True, but Pellegrini's Madrid side had the highest points total in their history. Madrid are having a much better season this year, largely down to Mourinho (and some of the new signings).

Madrid has spent £220m net last two seasons, winning a domestic cup is such an amazing achievement....

No team in La Liga or PL has won the league in the last 6-7 years without being among the top 2 spenders, I'll have a great amount of respect for the club and the manager that manges to break that spell. Hopefully it's us.

Captain wrote:

Madrid don't play much better than we do, maybe them beating barca has warped opinion. They have a better squad but the main difference is that they have Ronaldo.

I sort of agree with this. Ronaldo makes a huge difference, just like Messi does for The Cunts.

Ronaldo and Messi are game changers of an order I have rearely seen in my twenty odd years of watching football seriously. I did not really see Maradona in his prime, so can't compare. Only Ronaldo and possibly Ronaldinho come to mind. It's astounding just how big the gap between these boys and everyone else is

Messi is light years ahead of Ronaldo in that sense, in my opinion.

Messi is probably the more effective player (I think he scores 25% of his shots); but I prefer Ronaldo's all round footballing ability. He's come a long way from that pre-season friendly where he skinned Gary Neville a dozen times.

I don't mean how good they each are as a player - although I personally think Messi is a long way ahead of him, of everyone - what I mean is the impact each player has on their team. Messi is Barcelona, Ronaldo couldn't hope to do what Messi does there, and Messi would take Real Madrid up another level if he were there in place of Ronaldo.

We don't know all that now, do we Ricky? How are you to prove that Messi would have a bigger impact at Madrid. I might just counter and say that Ronaldo would benefit from the smoother offense Barca has offer. But yeah, Messi probably edges the 1-on-1

We need a new Henry. I'm tired of watching maggots who don't scare the opposition

Finally watching Copa Del Rey. 25 minutes in. Barcelona players have been diving on average about every 75 seconds. They're a pack of cheats.

I think Maureen has sorted his problems with Madrid out now. Pretty sure he'll still be there next season.

Ronaldo is a shocking footballer to be honest. It's evident every time you watch him for 90 minutes. He is extremely selfish, has zero awareness of things around him and ruins about 10-15 good moves every half.

But he is one of the most effective match winners around because he is quicker, stronger and fitter than everyone else, plus he can strike a football better than anyone on the planet.

Personally watching him makes my eyes bleed but to each their own. He is great in the highlight reel though.

Gurgen wrote:

Ronaldo is a shocking footballer to be honest. It's evident every time you watch him for 90 minutes. He is extremely selfish, has zero awareness of things around him and ruins about 10-15 good moves every half.

But he is one of the most effective match winners around because he is quicker, stronger and fitter than everyone else, plus he can strike a football better than anyone on the planet.

Personally watching him makes my eyes bleed but to each their own. He is great in the highlight reel though.

3 things that are not to do with the actual football. Not sure if he's quicker than Messi with the ball.

Personally I think his awareness is underplayed because in past seasons he's had excellent assist rates, especially at Man Utd.

He's quite skillful as well. Good technique.

Cristina is a diving, cheating, despicable cunt with an extremely punchable face, but he certainly isn´t a shocking footballer.

Shocking footballer. Lol. Cristiano is a footballing god.

I can see where Gurgen's coming from. Ronaldo's a beast of an athlete with the goal scoring prowess of the very best but he's lost his innovation and not great the watch over 90 minutes. I'm only comparing him against the highest of standards though, he's still head and shoulders above most.

However, Messi is (comfortably!) a better footballer and a more effective player. I know that league is piss easy but he's shitting on other world class players in Spain as well.

People talk like there's a large disparity between the productivity of the two players. They're relatively close on most of their statistics. i just know that Messi is over 60% more lethal than Ronaldo when taking a shot, and has better close control and speed with the ball. That's what makes him so devastating. Otherwise, as the complete package, Ronaldo is about as close as any player I've seen.

A complete package is a pretty subjective term to begin with. In almost every technical aspect of the game I'd rate Messi higher be it passing, dribbling or finishing. And the difference between Ronaldo and Messi is 8 goals and 10 assists in the same number of games which is a fair gap, I'd say.