Manuel Pellegrini, who was fired as coach two months ago by Real Madrid, has taken a shot at his former club's player recruitment, comparing it to an orchestra that hired the best guitarists and then asked them to play piano. Pellegrini made his comments Saturday in the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio. “The best players are taken, but not the best players for the positions where they're needed,” said Pellegrini, who was replaced by Jose Mourinho. “Real Madrid has the best guitarists, but if they are asked to play the piano they won't do it very well.” Real Madrid spent huge sums prior to last season, signing Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and several other players and tallied a record number of points but still finished second to Barcelona in the Spanish league. Pellegrini was critical of club President Florentino Perez, who fired him, and said the decision to sell midfielders Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben, both of whom were outstanding for the Netherlands in the World Cup, was a mistake. “For my taste, the technical side of the club with (Jorge) Valdano and others - besides the coach - should have had more influence in the makeup of the team, as happens at other clubs - except this one.” Valdano is Madrid's managing director. The Chile native said he hoped to coach another European club and would like to coach Chile's national team one day. Real focuses on Brazil Silva Spanish giant Real Madrid has turned its attention towards signing Brazilian Thiago Silva as coach Jose Mourinho hunts down a world class center back, according to sports daily Marca Sunday. However, it appears that its interest in signing his Brazilian teammate Maicon from Mourinho's old club Inter Milan has cooled because of the money being demanded by the European champion. Inter would have lowered its price for Maicon, the only Brazilian to make the World Cup All-Star team, from 35 to 30 million euros, according to the report. However, Real is not prepared to pay more than 28 million euros and now consider Silva a good alternative.
