(Mou looks thrilled to be there, no?)

One (part one). Madrid held their annual Christmas luncheon with members of the board of directors and both the football and basketball teams yesterday afternoon.  According to AS, the menu consisted of salad made with Cantabrian lobster salad, crab and crispy bacon; pheasant with grapes and glazed chives; fruit; and a chocolate dessert with raspberry sauce.  It started at 14h with a cocktail and ended at 16:45h, after which the players went to hand out toys at hospitals around Madrid.

The presidential table was composed of FP; Alfredo di Stéfano and his basketball counterpart Emiliano Rodríguez; FP’s VPs Fefe and Eduardo Fernández de Blas; Jorge Valdano; coaches José Mourinho and Ettore Messina; and team captains Iker Casillas and Felipe Reyes.

As far as I know, the other tables were made up like this (I’m missing a few basketball players):

– the Spanish speaking table: Sergio, Albiol, Arbeloa, Xabi, Garay, Higuaín with Sergio Llull, Sergio Rodríguez and Sergi Vidal (yes, apparently all the Sergios have to stick together).

– the leftover Spanish speaking table: Granero, Adán, Di María, Canales, Mateos, Gago with Jorge Garbajosa, Pablo Prigoni and Carlos Suárez.

– the international table (it sounds like the beginning of bad joke, no?  A Brazilian, a Pole and two Germans walk into a bar…):  Kaká, Dudek, Özil, Khedira, Pedro León, Carvalho with Novica Velickovic and Ante Tomic.  What language did they speak?

– the table of African descent: Cristiano, Marcelo, Pepe, Benzema, Lass, Diarra with D’or Fischer and Clay Tucker.

Zidane was with Pardeza at a table filled otherwise with old men.

Should we be worried that Kaká and Cris were separated, for both the lunch and the hospital visit (see below)?

One (part two). The players received as a Christmas gift from the club a 3D television (though obviously not during the lunch.  Each player and Mou received one, but the club didn’t give any to his assistants or other technical staff, which upset Mou because he believes everyone should be treated the same.  Go Mou!).  And taking advantage of their presence, they also filmed their annual Christmas greetings, which we should see over the next several days.  Such a high standard was set last year that I don’t know if anyone will be able to top it this year.

Sergio, Álvaro and Kaká tweeted about the day, although I don’t believe that picture of Sergio is actually from yesterday, since he wasn’t wearing that outfit (it’s his outfit from the day of the captains lunch).  Do you think Albiol was making any cute noises as he filmed with Ricky?

One (part three). The manner in which the players was divided up for the hospital visits was no surprise.  It was mostly by nationality/common language for both basketball and football, with Madrid (once again being very subtle) sending out Iker and Cristiano together, to Sanitas La Moraleja, along with Iker’s fellow captain Felipe Reyes.

In the photo session (the only one, since the club needed to prove that Iker and Cris got along), they even made sure to give Iker and Cris matching gifts.  And Cris once again (he did the same thing last year) jokingly stood up on tiptoe to appear taller next to Felipe.  Iker, meanwhile, didn’t want to be in the middle.  By the way, Sergio Ramos has denied the existence any rifts, so I’ve updated this post.

Meanwhile, it was good to see José Mourinho and Aitor Karanka also joining in the fun, as they accompanied Gago and Di María, as well as Sergio Llull, to Sanitas La Zarzuela.

Two. Iker and Luis Figo will participate in a chat with Marca readers today at 18:30h to talk about Thursday’s charity game.  The latest “signings” are Filipe Luis, Couto and Rui Costa for Team Figo, as well as Luis Aragonés, who will join Vicente del Bosque, Míchel, Zidane, Canna, Guti, Hierro, el Buitre, Sanchís, Karembeu, Busquets, De Gea and Miguel Torres (yay!).  Fernando Llorente was also scheduled to participate but I don’t think he’ll make it due to the hip injury he suffered against Levante.

Three. And the press continues to be obsessed with Madrid.  Pep Guardiola held a press conference yesterday, ahead of tonight’s Copa del Rey game against Athletic, and he was asked about…. Real Madrid.  Meanwhile, Xavi, in an interview with GQ magazine, felt the need to bring up Mourinho (again), say bad things about him (again) and insult Madrid (again).

His exact statement was, “Mourinho won’t go down in the history of football because he hasn’t brought anything new to the game…”  Xavi continues, “he brings other things such as motivation and that’s good but he won a Champions with Inter and what was talked about what how well Barça played.”  Yes, I’m sure in 10 years people will still be talking about how good Barcelona played as the semifinalist, and no one will remember who the winner was.  And then there was this: “I don’t care what Mourinho says.”  Then Xavi, why are you always responding to him?

He also managed to insult Madrid, saying that madridistas are impudent and cocky because they believe everything will go well [I call that optimism, and I have every right to be like that], adding that Barcelona is not like that.

To his credit, Xavi did manage to say something nice about a Madrid player, Iker Casillas, though it was a backhanded compliment:  “he’s lucky, he has a gift…. Iker always puts out his hand, his foot in the right moments… Tiene estrella Iker.”

Four. The backlash against the list of “13 grave errors” is already beginning.

Valencia coach Unai Emery, during a press conference: “It’s actually us who have reason to bring out papers with errors and complain publicly for all the times that we’ve been wronged, but we don’t do it.  That’s what a crybaby does.”

Levante player Xisco:  “It’s a list for Madrid, an encyclopaedia for us.”

Athletic coach Joaquín Caparrós:  “I’m sure Sevilla could come up with a list of 20 errors.”

There were others who attacked Mou directly regarding the list incident, when anyone who watched the press conference could tell how upset and disappointed he was with the lack of support from the club.

And now, no one in the club will admit responsibility for that list.  Since it obviously came from the club, bearing the official letterhead and all (FYI:  it was done on Microsoft Word, according to Mou), someone should step up and assume responsibility.  After all, the club had wanted Mou to read it out loud during the press conference.  But now, with all the backlash, everyone’s a coward.  With no cojones.

I hate this behavior.  Is there anyone at this club with any common sense who partakes in forward thinking?  Things could really be run so much better.

And Mou must be really pissed off, because he’s decided he won’t talk in the press conference today, and instead Aitor Karanka will take the journalists’ questions.