Knives out for Real Madrid old guard

Real Madrid's ageing superstars will be sacrificed this summer as punishment for the team's Champions League semi-final defeat by Juventus.

Although the deposed kings of Europe were rallying round after their 4-3 aggregate defeat to the Italians, the fingers of blame were still being pointed.

Some have levelled their criticism at Portugal's Luis Figo whose tame penalty miss summed up a lacklustre performance by the Spaniards but Zinedine Zidane was having none of it.

"It is not Figo's fault," thundered the French star.

The most likely casualties of a summer clearout will be veteran defenders Fernando Hierro, 35, and his 36-year-old partner Manuel Sanchis who was absent from the game on Wednesday.

Despite being a hero in Madrid, Hierro's frightening lack of pace was shown up by Pavel Nedved who left the Real skipper trailing in his wake as he sped away to score the third goal.

Hierro would normally be expected to sign a new contract for next season, but sources at the Bernebau suggested on Thursday that coach Vicente del Bosque had been so concerned of the weaknesses in the middle of his defence that last summer he wanted a new defender on his books.

Instead, club president Florentino Perez was determined to splash out on Ronaldo.

But del Bosque looks likely to get his way this summer with Ajax's highly-rated Romanian defender Christian Chivu, Roma's Argentine hardman Walter Samuel and Bayer Leverkusen's Brazilian World Cup winner Lucio all being tipped to be courted this summer.

The need for a class defender is also set to put an end to the ongoing speculation linking Manchester United's England skipper David Beckham with a 35-million-pound move from Old Trafford.

"We spent a good 12 months negotiating David's new three-year contract and he is in the first year of that," said United chief executive Peter Kenyon recently.

"David's career here has been pretty good for everybody, he has still got things he wants to achieve and I don't think there's any better place to achieve those aspirations than Manchester United."

On Thursday, del Bosque was having to defend some of his tactical decisions in Turin, including the selection of Raul who had only recently recovered from an appendix operation while Ronaldo, although not fully fit, started on the bench.

"We did not have good fortune at key moments," said Raul.

"I don't know whether or not having just the Spanish league now to concentrate on is an advantage for us."

Real Madrid are a team needing to refocus quickly - last week's 0-0 draw with Recreativo Huelva knocked them off top spot into third place.