James is a great player, no doubt about it, but 80 million euros for him is crazy (Transfermarkt says that his real prize is 30 millions). He better lead RM to 3 Champions or else he'll be considered a failure, just like Kaká.
I think he'll be taken as another delusion of grandeur by Real Madrid whatever he does - and I'm glad of it. Real Madrid should REALLY stop their politic of just buying buying buying more and more expensive players and hoping to be the best team just for that. Look at the best teams of the latest years. Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona. Both of them had a strong presence of home brewed players that are trained and grown in the same strong team & comradeship values, that's something RM won't earn with all the money in the world. I wonder when will they realize.
First friendly last night against LA Galaxy ended with United as 7-0 winners. Obviously not a lot to take from the game apart from the excellent performance of Ander Herrera and the new shape that van Gaal wants to implement. Still, a good boost going into the friendlies against tougher opposition.