Preseason discussion

I understand its just preseason and whatnot but as Hala said new year, same problems for the past 2 years and nothing has been fixed

Perucho21 wrote:I understand its just preseason and whatnot but as Hala said new year, same problems for the past 2 years and nothing has been fixed

Just a wee bit premature and harsh! Did you see the lineup. Majority are Castilla players. Only 9 bench players from 1st team played (Lunin, Nacho, Odriozola, Marcelo, Isco, Lucas, Odegaard, Jovic and Rodrygo) and at least 4 of them are up for sale!

Marcelo isn't being sold.

He was terrible. Played in slow motion.

Lucas Vasquez isn't being sold. Terrible as a winger.

Cyborg wrote:Marcelo isn't being sold.

He was terrible. Played in slow motion.

Lucas Vasquez isn't being sold. Terrible as a winger.

First off, I was responding to Perucho21 saying nothing has changed from last season and that statement based on one preseason game that encompassed Castilla players and 9 bench players, 3 of which are up for Sale (Odriozola, Isco, Jovic). I had erred in my post saying 4 as I had counted Mariano thinking he was in lineup.

Club is having a terrible time making sales as all 4, counting Mariano are overpriced in terms of their wages let alone what price club can ask for them plus the number of 1st team players is still significantly higher than allowable number so no doubt some of them are going to be sold at discounted prices. Also the inflated squad numbers are preventing and acquisitions.

Of the other 6 that played yesterday, Odegaard, Rodrygo, Nacho and Lunin are backup players.

Lucas was renewed to be Carvajal’s backup plus his versatility makes him a occasional relief on the wing. Make no mistake, he is not a starter.

I agree with you re Marcelo, however it seems Ancelotti wants him to remain for his offensive capabilities. I would have preferred him to go and promote Gutierrez as the backup to Mendy. Note, Gutierrez has still been told to expect several callups.

And finally Isco, his salary and club’s expected transfer price is probably the biggest problem they have. On the plus side, it is being reported that he has been determined to stay and thus far, at least in training his play has been outstanding.

I just read the ratings for the 1st team players in yesterday’s game.

Only two positives were Lunin and Rodrygo.

All of Lucas, Isco, Jovic, Marcelo, Odriozola, Odegaard had failing grades.

No mention of Nacho, however with his red card, I suspect his exclusion was an oversight!

With Varane leaving your CB pairing will be Militao-Alaba? How do you guys feel about that?

Again, defense, midfield, and portero are not our issue and therefore no real changes other than Odegaard returning from loan. The whole season depends on any goal creation up front. It depends on the renewed HOPE (from funds from Varane sale) for Mbappe or the HOPE that perennial  injured and under performing Bale and Hazard can somehow perform or it’s the HOPE that Vinicius, Rodrygo, Asensio can somehow develop!

By the way re recent talk on this forum that club is broke have been confirmed BS. Real Madrid made a profit of 874K last season! The financial issue is the debt load, mostly related to stadium rebuild and thus no funds available for acquisitions.

Sure looks like it will be a repeat of last season.

Operating profit and cash flow are different things Bill.

You are right that the attack is, by faaaar, the biggest concern. You can't expect Benzema, who turns 34 this year, to continue at this level. You are also assuming far too much hoping that Hazard and Bale return to their previous glory. Not to mention Kroos and Modric aren't getting younger either and you can expect some inconsistencies in form as a result.

Carlo is being handed a raw hand imo. This isn't a trophy winning squad by any standard... and you know that's going to be the unrealistic expectation.

Losing varane and ramos (c) in one window is big. Attack is lacking sure but the defensive line could also be a liability from now on is what i mean

If we were worried about losing both in the same window we would've given Ramos his one year extension. We all knew Varane would leave eventually. He's been wanting to leqve for a few seasons and losing him would not have been an issue if we hadn't lost Ramos in the same summer.

Imagine Varane without Ramos. Don't even remind me.....

We've already played nearly a whole season without them last year and you could argue they fecked us over when they got back

This is the first time the club is letting someone go when the time is right or else we'd be lumped eith an unmotivated player we can't shift. So big up to Perez on this one

sportsczy wrote:Operating profit and cash flow are different things Bill.

You are right that the attack is, by faaaar, the biggest concern. You can't expect Benzema, who turns 34 this year, to continue at this level. You are also assuming far too much hoping that Hazard and Bale return to their previous glory. Not to mention Kroos and Modric aren't getting younger either and you can expect some inconsistencies in form as a result.

Carlo is being handed a raw hand imo. This isn't a trophy winning squad by any standard... and you know that's going to be the unrealistic expectation.

Sports, for once I agree with you. It’s basically three levels of HOPE, none of which are likely to happen. My point re financial situation was we are not bankrupt as is being advertised here, although we certainly are very low on capital funds, but we do have funding in operating for salaries, particularly after Ronaldo left and now with Ramos, Varane and soon Bale all off the books. Plus keep in mind the operating budget will grow substantially with fans back in stadium.

Question? Does anyone know why Mariano didn’t play in the game a couple of days ago? He should be one of the first out the door! I wonder if he is faking injury again to put off any moves (in addition to hiding behind his ridiculous 4M salary)!

Carlo is a cup manager... that's the best hope.  Nothing to think about with La Liga.  Winning Copa Del Rey is the pinnacle for this squad lol.

Also, there is a chance Mbappe comes to Madrid in August. Real Madrid have to pay 180 mil and PSG need to be able to get CR, Pogba and Camavinga with that (which they should be able to).

WHAT!!! Sports finally admitting there is a chance Madrid might get Mbappe! With Varane funds included now, they just need to sell Isco to have the funds needed plus the crumbs they’ll get for Jovic, Odriozola and Ceballos.

It doesn't depend on Madrid... a lot of things have to come together for PSG to let him go AND Madrid would need to drop 180 mil in transfer fee + pay Mbappe 20+ million net a season.  

It all seems extremely unlikely to me.

That's assuming Mbappe still wants to come to Madrid and doesn't prefer the EPL.. which is rumored that he wants to go the place that gets him maximum exposure. It may not be Madrid anymore.

I know we are in desperate need of goals but Mbappe is not worth the money reported. If we can get him on a free in a season I'd rather we do that, than overpay for a player in his last year again

If he prefers EPL then goodbye and good luck. Ronaldo came to us when we hadn't won the CL in a decade and were going through managers left and right. Won the CL and the biggest recognition he'd ever had. You either have the ambition or go to were you're too comfortable

The pool of WC goalscorers is soo small that we are putting all our eggs in the Mbappe basket a player who's basically stagnated at PSG. Sad

Ronaldo came... because Madrid bought kaka, benzema and xabi alonso in the same window.  The team also added depth in Arbeloa, Garay and Albiol.  Add that to a team of rising stars like Marcelo, Pepe, Ramos and Higuain.  Plus we still had Iker, Raul, Guti, Gago, etc.

We had won both the 07-08 and 08-09 La Liga crowns.  barca won it in 08-09... but they had the ridiculous attack of Henry, Eto'o and Messi with dat midfield of Xabi, Iniesta and Yaya Toure.  Not to mention Abidal, Pique and Puyol on defense.  That Barca team was one of the best ever.

Don't compare please.  Not at all comparable. That Madrid team spent money like water and was uber-talented.  CR was not going to leave a great Man U to go to a lesser project.  No chance.

You're asking Mbappe to come to Madrid with literally just him as a cornerstone piece going forward.  No other WC player that isn't on the declining slope of his career. And my guess is that he'll refuse to come alone. Madrid will need to show him more than what's here. That's going to be a challenge.

Hala, i would ignore most of what Sports says these days. Having Mbappe will make a huge difference in squad capabilities.

It still is doubtful if it will happen this year but I understand this is the only acquisition that Flo is after for this year. If it happens there is still the dream of Haaland for next year. Everyone seems to think these are unrealistic, but it is the desire of Flo.

As to price desired by PSG, at least it is a possible opening for Flo to begin negotiations. As I said earlier if they can somehow sell Isco, Flo will be on the ballpark to negotiate.

sportsczy wrote:Ronaldo came... because Madrid bought kaka, benzema and xabi alonso in the same window.  

No, we had already agreed a deal the season before. Any party that pulled out was going to pay a fine. We were 10x worse than we are now. We were getting embarrassed in CL every season. Ronaldo came to a team that had been absolutely smashed by Barca the season before. Calderon was kicked out. We were in turmoil, an embarrassment. Ronaldo had made 2 UCL finals, was a ballon d'or winner and still said his dream was to succeed at RM. That's a guy with an ambitious to conquer the world with the club of his dreams no matter how useless they were. He came and he conquered the world and became the best player in our history. Massive massive respect to Ronaldo from me. An absolute winner in every sense of the word

Now, we have the best midfield in Europe and the ONLY thing we need are better attackers.

We won the league two seasons ago, went to the last second, the season after. Went to the semis in an absolutely injury ravaged season

Imagine saying the team Ronaldo went to was more appealing

Both Hala and sports are making excellent points here.

1. I think Hala is right in believing that Mbappé is not worth all the money reported. I agree with him, and I think as talented as Mbappé is, he's not worth the fortune of 180m in transfer fee + another fortune in salary. If we can get him for free, that would be marvelous. However, paying 180m on a player in his last of contract is beyond ridiculous to me. I'm still traumatized by the 100m Madrid paid for Hazard, in his last year of contract no less.

2. I think sports is right in thinking that Madrid is not as attractive a destination as it once was when Ronaldo joined. I think it's important to try and be as objective as possible here.

Flo's Madrid back then was known as the team of Galacticos and everybody wanted to join, if only for the prestige that came with it. Flo himself was a different person back then and way less stingy than he is right now.

He was a spendthrift to the point of recklessness. At one point, even fans were begging him to stop spending money needlessly and not destabilize the team each year "with a new shining toy".

Now, Madrid is a different team operating under a different policy. There's no Ballon d'Or winners now. There's only former world-class players on their last legs and a bunch of kids most of whom won't amount to anything.

Madrid is falling victim to the monster they once created. They used to outspend everybody, inflating the market with ridiculous transfer fees, and now, with the rise of other clubs with way more money than them, they have found themselves completely lost and powerless.

hala is right about the cristiano part. cristiano wanted to come regardless of who we bought. we just happened to go all out and get all those guys in that window. i cant confirm he signed a year earlier, i still dont believe that story cos i dont believe calderon was good enough to pull off any deals, but i know for sure 100 percent he wanted to sign a year earlier and ferguson said no, he didnt want to do business with calderon after calderon called him senile. said cristiano shud wait out a year and see what happens

cristiano wanted madrid, but i think a large part of that was the thing with messi. i think at that time he really wanted that confrontation, i always felt during that period cristiano thought only kaka was his equal. we arent talking about messi of 08 onwards, this was around 06/07.

as i tell people forget these rumors of who we are or arent signing so u dont feel any disappointment. we still havent recouped the 200 million we spent.

umm but the team cristiano ended up joining imo was definitely more appealing (even though he wanted to come regardless of who we did or didnt sign). the core of this team is old, and whilst we have pushed above our weight, the football is boring . difference between those 2 teams is mental, this team (under zidane, cant speak for carlo yet) knows how to win whilst being boring, the one cristiano joined didnt know how to win unless they were dominant and even then couldnt close games.....we are yet to see the team with carlo, but under any other coach (lope solari) besides zidane, the team has looked woeful and stagnant. it will be interesting to see what ideas carlo has for the squad

Without googling, I remember we had Sneijder, Robben, Gago, Diarra (I think Lassana), Henize, Ramos, Iker, Raul, a dutch striker whose name I cannot remember right now (Vandeez would have known right off the bat), I think Van Der Vaart, Guti, etc before Ronaldo joined.

I mean, in hindsight, those are really good players that any player would love to kick a ball with but as Hala wrote, we were in a bloody mess. 4-0 at Anfield, 6-2 vs Barca at the Bernabeu with the latter doing the treble, Calderon going to jail and the interim president only notable thing was to inspire Liverpool. Meanwhile, Utd were fking flying. Won the league in style, were heading into the CL as slight favourites to defend their title and even won the Carling Cup (on pks I think). For Ronaldo to have left that lovely comfortable life to join a Madrid side that was a proper clown show, well, kudos to him.

So, imo, this current squad has the stability but the one Ronaldo came to has that appeal that I this current squad honestly doesn't have. We are way too boring nowadays, waaaaaaay too boring.

Shit, the only controversy is from Perez and he doesn't even care about it.

The dutch striker was a certain Van Nistelrooy.  We also had a young Higuain pre-injury who had just scored 24 goals before CR arrived.

Not to mention a young Marcelo too who had his breakout season.

Our issue with not winning is that we changed managers like hot cakes...  and nowhere near the caliber of Mourinho, Carlo or Zidane.  We're talking Queiroz, Luzemburgo, Camacho, Ramon, Caro, Schuster and Juande Ramos.  The only proper manager in that group was Capello... and he had our team playing like we do now; so despite Capello winning, he was fired because we weren't sexy enough.

Forget the players, the biggest change was once Mourinho joined.  Despite him being a complete ass... he changed us to a winning mentality.  Not the players imo.  We always had great players.

I should stop using "We" since I can't stomach Real Madrid as long as Perez is president...

sportsczy wrote:The dutch striker was a certain Van Nistelrooy.  We also had a young Higuain pre-injury who had just scored 24 goals before CR arrived.

Not to mention a young Marcelo too who had his breakout season.

Our issue with not winning is that we changed managers like hot cakes...  and nowhere near the caliber of Mourinho, Carlo or Zidane.  We're talking Queiroz, Luzemburgo, Camacho, Ramon, Caro, Schuster and Juande Ramos.  The only proper manager in that group was Capello... and he had our team playing like we do now; so despite Capello winning, he was fired because we weren't sexy enough.

Forget the players, the biggest change was once Mourinho joined.  Despite him being a complete ass... he changed us to a winning mentality.  Not the players imo.  We always had great players.

Huntelaar, Jan Klass Huntelaar. Took me a whole day to remember (without googling). I can remember Van Nistelrooy, it was Huntelaar I had issues remembering. Also, clean forgot there was a very young and not fat Higuain and Marcelo there too.