Marcos Llorente - Future star

Playing for Atleti? F***," was Marcos Llorente's reaction when shown a picture of his father in Rojiblanco colours at MARCA head office.

"From 10-years-old I did not like them, I couldn't imagine wearing Atletico colours, always white [for Real]. We spoke to Zidane and his idea was for me to stay, but later we met with him, [director general] Jose Angel Sanchez, and my family where we decided it was best to go and play as much as possible and try for the first-team next season."

"I was afraid of leaving"

"It was huge, leaving Madrid. My new [Alaves] teammates welcomed me very well and slowly I got to know them and now I'm enjoying the great team we have. It was a difficult decision and I was afraid about how it might turn out, but it was the right one."

"My dream is to win at the Bernabeu"

"My feedback so far is that I'm doing okay, nothing more. Now I don't think about it, it's the future and what will happen, will happen, I'm in Alaves at the moment but my dream is to win in Madrid and I'll fight for that my whole life."

"I base my game on Xabi Alonso"

"When I trained with the first-team I focused a lot on Casemiro and Toni Kroos, but I've always noticed Xabi Alonso. I like to play ahead of the backline, using the ball, and helping the defence. My uncle [agent Julio Llorente] told me to learn from Alonso."

"Ruben Yanez thanked me for beating Barcelona"

"Of course, that victory was better for being a Madridista, across all age groups it's the game to win. Ruben Yanez thanked me and all the homegrown players, Lucas Vazquez, Denis Cheryshev, have a great relationship. Winning at the Camp Nou gives you a lot of strength and fight even though we suffered a lot late on. The team did a tremendous job."

"I was a skinny child who couldn't defend"

"Typically I didn't help the defence as I was more interested in attacking. Now, I'm happy to be amongst the best interceptors because I used to be too little and had defensive problems until I had a growth spurt. In the Juvenil and Castilla teams, I improved a lot defensively."

"Fernando Morientes gave me my first start"

"I began in the Juvenil B team, with Fernando Morientes as my coach. Early on in that year I barely played, so I worked on my strength and from the fifth or sixth game I was never dropped."

"I trained in forests with my father

"[Former Real Madrid player and Marcos' father, Paco Llorente] was a little crazy in his training, then he told me I should join him and where we lived there was a pine forest, so every morning we ran through it."

"My uncle doesn't like my hair"

"My family is full of athletes, so at home I was taught to win way before I joined Madrid. Especially with my grandfather [ex-Real forward Roman Grosso]. However, my father and uncle always say they don't like my hair, but I'm used to it."

"Gento tells me to be humble"

"I'm proud that Gento is my great uncle. He always tells me about humility and work, When I was younger, Gento and my father showed me around the Bernabeu."

We spoke to Zidane and his idea was for me to stay, but later we met with him, [director general] Jose Angel Sanchez, and my family where we decided it was best to go and play as much as possible and try for the first-team next season.

Jese is part of that squad and it's true that last year he did not play much. If I were his friend, or family member, I would tell him to look for more playing time. But I am his coach and maybe he can get that here. We will see. I am happy with him, I know him well, I know his quality

sportsczy wrote:You find nothing somewhat strange that when Zidane meets the kid and his family, he sells them on Llorente staying... and then Jose Angel Sanchez gets involved and suddenly they decide it's better to leave? Come on. I know you didn't just fall off the turnip truck

Zidane is always going to be present at these meetings even if he disagrees. If he's not, his authority comes into question.

sportsczy wrote:Good lord dude.  This is in line with your argument that massive injuries and star players being completely off form has no impact on how Real Madrid plays.

We all have tunnel vision to varying extents based on our opinions...  but let's try and mitigate it a bit with common sense.

I'm not saying you're not entitled to your opinion.  You obviously are.  But just because someone tries to sell ice cubes to Eskimos doesn't mean that the Eskimos should buy the ice cubes.