Elite playmaker

really coming into form now... let's hope the injury bug stays away so that it doesn't get in the way

imagine if we had a competent striker this whole time

What a player.

he's been at his best i've ever seen since the restart... his next challenge is to maintain this form till the end of the season

i don't think he has it in him to consistently control entire games like the likes of prime Fabregas, Ozil and De Bruyne... but he can spring into life at any moment and make something happen out of nothing, and that's more than good enough

Odingod. Glad to see he's starting to live up to the hype.

So happy for this guy.

Seemed destined to be another one ruined by Real Madrid, was on the path to be Canales, no disrespect to Canales. But he managed to turn it around.

Canales has a fine career at Betis though.

Strange that someone is blaming Real Madrid for destroying Canales.

1. They didn’t develop him, that was done at Racing!

2. They or rather Mourinho didn’t play him.

3. His trajectory took a downturn with a torn ACL.

4. He went on with a damaged leg to a good not spectacular career with Betis.

Canales was developed very poorly in Real Madrid and his ACL did not help.

But all in all he has turned out to be a fantastic player with a respectable career. Anyone who's seen him over the years knows. La Real or Betis he's been quite good.

I literally said no disrespect to Canales. Respect, in fact.

But he did not become what he could have and the Real Madrid machine ate him up like many others.

I mentioned him because Odegaard reminds me of him as a player and he managed to turn it around at a big club, and even though Betis and Arsenal are similar level clubs recently, or even Betis has been a bit better over the last two, three years, historically Arsenal is a huge club with the greatest ambitions.

What did Madrid do, other than sign him as a project, with a coach that would not play nor develop him? He literally did not play at Madrid. His ACL tear was with NT youth team. His development was at both Racing and on NT youth teams. He played with and was better than Thiago and Isco. Nothing to do with Madrid at all.

Hazard
Jović
Odegaard
Reinier
Illaramendi
Lucas Silva
Kaka
Sahin
Gago
Canales
Pedro Leon
van der Vaart
Drenthe
Sneijder
Robben
Huntelaar
Julio Baptista
Woodgate
Cicinho
Emerson
Cassano
Samuel
Owen
Cambiasso

In like 20 years, these careers were either ruined by Real Madrid or had a reneissance after leaving the club. I mean ffs, and who knows all the players I forgot, like Perica Ognjenovic or Elvir Baljic.

Adjusted for inflation, the value of these transfers is 1.1 billion euros. On average, Real Madrid ruins 1.1 career a season.

Also it must be said that this has improved recently, Real are nurturing talent a lot better this days, but still ruin a career or two here and there.

Lol, that is a list of poor acquisitions nothing to do with ruining careers or not developing. Every club has such a list!

Hazard lol, shows up fat and out of shape, his career was over before arriving.
Kaka shows up with career ending injury. His career was finish at Milan. Should I go on!

If you’re trying to say Madrid doesn’t develop youth, I would agree with that until recently. But to say Madrid is destroying these players that plain and simple wrong!

Ok, for direct comparison, here is Barcelona list:


Coutinho
Griezmann
Arthur
Firpo
Alcacer
Malcom
Afellay
Chigrinskiy
Hleb
Quaresma

Not even half as long, and some of these are a stretch.

Vibe wrote:Hazard - injured, overweight most of the time, never gave a shit
Jović - unreliable, trash
Odegaard - didnt want to compete for starting spot, left to find one
Reinier - sent out on loan to teams that didnt want to play him. Vini and Rodrygo are similar transfers that suceeded
Illaramendi - did not have the mental strength to succeed.
Lucas Silva - given a career ending illness through no fault of our own
Kaka - had a good first season, did not want to have a crucial surgery before the world cupl, went to the world cup, aggravated his injury more, sidelined for months. never the same again
Sahin - arrived injured and never impressed
Gago - great first season, riddled with injuries after
Canales - riddled with injuries
Pedro Leon - was never good enough
van der Vaart - decided on his own to continue despite being told he wont be counted on
Drenthe - never lived up to the hype
Sneijder - had a stellar career when he left, not sure how thats justified as ruined
Robben - had a stellar career when he left, not sure how thats justified as ruined
Huntelaar - went to have a decent career, was never a great striker. Was only at madrid for half a season. you dont ruin a career in half season
Julio Baptista - actually did pretty well at Real
Woodgate - constantly injured
Cicinho - suffered a horrible injury never the same
Emerson - had a fine career overall. Did well in his final season
Cassano - similar to hazard. gained massive weight. didnt care.
Samuel - went to have a grreat career at Inter. Career ruined indeed
Owen - already peaked before arriving at real madrid
Cambiasso - went to have a great career at inter. career ruined indeed

In like 20 years, these careers were either ruined by Real Madrid or had a reneissance after leaving the club. I mean ffs, and who knows all the players I forgot, like Perica Ognjenovic or Elvir Baljic.

Quick someone get this guy a Barca jersey, his actual club can only afford it on groupon.com

I actually do suspect that we, or at least, Zidane crushed Jovic's confidence. I only followed him for a brief while after we were initially linked to him, but he looked confident and explosive during those few matches. Fast, strong, two-footed, and a determination that seemed to always get him to the ball before everyone else were his most obvious qualities. If nothing else, his tenacity was a joy to watch. His transfer was a mess. He got injured in pre-season and was never featured with any regularity for us since then.

Maybe that was his own fault, but he was never quite the same player after his first season with us. He seems to have lost his explosiveness, and he no longer looks like he has that driving confidence that he had when he signed for us. Whatever the reason is, it was always puzzling to me how little he was featured during his first season in Madrid. After he returned from his pre-season injury, I think there were literally months between each time I saw him on the pitch. I imagine it must take quite a toll on someone's confidence when they go from being the hottest prospect in Europe to hardly playing at all for an entire season.

Vibe wrote:Ok, for direct comparison, here is Barcelona list:


Coutinho
Griezmann
Arthur
Firpo
Alcacer
Malcom
Afellay
Chigrinskiy
Hleb
Quaresma

Not even half as long, and some of these are a stretch.

I don’t get what you are on about. You say Madrid has ruined careers, yet you post a list of transfers and youth acquisitions that didn’t make it at club and as has been detailed almost all just weren’t good enough. Normally you write these off as poor acquisitions, but how you can say club destroyed them, just doesn’t make sense. And some on the list such as Sneijder and Robben were great before and after Madrid! So how in the world did Madrid destroy them!!

The environment is competitive and thus it is difficult to succeed at Madrid. You may perceive this as bad, but the result is more trophies than any other club by a large margin. Plus the coach has absolute say as to who plays and who starts. In the cases you mentioned, Odegaard and Canales, both Zidane and Mourinho didn’t buy into their role was to develop youth players (yet they had them with first team). I personally wanted both to play, but it wasn’t to be.

Up until recently, youth prospects were not developed on first team. There were issues with that in that Castilla is 2 levels down from first division and quite frankly are not even making it near the top of that level. So the approach has been to loan them out to develop and that’s exactly what happened in both cases you referred to. When they come back, if they do, there has to be an opening for them to fit in and that is actually rare and thus club tend to purchase and as your list showed, a lot don’t work out. The other alternative i.e. in Odegaard’s case, they are told to be patient. Odegaard decided he was better off elsewhere were he would get to play, and he was right! But I still don’t get he was destroyed by Madrid. He left on his own and he is anything but destroyed. In Canales, he didn’t play. His torn ACL was the end of his time in Madrid and that injury wasn’t even the result of Madrid. He certainly was not destroyed by Madrid.

name a bigger upgrade from Ozil to Odegaard

From Mctonimany to Casemiro