Real Madrid striker Raul Gonzalez and Spanish national coach Luis Aragones met in a bid to defuse the tension caused by the player’s omission from the national team

The Spain coach held a press conference on Tuesday together with Raul in an attempt to quell the incessant speculation over the repeated exclusion of the Spanish forward from the national squad.

“Fundamentally, what interests Raul and what interests the coach and what interests the federation is that we end all of the debates and all of these themes and we move forward. The debate and the speculation does not help anyone. What we want to do is end all of the debate.” said Aragones, who has faced intense scrutiny for not selecting Raul despite the Madrid captain’s improved form.

Though Luis Aragones claims that there is no ill-feeling between him and Former Spanish Captain, he failed to say whether he would include him in his squad for Euro 2008.

“Spain is split in two and we want to end this,” Aragones said. “If I feel he is worth calling up, I will. But if I don’t, then I won’t.”

“He has the same chance as the other 40 players we’re watching.

“It’s going to be tough for him and for all the other 40 players, and its not a question of whether he can play as a substitute for me because he has done so before.

“I’m not friends with any of the players, I’m their coach. He Added.

Raul, Spain’s all-time leading scorer with 44 goals in 102 games, believes a normal misunderstanding between a coach and a player had been blown out of proportion.

“I’ve been thinking about it for many months and I want the team to qualify without all of this suffering, It hurts me that with each game there is speculation and manipulation of news that isn’t always real.” Raul Said.

Raul last featured for Spain in their 3-2 defeat at the hands of Northern Ireland on September 29, 2006.

This season the Madrid captain has scored 11 goals in 24 games which, with the exception of Fernando Torres, is a superior strike rate to the forwards selected by Aragones in Spain’s last squad.