The Money Tree

Liverpool Football Club this evening confirmed they had reached agreement for the sale of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid, subject only to a medical.

An anonymous source revealed to Goal.com's Mohammed Bhana that the fee agreed between the Merseysiders and the Spanish giants is €34 million

Real Madrid have spent about €60 million on Kaka, €94 million for Ronaldo, €35 million for Benzema, €15 million on Albiol and now another €34 for Alonso. That puts their spending around €240 million so far and that doesn't include potential bonuses that will increase the transfer fee based on the performances of some of the players they've bought and it doesn't include the massive hike in their wage bill.

Madrid's spending indicates a complete break with reality, especially since they still seem to be in the market for even more players. I think they have to sell off at least 9 players from their first team to reach the maximum squad limit of 25 for La Liga.

The question is, what constitutes success for this Madrid squad? Will they be considered a success if they some how manage to recoup the debt it cost to build the squad? Do they need to win every competition they play in for the next 5 years? Do they need to play a better quality of football than any team that has ever existed?

I feel that no matter what success they do achieve there will always be an argument that they didn't live up to their costs and if they don't achieve any success at all it could be massively costly for the club, or at least the Spanish banks that bank rolled them in the belief that Madrid was to big to fail.