Royston Drenthe was brought to Real Madrid by former manager Bernd Schuster in 2007, and now in 2011 he's been sent out on a season-long loan to Premier League side Everton. Along with most Real Madrid fans, he hopes his stay is permanent, as he wasn't all that fond of his time at the Bernabeu...
How do we know this? He recently lashed out at his former club during his press conference at Goodson Park.
Drenthe said things went down hill at the Bernabeu after his first season, when Real Madrid started to install a turnstile system when it came to managers, and he found that his spot on the team kept falling from manager to manager.
According to the 24-year-old Dutchman, that's the reason that Real Madrid hasn't been able to keep up with arch-rival FC Barcelona, though he does admit that he learned a lot while playing in la Liga.
Some of his choice words after the jump..
And now, ladies and gentleman, we bring you the sour grapes portion of this program:
"My first year (in Madrid) was the best and nicest time," Drenthe recalled. "I learned a lot from players like Fabio Cannavaro, Raul, Michel Salgado, Guti, Robinho, Wesley Sneijder. Real Madrid had one of the best teams in the world with a mixture of young and old players and we were better than Barcelona."
"It changed a lot after that because team broke up," he went on. "They changed the trainer (Bernd Schuster), changed the trainer again and again – they change their trainers like candy. That is normal at Real Madrid but I learned a lot."
Last year, as you may know, he spent the season on loan to Hercules. He had been linked to go places like either Benfica or FC Porto, but decided he wanted to make a move to the Premiership.
"Real wanted me to go to Benfica or Porto, teams like that, because they were prepared to pay a lot of money, but I did not want to go," he said. "When my agent told me I could sign for Everton I was like ‘Thank you God’. This is one of the best leagues in the world."
While he is correct that it's one of the best leagues in the world, this also means it has some of the best players in the world. There's a definite difference between la Liga and the English Premiership. Maybe he'll find some playing time at Everton, and they could use it. But at the Bernabeu, he was really nothing more than a spare part, and that's the reason they kept loaning him out.