Garay Remains With Racing

Ezequiel Garay signed for Real Madrid from Racing in June for €10 million but his new employers decided to loan him back to his former club for one season.
However, after Madrid competed in a few pre-season friendlies and their make-shift backline looked rather unconvincing, coach Bernd Schuster had requested the club to cancel the Argentine’s loan deal so he can join up with the blancos this campaign to reinforce their defence.
But now, it seems that Schuster has decided to scrap those plans and allow Garay to stay on with Racing as per the initial contract stipulation.
The reason for this turnaround, according to Marca, is that the German trainer is apparently happy with the players in his squad who can occupy the centreback role. Fabio Cannavaro, Pepe, Christoph Metzelder are the three natural central defenders, but Sergio Ramos and Gabriel Heinze can also slot into that position comfortably.
There is also youngster Javi García, who has spent the bulk of the pre-season doubling as a centreback and Rubén de la Red, who although is a midfielder, has played as a defender on several occasions last term with Getafe.
As such, Schuster has deemed that it is not necessary to rush Garay into the team as he has complete faith in his current crop of defenders. It is also believed that he does not want to cause the 21 year old any uneasiness while he is currently focusing on the Olympic Games with the Albiceleste.
And with the league kick-off only two weeks away, Schuster also does not want to disrupt the preparations of both clubs as their pre-season training program enters the final stages.
KS Leong