I hope we're still in for Botia as the rumours suggested. I thought even though the score against Sporting Gijon was flattering over the weekend that on a personal level, Botia did a great job.

The first goal they conceded was double idiocy from the defender and keeper (who left his near post open for Di Maria to exploit) That "incident" did not involve Botia so no harm there.

He was firm in the tackle on a number of our players even dispossessing CR7 on a couple of occasions.

If I have to be critical, I think he was sluggish on the offside trap for the one goal, but Real Madrid's strikers run the lines better than anyone in Europe at the moment- so that they are going to beat the offside shape a number of times in a match is a given.

I know we are trying to push for a few more Spanish players, hence the excuse that Albi-lol must stay, but we could easily replace Albitroll with Botia . That has the added squad perk that because Botia is only 22, he is less likely to push for as much playing time as the full international Albiol.

Win win situation.. We boot Albiol, he finds a team where he can get regular first team football and strengthen his case to stay in the NT squad, then we take on Botia and co-develop him with Varane as a future CB pairing.

Varane: Fast and intelligent, a future defensive leader.
Botia: Big, strong yet still agile, and immense in the tackle.

The logic is sound.
Discuss

He's gonna turn out to be another Albilol.......Remember how highly he was rated at VCF......just trolling, I like this guy

What happened to Canella? he was highly rated for a couple years ago....haven't heard anything about him in ages.

I have heard utterances before that Botia is Albilol v2.0 just waiting to happen.. but honestly believe that is not true. I see greater potential and more intelligence in Botia now than I saw in Albilol when he was at Valencia.

Ok so Albilol won a young defender of the year award or something when he was still with los Che but I really couldn't see why he deserved it and all it did IMO was inflate his price tag, think we paid 18mil euros for him... ridiculous. I watched Albilol at Valencia, central pairings of him and Marchena/or/ him and that Alexis moron were really to blame for their poor defense. It was by some ill-advised decision that someone still saw potential in Albilol from that scenario.

Sporting Gijon on the other hand, have a rubbish keeper and even more rubbish fullbacks.. in this scenario, Botia is the only flower sticking up from a pile of weeds- and we know this because he carries their defense at only 22 & he was outstanding in Spain's youth Euro winning side.

Right now Botia > Albilol


Canella who?

Botia is a Barca product. Not sure whether he'd want to come here and if we start sniffing around I'm pretty sure Barca will too.

Let's just get Ingio from La Real if only for his ability to score from outside the stadium

We need a ball playing defender to replace albiol and then Carvalho when he moves i think. Botia doesnt fit that profile.

lol wut?

He is a barca product,if we are getting him it will be an insult to our own cantera.What is the message we are giving?

"if you want to play for Madrid/top clubs go join la masia" right?

The same reason why i (also Madrid) didn't want Fabregas earlier.

Don't rate him and don't need him

honestly i think we have plenty of cover considering varane has barely played

I have been following him for a couple of years now and would have liked to see him come to Madrid. I'm tracking more from a national team perspective tho. He is highly rated. I rate him and Dominquez (Atlectico) as the next spanish CBs.

There are a couple of issues. First, as mentioned above he is a Barca prospect and they likely will come back for him when Puyol retires. Very seldom is a Barca product open to the idea of Real. The second issue is we don't need him. We have a young and strong CBs that will be around for several years (Ramos, Pepe and Varane). For back-up Carvalho has been signed for another year so with those 4 on board, our CB needs are met plus we have Nacho at Castilla available as reserve if needed. Albiol likely goes elsewhere in la liga to get more playing time, but we don't need a replacement.

Barca have a 2 million buy back clause in his contract btw........

I bet if Madrid start sniffing around they activate it.

Immaculate_Mole wrote:Barca have a 2 million buy back clause in his contract btw........

I bet if Madrid start sniffing around they activate it.

omg that is complete bolony; and if it is the case then Botia should be upset by the fact that his buy-back is valued so low. I don't give a cr@p if he is a la masia product, have any of you ever heard of a transfer coup? In terms of value of what la masia produces from a defensive standpoint, to ignore him because of that fact means we lose out on a player with future potential of the likes of Gerard Pique.

None of you had a problem with Figo I'm sure, a Barca talisman, so why not a lowly youth product?

Because Figo was a talisman not some scrub playing for Sporting.

Zealous wrote:Because Figo was a talisman not some scrub playing for Sporting.

Don't forget the scrub isn't needed either

Varane is younger, better and already with us lmao

Because figo wasnt a barca youth product,it was just a transfer.

What is the message we are giving to our cantera and other potential players of spain?

GO and join La masia to become better players,isnt it?

It's not baloney Gio lol.......

It's a buy back clause, its done all over Spain as you at Madrid know all too well.......

He was that cheap because at the time Barca didnt consider him to have a future, everyone thought Fontas, Bartra and Sergi Gomez ( the only one of the 3 i rate) to have much brighter futures.....

Obviously consistent gametime has done wonders......

It would'nt suprise me if Barca ship out Fontas as i dont think Pep has much faith in him brings back Botia and buy one big name CB aswell.

To be honest, i dont rate Nacho that highly as a CB...

Dont want no cules in Madrid. I dont even really rate him either.

Are we really trying to replace Ramos? ALREADY? He just transferred to CB this year, he is like 25, he does not need to be replaced for a long time. With Pepe, Ramos and Varane we are safe in CB for a while. Nacho will be a very good rotation player at least, possible Ramos replacment at best if we're thinking that far into the future.

Barcelona will get him quicker in my opinion, he was related to them last summer ..

hes a barcelona youth, and hes practicaly 23 already. if we gonna get another youth cb it will be someone better.

and our players make it so that we dont need one atm.

varane,ramos,pepe,marcelo,carvalho,alblol

no room for botia imo. even with the imbecicle albilol gone.

Botia is a tidy centre back that would not be needed in any sense at Real Madrid. Not because he's a bad player as he really is not, just simply they are better options available at the club and he would barely see any real action.

As for the whole youth product thing, I don't think either club generally picks up each other's rejects. Transfers have taken place between the clubs but when it comes to former youth products, I'm really not too sure honestly...

Spain is usually not to country to produce top of the line defenders in chain, their best young players at the moment are the likes of Dominguez -who is really good btw, and Ruiz. I wont comment on the barca noobs because it seems to me that it's just propaganda, at least for most of them. Then you have guys like Inigo Martinez, the kids from Bilbao and from Espanyol. we dont have real talent at CB.

Finding a replacement for Albiol from Spain is going to be a very complicated task.

^Muniesa is the real deal......

not sure about Montoya,Grimaldo or Batra.

ragbirjosh wrote:^Muniesa is the real deal......

not sure about Montoya,Grimaldo or Batra.

No he is'nt...........

Grimaldo is the most likely to reach the top out of those four.

Bartra and Montoya are trash.

Why would you say he isn't......?

ragbirjosh wrote:Why would you say he isn't......?

Because he has'nt shown a single thing to suggest so, he is living on hype and hasnt performed once......

Sergi Gomez is miles better.