of position) and Isco was still on, in that attacking midfield spot Ozil loves, there was only going to be one grand finale to that. We, Madridistas, pretend and try to sugar coat things a lot but I’m going to say it as it is because well, that’s just the kind of person I am. If Ozil wasn’t going to leave in this window, it was going to be in the next one in January or the next summer one.

Isco has been impressive, ever since his signing from Malaga

Because truth is, barring any injury, Isco would be in the first team XI in his place. To think we thought Isco coming was a threat to Kaka’s place, when in all honesty, it was a warning shot at Ozil. Once Isco slotted into that attacking midfield spot against Betis, something happened. Something you saw and I saw but rather pretend we didn’t. He had given us what Madridistas more concerned with tactics (like myself) wanted: The complete 10.

Okay, okay – enough with Isco, back to Mesut. I surely can’t be the only one that saw Ozil storm off to the dressing room after being substituted against Granada? That sort of settled things, in my opinion.

Although he might say otherwise but Ozil’s decision to leave was made on that very day. Proof? Sergio posted a picture of the jersey he wore that day, with his signature on it. He knew he’d leave. Don’t get me wrong, Perez and Carlo were also partly responsible for him leaving, but Ozil wasn’t exactly objecting to it as he’s made us to believe in his first post Madrid interview.

It was a combined effort from Carlo, Perez, Isco, Bale (his price and balancing the books) and the sheer fact that things aren’t rosy any more that are all to blame for him leaving. I like, many Madridistas, didn’t want him to leave. I felt he is/was an integral part of the team still. I felt he still had quite a lot to bring to the table as he hasn’t reached his potential yet; but you know what? It is what it is.

Like I pointed out on Twitter, this isn’t new to us. The concept of selling a talent just to accommodate another has been almost synonymous with Real Madrid over the good part of the last 15 years. We can’t act too surprised to be honest.

So what next you may ask? Well, I must speak of my trip to our official website earlier today. Guess what I saw when I checked our squad list? Talent! Lo and behold we still have quite a world beater of a team WITHOUT Ozil! Shocker! What a miracle! Who would’ve thought?

Well, now that that’s out of the way, would it be big money to ask all of us to, I don’t know, move on or something? To this little trophy called La Decima, maybe? Without the Dutch exodus, Ronaldo would still be a United player. Or do I need to jog your memory and pull out a bunch of stats that shows how miserable we’d be if that signing wasn’t made? (PS: I’m not trying to defend Bale or his exorbitant price tag, I’ll touch on that in another article).

Mind you, selling Ozil is something that might eventually come to hunt us but let’s calm down until that day comes? Till that day that he meets us in the Champions League and plays against us like Messi does against teams like Bayer Leverkusen or like Neymar does against Briazilian league defenders? Until that day comes?

Save your tears. Because this is Real Madrid. Not for the weak hearted. If you survived the Manita at the Camp Nou, you can survive this, trust me. Let’s get past this and support the team we all love, a team we’re all passionate about, a team we’ll support regardless of signings or departures.

I leave you with this quote from Florentino Perez after his resignation on the 26th of February 2006:

“I’d do it all again. I believe in emotions and spectacle, and without this magic, it wouldn’t be Madrid!”