What you fail to achieve with money, you can achieve with bundles of it, or so the saying goes. Not necessarily however. Just go and ask Roman Abramovich for a recap.

Real Madrid will commit everything at their disposal to dislodge Barcelona from their current imperious perch, and they have to – Barcelona won La Liga and Copa del Rey, and then went on to win their third Champions League trophy.

To add insult to injury, just for good measure, Barcelona humiliated their arch-rivals 6-2 in the last derby.

Real have embarked on a mind-boggling shopping spree, starting with the arrival of Manuel Pellegrini on June 2 as new head coach. In the pivot of the shopping bonanza, however, was the long-anticipated transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Old Trafford to the Santiago Bernabeu. Alex Ferguson had managed to persuade the Portuguese star to remain at the Theatre of Dreams on two previous occasions, but it was apparent in the end that Ronaldo had dreams of his own and they were little to do with the Theatre’s annual programme for 2009/10.

On July 6, Ronaldo was finally unveiled in Real colours in front of 80 000 fans, claiming it was his childhood dream to defend the meringue shirt. In his usual confident style, he said he was worth the 80 million pounds (93.9 million euro) paid for his services and promised to make Real’s fans "content and proud".

Real, for their part, were not content with that signing alone – they have palpated the gap between them and the Catalans as far too substantial, requiring further powerful reinforcement to bridge it. Even before Ronaldo landed in Madrid, Brazilian playmaker Kaka’s services were already secured. Kaka signed with Real several weeks earlier for 65.7 million euro, exchanging AC Milan for the only club to win more European Cups than the Italian giants.

Ronaldo and Kaka side by side, considered by the football pundits and fans alike to be perhaps the two finest players in the world at the moment, represent only a portion of the ambitious project of the newly-returned Real president Florentino Perez, who already spent a staggering 170 million euro on new signings, including Raul Albiol, secured from Valencia for the ‘humble’ sum of 14 million euro.

The latest new galactico to arrive at the Bernabeu was Karim Benzema, brought from French side Olympique Lyonnais. The 21-year-old striker once linked with a move to Manchester United preferred sunny Spain instead and signed with the Spanish giants for six years for an undisclosed sum, reported to be about 34 million euro.

Considering the astronomical sums already disposed, and the hefty weekly wages that those players would inevitably come attached with, a reasonable question has to be asked – can Real actually afford all this. And if so, how exactly?

Apparently, the Queen of Europe still has enough left in the tank, as Perez remains in talks with several other big European clubs, in an attempt to bring more players to the squad, notably Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso, Valencia’s David Villa, Roma’s Daniele de Rossi and Bayern’s Franck Ribery. One would be foolish to assume that Real scouts have not set their sights on other players, as of yet undisclosed, and more galacticos signings could yet arrive in Madrid, especially with clubs like Liverpool and Bayern not letting their key performers go without a king’s ransom.

Wagewise, the BBC have reported that Ronaldo would earn about 12.9 million euro a year at Real, which would make him the highest-paid footballer in the world. Meanwhile, according to The Times of London, Kaka will be paid about 10.4 million euro. This certainly is the second galacticos age at the Bernabeu and, in terms of money involved, it has already surpassed the first one by a mile.

With the amounts mentioned and paid, Real Madrid are in a league of their own with Manchester City and Chelsea. But one question remains: would it be enough? Money buys a lot, but does it buy everything?

Manchester City have no trophy to show for their first year of being the world’s richest team, while Chelsea owner Abramovich is still dreaming of that elusive Champions League. Perhaps Perez, just in case, should have Abramovich on the speed-dial to call if his lavish plans come to naught.