Familiar feel to Madrid pre-season

Pre-season training started at Real Madrid on Tuesday without any new faces and some very familiar ones, too.

The champions of Europe have yet to buy into the transfer market for the 2002-03 season and their World Cup stars - the likes of Roberto Carlos, Zidane, Figo, Raul and Casillas - have yet to return from holidays.

As it was, 20 players turned up this morning and all of them passed a series of routine medical tests before starting pre-season training, which is likely to be more focussed after such a sluggish start last year.

The Spanish giants rarely gained any sort of momentum on the domestic front and could finish only third in the Spanish League and runners-up in the Copa del Rey.

Only their Champions League triumph, made all the more memorable because of a 2-1 victory over German rivals Bayer Leverkusen in the Glasgow final, saved the club's centenary celebrations.

But that's ancient history as far as coach Vicente del Bosque is concerned.

"We cannot think that because we are European Champions everything is done," Del Bosque told the Spanish newspaper Marca today.

"To my players I will tell them to forget about the Glasgow final, not to think that we are European Champions. That is why we are the best."

In the Primera Liga last season, Real proved consistently vulnerable away from their Santiago Bernabeu base.

Of 19 away matches, they won a mere five and lost 10.

"We must analyse what we did badly last season and improve," said Del Bosque.

Meanwhile, Real did eventually have something new to report.

They signed up Siemens IC Mobile as their main sponsor for the next three seasons.