Real Madrid fans unimpressed with signing of Drenthe

Real agreed late Thursday to pay Feyenoord around 14 million euros (19.26 million dollars) for the 20 year-old left-back, who will have the difficult mission of replacing Roberto Carlos.

 Online opinion polls taken by AS and Marca on Friday, however, show that the "madridista" fans are less than enthusiastic about Real's latest signing.

 The AS poll showed that 71 per cent of readers do not believe that Drenthe "will solve the problems of Real Madrid."

   More than half of tho Marca readers, 52.11 per cent, believe that Real have "paid too much" for Drenthe, while only 36.79 believe that the whites have forked out "a fair price".

 Real's problems - weakness down the flanks, the lack of a midfield organiser - were again in evidence on Thursday night, when Real lost 2-1 away to Deportivo Coruna in the final of the prestigious Teresa Herrera summer tournament.

 The only positve note from the La Coruna defeat was the excellent performance of Julio Baptista, whom coach Bernd Schuster would like to keep though president Ramon Calderon seems keen to sell.

 Schuster is also keen on Hamburg playmaker Rafael Van Der Vaart, according to AS on Friday.

 And the German coach is still desperate for Calderon to close the signing of winger Arjen Robben from Chelsea.

 One player that Schuster is not so keen on is defensive midfield Emerson, who could be about to join AC Milan according to the digital version of Sport on Friday.

DPA