Unpopular discussion - Will Vinicius and Rodrygo stay?

With the arrival of Mbappe and Endrick plus the rumoured possible arrival in 2025 of Haaland, will both Vinicius and Rodrygo survive at Madrid. Rodrygo has definitely not lived up to expectations and seems, it may just be a matter of time before he will likely be sold. Vinicius is more proven, but there is the conflict on left with Mbappe plus he still haSn’t matured regarding his constant protest which affects his game plus he has shown he can’t dictate play on his own. Thoughts?

I believe Rodrygo will stay at least one more year if Mbappe comes. With the amount of games in a season and injuries he'd be a super sub with a good amount of minutes. Guler will have to go on loan and unless Endrick explodes in his first season here like a prodigious talent or provides reliable variables the others don't then he should likely be behind Rodrygo and Brahim in pecking order and minutes.  

We'll see how Vinicius keeps progressing. I'm not informed on the intricacies of a possible future attempt on Haaland nor on the conditions of his contract and entourage but the general vibe I get is that at the moment talking about it seems kinda like entertaining a pipe dream. Maybe not. Other than Man City there's only Madrid and Barcelona left right? Maybe Barcelona sells more of its organs or outright sells its soul and stops being a "fan owned" club and they find a way to go for Haaland.

Camavinga-Bellingham
Valverde Vinicius Mbappe
            Haaland

Valverde Camavinga-Bellingham-Vinicius
            Haaland-Mbappe

Maybe we could see something like that interchange back and forth in games. Feels shoehorned and unbalanced, Bellingham far removed from a probably more ideal zone and range of action.

MTO, i don’t think Rodrygo goes this year and maybe not for 2 years. As you said, he will be a good off the bench sub. As to Güler and Endick, apparently they both will be at club next year. Güler is more of an AM than a winger or forward. I see him as a backup option to Bellingham. But like Endick, we have to allow them time to develop before we can make any valid assumptions about them. Background on both suggest, they both can be great. One of the reasons, I ask the question about Vinicius is so far he seems to only play well when he hugs the left side. Carlo has gotten him to play more centrally, with mixed results. Endick, if he’s not playing centrally, plays on right side. So with all this crap from Sports saying Mbappe will insist on left side, I don’t know how Carlo will resolve this. Maybe that’s where the rumors about Haaland are coming from. Quite frankly Haaland may be a bit of overkill, but it would be awesome to have Haaland, Mbappe and Bellingham on same team. I happen to believe they are the 3 best players in the world!

I think I’m reacting to last game in asking the question as it was a little ridiculous on the part of both Rodrygo and Vinicius. They both were on left for the entire game, Rodrygo trying to feed Vinicius and no effort to score by himself, Vinicius making several poor passes and Sevilla just over defended him as there were no options centrally nor on the right.

Back to your suggestions, I believe you have to play Bellingham as an AM to take full advantage of his skills. That leaves Valverde, Tchouameni, Camavinga behind him if they play 4-4-2 or Valverde Camavinga, if they play 4-3-3.

Clutch wrote:They'll leave only if they want to leave. We've seen what we've done with Hazard and bale when they wanted to fill out there contract

There is a big difference in Mbappe or Haaland to Hazard. One their age and two, they are top top players, are professional in training and showing up ready to play. Hazard had none of this and was a very poor acquisition, IMO even worse than Bale.

re Rodrygo or Vinicius, I’m not suggesting they will leave, only present it as a discussion topic. What may happen is sales if they are out of starting role because of newcomers. This happened in 2008/9, the 2nd year after Flo returned as president. He brought in 8 new players and the likes of Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema put Robben and Sneijder on the out, both of them very competent forwards. And btw, the sales were only after training camp to allow everyone to compete for positions.

El Gunner wrote:send them over to the GOAT league

the GOAT league:

Depends, if you're talking many years down the line who knows? If you're talking next 2 to 3 years, they'll stay cos I don't know how good Endrick is, and we are not getting Mbappe nor Haaland.

I see you are still hanging to your belief that Mbappe is not coming to Madrid. I’m going to start calling you doubting Thomas!

I do think the Haaland talk is pure speculation, but there is so much evidence out there that the Mbappe deal is in place, including the house hunting. The complication out there is the media circus surrounding all this. There still are daily rumours out there!

You seem to always deny this as you don’t feel Madrid has the money for this. That ignores the rash of sponsorship deals Flo has been putting together plus there is still a stadium sponsorship deal to come. The Madrid financial picture has been restored to the point where they are the top financial club in the world again.

And regarding your opinion on the actual discussion topic. Of course it all depends. It’s hard to predict injuries and players development, but all indications are that both Endick and Güler are gems! And perhaps Carlo can find a way to play Mbappe, Vinicius, Bellingham together. As an aside I also think Davies will add another dynamic to the offense. As Sports has said many times, Rodrygo is likely going to be the player affected with Mbappe coming. Plus he hasn’t had the star breakout that was expected of him. But then again maybe that’s what you are referring to in the case of Endick?

I did admit earlier that I started this discussion after watching the last game offensive disaster.

I'll only believe when I see florentino carrying out a jersey presentation. I know we have money, I just think we don't want to spend it on forwards. Especially due to the fact we may not be used to these kinds of sums we are hearing.

Haaland fantasy is done. They've invested in Mbappe, Vini, Rodrygo, Brahim, Arda Guler and Endrick. That's it imo.

Also, Haaland's agent is talking to Barca: https://www.beinsports.com/en-us/soccer/articles-video/is-barcelona-going-after-haaland-deco-meets-with-his-representatives-2024-02-28

Come hell or high water (meaning Barca selling everything they could possibly monetize), Barca is going to react to what Madrid is doing.

As a football fan, Mbappe v Haaland in the context of RM v Barca would be nothing short of amazing.

As I said earlier, obtaining Haaland, although it could be a fantasy dream come true, would be overkill! I saw the article of his agent meeting with Deco, but IMO, there just no way Barca could raise the funds necessary any time soon.

I believe the agent was just exploring the landscape to see if there are any other landing spots.

His choice will be staying at City, which IMO, is most likely, Real Madrid or one of the other EPL teams, if they can get their act together i.e. Pool, Arsenal, and maybe ManU or Chelsea. City is not going to drop from being a dominant club any time soon, even if Pep leaves, so why would he leave?

I don’t think he will return to a front three, at least not full time. If they play Bellingham, back, they have to bench one of Valverde, Tchouameni or Camavinga. It’s either Rodrygo or Tchouameni! Other complication likely for next year, is there is also Kroos for another year. Benching Tchouameni will weaken defense and balance, especially with Davies at LB.

4231 why not

Possibly, except Davies is at LB and with Tchouameni on bench, defense is compromised. However, latest rumors are they sell Fran and keep Mendy until contract runs out. He plays when they want to boast defense. So bottom line, in my opinion, I could see that in some circumstances, such as late in games, sub out Tchouameni and Davies and insert Rodrygo and Mendy.

I’m sure none of us really know how Carlo will work this out, but it really will be a nice problem to have. Noone on this projected squad is weak and all are very talent. I’m excited, and yet I haven’t given up on how far this year’s team will go.

Also late rumor is both Lucas and Nacho will return for another year because of their experience, so other than Fran / Mendy decision, the summer changes are just a matter of publicly announcing Mbappe, Endick and Davies.