Harmonica wrote:I don't give a rats ass of La Masia, what amuses me how this adult still hasn't played an adult game, nevermind that he was like the best ever in the making.

So a 17 year old is now an adult in the footballing world...

Harmonica you need to take a break. I know that you are attacking this kid because somewhere in that head of yours, you belive this kid is somehow threatening Messi's ability when he was 18. You are just covering your bases.

So admit you lied about a 17 year old being 18 and now a 17 year old should be getting regular minutes at the biggest club and current European champions?  

Never change.

Why are you taking Harmonica seriously lol

Whatever keeps him sleep at night

jibers wrote:

Harmonica wrote:I don't give a rats ass of La Masia, what amuses me how this adult still hasn't played an adult game, nevermind that he was like the best ever in the making.

So a 17 year old is now an adult in the footballing world...

Harmonica you need to take a break. I know that you are attacking this kid because somewhere in that head of yours, you belive this kid is somehow threatening Messi's ability when he was 18. You are just covering your bases.

So admit you lied about a 17 year old being 18 and now a 17 year old should be getting regular minutes at the biggest club and current European champions?  

Never change.

Forget Messi, Freddy Adu made into top level at 18, that's for him to match the next.

Harmonica is losing his mind. He would have dismissed Zidane, Xavi and Pirlo because they weren't winning Ballon D'Ors at 18.

And they made 80k relatively in a week at 18, playing kids football? Awful analogy, I'm beginning to question if you're actually adults yourself.

I like how its "kids" football and he is an "adult" when he is actually 17 and he was the youngest in that game.

Never mind the fact that Odegaard already played in a senior league and is a full international.

And this was like two years ago, so long that I've already completely forgot him even existing. And how many games after that? 0 games in top level after that, must have realized he's a kid after all. He was marketing tool then, and worryingly he's still a marketing tool being an adult.

Harmonica wrote:And this was like two years ago, so long that I've already completely forgot him even existing. And how many games after that? 0 games in top level after that, must have realized he's a kid after all.

Yes, it's his fault that you have a short attention span And yes, they must've realized that he's a kid. That one took everyone by surprise.

A Barca fan "not giving a rat's ass about La Masia". Hmm, how peculiar.

Thimmy wrote:

Harmonica wrote:And this was like two years ago, so long that I've already completely forgot him even existing. And how many games after that? 0 games in top level after that, must have realized he's a kid after all.

Yes, it's his fault that you have a short attention span And yes, they must've realized that he's a kid. That one took everyone by surprise.

So you can remember what you had for breakfast two years ago? Good for you.

Can't really blame anyone for not expecting him to already be a 1st team play if the kid is on €50k a week

Joins Heerenveen on loan for 1.5 years with an option for Real to bring him back early in the summer.

This kid was poorly advised. It was obvious to anyone with any football knowledge that he had very little chance of being a part of the Real Madrid first team.

All he has contrived to do is massively slow down 2 years worth of development. He should have stayed at Stromsgodset until now before moving to a club like Heerenveen.

At least he has made a move now and can get himself back on track, for the sake of his own career he needs to forget about Madrid and focus on developing being one of the best in his position

Pretty pumped about him going to Heerenveen. Definitely will get his kit. My dad will even be able to see him play.

I think it's a fantastic move for Heerenveen and Odegaard. It's a very positive team and a great place for him to develop his confidence and abilities at the heart of an attack that is really clicking with some experienced and talented players for the Eredivisie.

From those who watched him at Castilla (not me), he has gotten quite better. He even featured in the CDR so the club, well, Zidane clearly sees him as part of his plans. Don't think his development has become stunted.

That being said, he does need regular games at a high (enough) level and the Eredivisie is probably a good place for him. I wish him well.

agree with julias 100 percent. i would have thought it even better if when we signed him he stayed in norway for like a year, and then go on loan away from home to a different league, and monitor his progress from there. the whole deal to sign a youngster, then have him train with the first team and play in castilla even though he and his father expect him to be with the first team, i thought was poorly planned and sent the wrong message...and things got even more awkward when the castilla coach who didn't seem to like that arrangement to begin with, became head coach

he's still young so he's got time to learn, but i don't know, time doesn't wait, if in that time frame, florentino or whoever is president or coach sees a new star in that position that they can find for millions, he can either forget about it or will end up as a back up

the best thing for him to do now is play like his life depends on it, and hope the technical staff and mgt monitors his progress, so we don't have another sergio canales situation on our hands (another ill thought out move, that just wasted everybody's time)

Nonsense! You didn't watch him in his copa appearance, Tito. He has improved dramatically in past year. His initial problems at Castilla were due to his father's interference and his lack of Spanish. But he did get over that. This season the issue was Castilla didn't earn the promotion and all the talent left in the academy was sent out on loan to get higher level of play. He would have as well but being 17 (until December) prohibited that. He has by a large margin been the best player at Castilla, probably the best player in all of 2B. But of course you don't watch Castilla either. You make these rash statements, yet you never bother to even see how they are doing.

He like all the other talent in the system is out on loan and if they show significant progress there will be opportunities. The same guy you said doesn't like him played him over James just a couple of weeks ago.

tito is absolutely right though.

@futbol_bill, the background of his transfer and the whole arrangement (having a player at 16, who trains with the first team, but will hardly get a chance to play, and instead plays with castilla, and doesn't train with them) was rubbish and poor planning; even the canales move, which obviously didn't pan out, was better planned than that. i didn't say he was trash, and a copa del rey game against minnows is what it is, btw everybody plays ahead of james

zidane has been fair, but i doubt he was happy with having to play a player who doesn't train with the castilla side, when he was coachign castilla. no matter how one wants to spin it, that arrangement makes zero sense. as i've said, the kid will really needs to play like his life depends on it, in order for us to bring him back and start him. my point isn't about his skill-set, (i know very little about him, bar a few first team appearances here and there) but about the arrangement, which i think caused initial problems for him

Can anyone tell me exactly what would have been the difference between staying in norway in the same team, vs playing for castilla for two years? because i can also argue about the benefits and the progression he has made over the past two years. The progression is clear, he has gotten a lot better.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Can anyone tell me exactly what would have been the difference between staying in norway in the same team, vs playing for castilla for two years? because i can also argue about the benefits and the progression he has made over the past two years. The progression is clear, he has gotten a lot better.

people expected him to start over modric at 15

He was good on Youtube at age 15, that must mean he's the next Messi.

Another Hachim Mastour

@Tito, you are just confirming what I said, you haven't watched him so your assessment on him is bocus. You started out by saying he hadn't progressed at Castilla, yet it is evident he has (if you had bothered to watch him). You also said Zidane didN't like him and I say that is bocus as well. I do agree with you re the arrangement the club made with his father (to practice with the first team) and for sure Zidane was annoyed at that, plus his father complaining about the futbol pitches they use in 2B. The biggest issue tho was his lack of Spanish!

And re Canales, the only thing I will agree with you on that was they agreed to let him come to training camp. The plan was to have him stay in Santander, but Mourinho gave him a spot on team and then didn't play him. That's the long and short of that mis play, blame Mourinho not Perez. You can bet that if it was Zidane he would have played more, but his career was severely screwed up by his multitude of knee injuries. By the way you are comparing a 17 year old with already one year of experience in la liga vs a 15 year old with only youtube experience.

i'm not sure where u saw me right that he hasn't progressed at castilla. i did say it seemed zidane wasn't pleased with him, but that was on basis of the arrangement- which has been the bulk of my two posts. i've never said he's trash, or anything of such.....did i expect him to be a first team regular at 15? hell no, did i expect him to be a regular on the bench at 15? hell no

however, people want playing time, not one game appearance, not two games, not some appearance in copa del rey or a feature when the team is leading 9 -0 but consistent playing time. and my point is, he was never going to get that here, at least, not on the first team. my point is, for whatever reason, it all felt rushed, let him play pro for a bit, which he will probably get to do now, then we'll see how things go. i think my posts on him throughout this thread, since he signed have been fairly consistent

and i did watch our game against cultural, where he featured....but c'mon

You basically have said it was a poor signing particularly in bringing him to Madrid. If I misread your comments on his progress, I apologize. The deal, his father insisted on was indeed wrong and foolish, that I agree with. But he was always going to go to Castilla and develop ..... And he did. I can't stress enough about his lack of language skills is at the root of the problems in his first year. Zidane's annoyances were far more about the father that the kid. If Castilla had earned the promotion to adelante in either of the last two years when they had the potential, then his playing at Castilla likely wouldn't have been an issue.

But he was a young talent that there was several clubs chasing him and it is a credit to Flo that he went out and got him and others. Our academy has not been producing as much talent in the last 3 years as they had in the previous 10. If you look at this Castilla team vs any from last 10 years, it is sadly lacking in quality and bear in mind we used to have 2 Castilla teams.

That's why the new philisophy is to have the talent out on loan playing at the level they need to develop. None of these loans means the organization has given up on them, as you seemed to imply. It's as it was before, develop players as best we can and some of them will make it to 1st team, while others who may be close but not quite can be considered as assets that can recoup development costs through sales.