Walter Samuel and his failed season at Real Madrid

There are cases in football where things don't click between a player and a club, at occasions simply because it wasn't the right time. It is fairly common to claim that a footballer failed at a club because he wasn't good enough, but there are a lot of different factors that can influence this situation: the team's setup, the manager's approach, the tactics, communication issues, cultural differences, etc. There are a lot of things.

Walter Samuel - here during his time in Inter Milan

One very good example of this is Argentinian defender Walter Samuel, who was heralded as one of the best center-backs in the world during the entire decade of the 2000s. However, he spent the 2004/05 season at Real Madrid and failed to make an impact. In fact, he played so poorly that he was sold to Italian giants Inter Milan the following season.

So what went wrong for Samuel in the Spanish capitol? Let's find out.

An upward career

If we talk about career progressions, Walter Samuel's prior to his move to the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer 2004 was one of the greatest examples of an upwards trajectory.

The Argentinian started out in 1996 with Newell's Old Boys back in his home country, but he truly started to make a name for himself in Boca Juniors, where he won every trophy available, including the 2000 Copa Libertadores. He signed for Italian side AS Roma and was a key part of the now-legendary team that won the 2001 Serie A league title.

In terms of his playing style, Samuel's nickname "The Wall" wasn't unwarranted. He was strong, imposing, had great timing and was a leader, which were all qualities that made him standout at a time where Serie A still had some of the best defenders in the entire world.

Considering Real Madrid's recent struggles in defense after the departure of their former captain and stellar defender for more than a decade, Fernando Hierro, Samuel seemed like a very good choice to bolster that area of their squad and, thus, he was signed for 25 million euros, not much to talk about in today's football but it was a very high sum at the time.

What went wrong?

It is no secret that Real Madrid is a very tough club to play in. Very good players, world class players, have stated over the years that the Madrid supporters are extremely demanding and that can be applied to the institution as a whole. So when the club spent a lot of money for Samuel to help fix a very fragile defense, it seemed like a match made in heaven.

Sadly, that wasn't the case.

Samuel played a grand total of 40 games across all competitions in the 2004/05 season for Los Blancos and his performances started quite well, which was very promising as he seemed to be the defensive leader that this squad blessed with superstar talent upfront needed. However, things started to take a turn for the worse as the season progressed.

One of the biggest ordeals that Samuel had to endure at La Liga was the element of physicality. It is true that the Spanish league has focused a lot more on technicality and skill in recent decades and the Argentinian defender struggled with this, often getting the end of the short stick in that regard.

For example, it is often forgotten that Samuel got a total of 16 yellow cards and committed 90 fouls in just one season in La Liga. That is an outrageous amount of fouls for a central defender and it is one of the reasons that he end up failing at Madrid.

It is also worth pointing out that this Madrid squad was extremely uneven and this was shown in midfield, with the team not providing enough cover and help to their defense. Samuel wasn't the only defender that struggled in this club during the mid-2000s and it was something that has been pointed out in hindsight when looking back at his time with Los Blancos.

Add to all of this that the season ended with no silverware, which is often a crisis in Real Madrid, and there was a desire for instant results, with Samuel being one of the casualties at the time.

Conclusion

Walter Samuel would end up leaving Real Madrid in the summer of 2005 and signing for Inter Milan, returning to Serie A where he made a name for himself a few years ago. Ironically, Samuel would ended up showing his best form at Inter, becoming a club legend and winning 13 trophies, including the legendary treble of the 2009/10 where he was a starter in Jose Mourinho's team.

Considering that the Argentinian performed in every club he played for bar Madrid, there is an argument to be made that his failure at the club wasn't solely his fault, which makes the debate all the more interesting. The mid-2000s were a bit of a transition period for Madrid, dealing with the aftermath of the Galacticos project and the squad being fairly unbalanced after the departures of Fernando Hierro and Claude Makelele.

Another element of irony in this situation is that defensive midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, a former Madrid player and Samuel's compatriot, left Los Blancos for Inter Milan the same summer that Samuel joined them and this pair would end up working together extremely well in that club. It is a testament of how timing was definitely against Samuel in that period of his career.

Even Fabio Capello, who was his coach at Roma and who had two stints at Real Madrid, mentioned once that his struggles in the Spanish giants was something he never understood. That is something that has become the common conception: Walter Samuel proved time and time again that he was a world class player, but sadly never managed to demonstrate that in the biggest club he ever played for.

Regardless, there is no denying that this is a big lesson of how timing, club politics and many other elements can play a big factor in a footballer's success or failure.