The top players we've sold recently

Di Maria, Ozil and Higuain.

Other than Higuain who wouldn't solve anything... don't you wish we still had the other two??? Isco and James are nowhere near the levels of Ozil and Di Maria.

no. i don't wish any of them back. i didn't want any of them to leave in the first place (i was so-so about ozil, his 60 minute fatigue was frustrating), but now they've all gone wishing them back won't solve anything cos its never going to happen. i can only hope we don't make blockhead moves of such magnitude in future

No worries with Ozil. He was 60 min player who when we went 433 had no place to play. Too defensively fragile to play in a 3 man midfield.


Di Maria is another story which has been beaten to death already, move on.

I wish they hadnt been sold. As Adit said i wasnt too saddned by Özil's departure, the PL has made him a fitter player which wouldve been useful for us but when he was with us he defended poorly, went missing too much and ran out of steam too quickly. Higgy and ADM should not have been sold though

They all will never come back though, Higgy is too old for Perez, Özil will be too expensive and Perez kind of insulted him when he left and ADM burnt all the bridges with us when he left

If Arsenal buy Higgy i'll be happy because they will all have a chance at winning titles which they deserve

Our policy of buying and selling players is rotten to the core. We sell Özil a playmaker and buy Bale a goalscorer without replacing Özils playmaking ability, we can say ok fine ADM was still here who is also a playmaker then we sell him and buy no replacement. Then we wonder why we cant create any chances anymore and why there is such a big gap between the forwards and the mids. All of BBC and James are all goalscorers with very little playmaking ability you need a creator behind them. We only have Marcelo left who can create and that is very poor planning by our club

Ya di maria is the only one I probably miss. Him in that 4-3-3 was a beauty to watch

by the way, the only thing positive in these sales is @ least we got good money for all of them (even though we blew it on less than stellar replacements), if this was perez of old, we'd have sold them all for mediocre prices/free transfers or sold them all to inter milan (who were once a home to ex-madrid players) for like 18 million euros for all 3 combined, then break the bank on replacements.....its done, best we move on

I Still can't fathom why Higuain and Benzema never played together. They're perfect complements for each other.

Of course it would have meant no place for CR up front, alternately him playing out on the wing, but in an ideal world, he would never have come. I'm grateful for the goals (albeit largely goals for the sake of scoring more than winning) and marketing money, but I've never enjoyed the way he plays.

i dont really care about Ozil and Higuain, but Di Maria...how stupid was that.

He is just too good.

The list of great players you sold in the last decade or so and later watched them do great things is quite astonishing really. I think these are all the major ones:

Samuel
Cambiasso
Makelele
Sneijder
Ozil
Di Maria
Robben
Higuain

These players went on to win 65 trophies after being let go, among them 4 CL winners, 2 EPL titles, 16 Serie A titles and 4 Bundesliga titles, and some of these players are still young and yet to win.

That is mad.

Ozil has only been great this season, i mean last season was bad and so was the first one, he's a 10, he didn't have room in Carlo's setup neither he has room in Rafa's

Higuain wanted to go, we couldn't keep both Benzema and Higuain and to me Benzema is better than him so i think we chose good there.

Di Maria was all Flo's Fault i mean i don't know why he keeps making this renewal contracts enhacement and then he backs up, same thing is happenning with James

Bottom line the only one i regret selling is Di Maria.

Claudio84 wrote:Ozil has only been great this season, i mean last season was bad and so was the first one, he's a 10, he didn't have room in Carlo's setup neither he has room in Rafa's

Higuain wanted to go, we couldn't keep both Benzema and Higuain and to me Benzema is better than him so i think we chose good there.

Di Maria was all Flo's Fault i mean i don't know why he keeps making this renewal contracts enhacement and then he backs up, same thing is happenning with James

Bottom line the only one i regret selling is Di Maria.

Agreed, one lacks versatility and the other wanted to leave, there is no point in trying to keep someone who wants to leave. Selling Di Maria was a horrible mistake though.

Higuain could have been very useful in the League. It was so easy for him to score there. It could have helped us win at least one league title after he left

halamadrid2 wrote:Higuain could have been very useful in the League. It was so easy for him to score there. It could have helped us win at least one league title after he left

Ronaldo's goals are not enough ?

Higuain was highly average until this season... And this season is only half over. He would have added absolutely zero. All our strikers are better than him.

Isco and James are nowhere near as.good as Ozil and Di Maria however... That was a net loss in both counts.

James is as good as Ozil, Di Maria? no, he is a rare player.

besides Isco is better than Ozil playing in 433 deep in midfield, that matters.

It's not enough to just say x or y is better, Ozil now has a team built around him, to enhance his qualities. James or Isco dont have that luxury, and that's basically the theme of this thread. We always sign quality players, and mixing them up together that we fail at, and so they underperform with us until they go to clubs that just grow around them. It makes a huge difference.

Mr Nick09 wrote:James is as good as Ozil, Di Maria? no, he is a rare player.

besides Isco is better than Ozil playing in 433 deep in midfield, that matters.

It's not enough to just say x or y is better, Ozil now has a team built around him, to enhance his qualities. James or Isco dont have that luxury, and that's basically the theme of this thread. We always sign quality players, and mixing them up together that we fail at, and so they underperform with us until they go to clubs that just grow around them. It makes a huge difference.

I agree about that Neither Isco nor James have the team built around them, but i do think James is as good as Ozil, Di Maria is different kind of player, but i'm not sold on him, as a LCM he was great, but as a RW he had so many difficulties he didn't know when to shoot or when to cross, that's my opinion anyway i could be wrong.

sportsczy wrote:Higuain was highly average until this season...  And this season is only half over.  He would have added absolutely zero.  All our strikers are better than him.

Isco and James are nowhere near as.good as Ozil and Di Maria however...  That was a net loss in both counts.

His league numbers speak for themself. Everyone have their own qualities they look for in a striker and in my opinion his goal scoring threat could have beenof huge help. In the biggest of game aka Barca, Juve, PSG i would have had Benz stsrting but in the others i would feel very comfortable knowing Higgy was in there being a goal threat till the last minute

Who is the best is obviously subjective to every individual. It depends on what you want from a striker. I want goals especially now with Ronaldo regressing. There are few better than Higuain in that aspect and none of those play in our team

Claudio84 wrote:

Mr Nick09 wrote:James is as good as Ozil, Di Maria? no, he is a rare player.

besides Isco is better than Ozil playing in 433 deep in midfield, that matters.

It's not enough to just say x or y is better, Ozil now has a team built around him, to enhance his qualities. James or Isco dont have that luxury, and that's basically the theme of this thread. We always sign quality players, and mixing them up together that we fail at, and so they underperform with us until they go to clubs that just grow around them. It makes a huge difference.

I agree about that Neither Isco nor James have the team built around them, but i do think James is as good as Ozil, Di Maria is different kind of player, but i'm not sold on him, as a LCM he was great, but as a RW he had so many difficulties he didn't know when to shoot or when to cross, that's my opinion anyway i could be wrong.

I agree about DiMaria, he was very frustrating to watch on the RW (even if none have done better than him there yet for us), LCM was obviously different because he had more passing options and could use his speed to his advantage. At PSG although he plays as a RW he looks to have a free role dropping into midfield to do his thing

As i mentioned before our buying a selling policy is laughable. For eg PSG know exactly what and who they need, they want a LW and are after Ronaldo/Hazard, if that was Perez he would be after both.

It is unbelievably poor planning by our Club. For example who's idea was it to loan out Coentrao?? Marcelo is hardly injury free, he gets injured alot. This is just one example of our incompetence. You dont need a sporting director to see how stupid this is

I agree with Nick. The problem isn't who we sell, it is who Flo buys with no consideration to team needs.


I'm kind of amazed at the praise being thrown towards Di Maria. He was useless as a RW for most of his time here and yet every year he demanded thru press a raise. So in sum he had an excellent 5 months here and then he demanded a ransom in return. Flo has no choice.

Of the entire list above the only player I regret leaving was Makelele. And that really was awful because with him the galacticos would have worked and obviously without him it didn't.

Higuain has had how many goals the previous 2 seasons...  27 and 24... while being the absolute focal point of the attack.  He was getting all the balls.

Those numbers are decent... i have no problem with them.  But the big issue is that Higuain has continued his trend of being the biggest choker when it counts the most.  He's cost not only Napoli but also Argentina in a huge way.

This year, he's turned it around SO FAR.  Remains to be seen if he keeps it going when the pressure mounts... which is where he usually falters.

It's not a question of choice... Higuain is not elite.  He's just not.  He's good.  Benz is good too.  Neither have proven they can lead an attack.  One has had the opportunity and done ok (nothing special).  The other has only had it on NT and has done ok (nothing special).

You're not gaining anything by having Higuain.  Nothing.  In fact, the only time Madrid has played well is when Benz has played in the playmaker role, which he is clearly better at than Higuain.  We don't need another player to sit on top, which is being proven this year.

Wenger doesn't build a team around anyone. He has his style and he fits the players in.

sportsczy wrote:Higuain has had how many goals the previous 2 seasons...  27 and 24... while being the absolute focal point of the attack.  He was getting all the balls.

Those numbers are decent... i have no problem with them.  But the big issue is that Higuain has continued his trend of being the biggest choker when it counts the most.  He's cost not only Napoli but also Argentina in a huge way.

This year, he's turned it around SO FAR.  Remains to be seen if he keeps it going when the pressure mounts... which is where he usually falters.

It's not a question of choice... Higuain is not elite.  He's just not.  He's good.  Benz is good too.  Neither have proven they can lead an attack.  One has had the opportunity and done ok (nothing special).  The other has only had it on NT and has done ok (nothing special).

You're not gaining anything by having Higuain.  Nothing.  In fact, the only time Madrid has played well is when Benz has played in the playmaker role, which he is clearly better at than Higuain.  We don't need another player to sit on top, which is being proven this year.

27 and 24 are quite good numbers no

I dont know about elite, by my own definition both are. And again they are both very different. One is a goal scorer first and foremost, might give you a handful of assists a season the other more like a secondary striker whos main focus does not seem to be scoring but providing for the scorer. Both could play together in a 442

I think one of Higuain's biggest quality was being a reliant scorer in the league, Levante, Gijon, Sevilla you name it he would score agsibst all those but found himself missing easy chances in the bigger games. Those games have not been an issue for us since Carlo came. If we did lose it would be by 2-1, 1-0 or something of that ilk. It is the others we struggle with you know the Sevilla, Atleti, Malaga etc of this world. Those are the games are when Higgy was at his best. Benz and Bale and recently Ronaldo seem to be struggling in those games. Unfortunately more often than not it is those games that define a champion. When you struggle to beat those teams it doesnt matter how well you do against the bigger clubs, you just wont win the title

halamadrid2 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Higuain has had how many goals the previous 2 seasons...  27 and 24... while being the absolute focal point of the attack.  He was getting all the balls.

Those numbers are decent... i have no problem with them.  But the big issue is that Higuain has continued his trend of being the biggest choker when it counts the most.  He's cost not only Napoli but also Argentina in a huge way.

This year, he's turned it around SO FAR.  Remains to be seen if he keeps it going when the pressure mounts... which is where he usually falters.

It's not a question of choice... Higuain is not elite.  He's just not.  He's good.  Benz is good too.  Neither have proven they can lead an attack.  One has had the opportunity and done ok (nothing special).  The other has only had it on NT and has done ok (nothing special).

You're not gaining anything by having Higuain.  Nothing.  In fact, the only time Madrid has played well is when Benz has played in the playmaker role, which he is clearly better at than Higuain.  We don't need another player to sit on top, which is being proven this year.

27 and 24 are quite good numbers no

I dont know about elite, by my own definition both are. And again they are both very different. One is a goal scorer first and foremost, might give you a handful of assists a season the other more like a secondary striker whos main focus does not seem to be scoring but providing for the scorer. Both could play together in a 442

I think one of Higuain's biggest quality was being a reliant scorer in the league, Levante, Gijon, Sevilla you name it he would score agsibst all those but found himself missing easy chances in the bigger games. Those games have not been an issue for us since Carlo came. If we did lose it would be by 2-1, 1-0 or something of that ilk. It is the others we struggle with you know the Sevilla, Atleti, Malaga etc of this world. Those are the games are when Higgy was at his best. Benz and Bale and recently Ronaldo seem to be struggling in those games. Unfortunately more often than not it is those games that define a champion. When you struggle to beat those teams it doesnt matter how well you do against the bigger clubs, you just wont win the title

His goals helped us win plenty of league matches back in 2011-2012, he just never was confident in the big matches and in the Champions League.

I disagree... the little teams don't define a champion.  The big games do because every lost point is 2x since your direct adversary is getting those while you're losing them.

We've lost the league the past several years because Barca was able to beat us and not only took the points, we lost them and they had the head-to-head tiebreaker.  Same with Atleti.

It's also psychological...  you can't have confidence in your quality if you lose the big matchups.  It also breaks all momentum.

You can overwhelm the lesser teams with talent, which we mostly have for many years. I would actually venture that compared to Barca and Atleti, we've done equally well or better against all the other La Liga opponents other than those two for most of the past several seasons.

we had a better head to head than Barca last season but lost the league due to the other tough games thet managed to get wins while we could only draw and lose. We gad 2 points compared to Barca's 15 against the top 6/7 if i remember correctly. Thats just poor from us. Atleti had a worse h2h than Barca when they beat them to the title iirc. And in that season we were ahead till the last couple of weeks because of our wins in these games

The bugger games are only a small miniscule fraction of the whole season. All teams are due to drop points before and after those games. How many you drop compared to your rivals dictates the fate of the title chase