Zidane wantes lewandowski AND benzema at the same time? I cant believe it he is not that stupid

Whatever it was... he wanted it. Might have been a mess but he wanted it apparently. Benzema is playing his last year at Real Madrid imo. He will be 29 next summer and his transfer fee will drop like a rock after that. We will be in the market for a top scorer...

Not much out there though. If I were Zidane/Madrid, I'd make a run at Lacazette or Icardi for 50 mil and sell Morata for the 75 before somebody gets their mind straight about Morata Maybe one of them develops and then you're in a great position next summer.

So Zidane wanted two Buyerns key players, Kante who chose to stay in England, and Pogba who is interested in nothing but gold... Fair to say Zidane had a shit transfer list.

what about bazoer, he is the only one left that has potential good b2b player, he is also aggressive, fast and technical at the same time, kroos and modric can still start.

Adit wrote:So Zidane wanted two Buyerns key players, Kante who chose to stay in England, and Pogba who is interested in nothing but gold... Fair to say Zidane had a shit transfer list.

Well Alaba and Lewa were out of the picture quickly.... Kante would have come but we weren't going to move on him until the Pogba situation got cleared.  Same reason Gomes didn't hang around.  Morata is still here because we can't identify another established scorer that's available and we weren't going to drop 100 mil on Aubameyang.  Not many of them around.  So Morata is being kept out of lack of alternatives for the time being.

It's a tough place really because the Euro has set our timing back 6 weeks given that the guy Zidane really wants got to the final game AND he is facing internal resistance with the move to boot because Pogba's agent is a greedy pig.

Regardless, we'll get active soon imo.  We are facing a transfer ban and it would be catastrophic if we did nothing.

We really need a Director to help with all this. Jose Angel Sanchez is trying to fill the role but he's not the right guy imo because he's not organizing it well enough. Zidane doesn't have the authority to take over our transfers (yet) and Flo is too busy being the president. It's a bit disorganized.

We feel like PSG did when Leonardo left them....

The political theories from Sports might be true or false but to me Zizou has not really been serious on any player other than Pogba. The Kante interest to me was just media, with the transfer fee that was on Kante we should have wrapped up that one first thing if Zizou really wanted him. He wants Pogba, which to me does not make too much sense in terms of what the team needs, i wonder his first 11 with Pogba here, Modric-Casemiro/Kroos- Pogba?

No matter how much praise or justification we may want to put on the need for Pogba to come here, this transfer is purely luxury considering the transfer fee and the team needs. We all say he will improve our attack and transition but guys , we do not seem to be setting up to be a counter attacking team unless when really necessary like last season, hence we might probably have much more need of ball playing mids like Kroos and Modric. Pogba has not yet convinced me beyond doubt that he is world class, yes he has the talent potential but he is still to prove himself to me to be a 100mil+ player.

He is not a game changer like Ronaldinho was or Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez, in terms of high impact attacking midfielders he is miles apart from the best in that position like Iniesta, who can impact the game from that position and can dribble 100x better than Pogba rarely misplacing or losing the ball, now those are 100mil+ and world class players that are worth a fuss, Pogba is one of the most overated young players today and a very unnecessary player to be losing sleep over or breaking the bank for. Lets leave the team as is, no need to fix what is not broken. I would go as far as say a fit Jack Wilshere is better than Pogba.

sportsczy wrote:I'll add that kids are getting smarter nowadays. You have someone like Dembele who refused elite clubs because he knew he'd play more and get exposure at Dortmund.

From all I have read it sounds like it's his mother that has made all those decision. Kid's got a smart mother.

The Galactico 10 wrote: I would go as far as say a fit Jack Wilshere is better than Pogba.

Much too far.

sportsczy wrote:DoC...  i was on the same youth team as both the Madrid bench coach and Zidane.  Still spend time in Cannes (there right now).  David Bettoni was a coach in the Cannes youth system for a bit too and comes here often.  I know the same people he knows still as we both grew up with some of them.  I hear things.  I can just keep it to myself (which I do mostly).  But i thought you guys would enjoy some of the rumblings.  

We hang out, talk, and the guys that are still close friends with David tell me the stuff he says.  Heck, I know a couple of them are still friendly with Zizou so it may come from him although they won't say it either way.  

Bottom line is that everything is political at Real Madrid just like any corporation.  Everyone tries to protect their sphere of influence because, frankly, their livelihood depends on it.  Zidane threatens some of these people because he's so influential with Flo.  They're resisting the best way they can.  

There's a reason they were against Zidane being the coach in the first place...  

Your circle of acquaintance might bring you some information, but at the end of the day it's just talk with no proof. Basically, you're basing your whole judgment on hearsay, you're taking to heart whatever they tell you without even bothering to use common sense to check its validity.

No disrespect but some of the stuff you wrote is simply nonsensical and is closer to being a script for a Hollywood movie than it is to football.

You're saying Z has threatened these people because he's very influential with Florentino. Who are these "people"? How did he threaten them? Do you have proof? Do you realize that something this big would be carved on the front page of Marca before it even reaches the front door of the Bernabeu? Problem here sports is that you take these things very lightly and you end up saying very dangerous and big things with no proof whatsoever, and as a result, your argument ends up being incomplete, borderline preposterous and unconvincing. This is why I said you're hurting your credibility as a poster.

Z is not fighting the upper class to bring the power back to the "people". He didn't threat anybody. He's no Marvel hero. He saw an opportunity to become Real Madrid's head coach and he jumped on it like a vulture. And now he's trying his best to keep everybody upstairs happy to keep his job.

What you should be concerned about, however, is the apparent severe state of dormancy he's in right now which sees him being completely oblivious to our glaring deficiencies, claiming this squad is very difficult to improve on, and gathering dust in the transfer window.

DoC...  you do realize that Flo has several people who are his senior advisors on football matters.  Namely, they're in charge of scouting and suggesting transfers.  There is no Sporting Director at Madrid after Valdano left.  Mourinho took over the responsibility...  after he left, these tasks were delegated to staff within Real Madrid.  Now Zidane wants to have a decisive say in transfers as opposed to having literally no say like Carlo and Rafa.

Those who inherited the responsibility after Mourinho left are resisting Zidane.  Flo hasn't decided one way or another...  he's listening to both sides.

Pogba has become the central figure in this as one side wants him (Zidane), while the other is against it (Flo's football advisors).  There are also disagreements on other players like James, Jesse, Nacho, Morata, etc. Heck, Ronaldo was all but gone this summer too if Zidane hadn't recovered that situation for Madrid.

It's not a surprise either... every organization has internal politics. Doesn't matter the size.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Psg-unai-emery-veut-garder-blaise-matuidi-mais/709462

Matuidi is available.

good for him lol

halamadrid2 wrote:According to SS we have stopped negotiations with Roma regarding Nacho as ZZ wants him to stay........ biggest coup this summer imo

LOL! Waiting for Nick to respond to this. Any new quotes from Spagetti!

sportsczy wrote:DoC...  you do realize that Flo has several people who are his senior advisors on football matters.  Namely, they're in charge of scouting and suggesting transfers.  There is no Sporting Director at Madrid after Valdano left.  Mourinho took over the responsibility...  after he left, these tasks were delegated to staff within Real Madrid.  Now Zidane wants to have a decisive say in transfers as opposed to having literally no say like Carlo and Rafa.

Those who inherited the responsibility after Mourinho left are resisting Zidane.  Flo hasn't decided one way or another...  he's listening to both sides.

Pogba has become the central figure in this as one side wants him (Zidane), while the other is against it (Flo's football advisors).  There are also disagreements on other players like James, Jesse, Nacho, Morata, etc. Heck, Ronaldo was all but gone this summer too if Zidane hadn't recovered that situation for Madrid.

It's not a surprise either... every organization has internal politics. Doesn't matter the size.

Is there no end to the lengths you will go to float your agenda? Who are these unnamed advisors? I'll give you Butra, but who else? Yesterday it was board members! I am going to check out your Stories, but I'm sure there isn't half of what you say is going on, happening.

You take a word or two that Zidane has supposedly said and make up this whole ridiculous story of politics, Zidane not in favour of half of the team. Just stop with the nonsense.

Everything I have heard is the exact opposite of what you are saying. The team is basically set for the season and obviously has Zidane's agreement. You obviously want Pogba, but it sure looks like that won't happen. Zidane himself said early on that he had three dream players that would improve the team, but they would be difficult to acquire. But he didn't say he had to have one of the three (Pogba, Alaba, Lewandowski) to keep him happy. He said it would be difficult to improve the team.

Come on Bill.  The man in charge of transfers for Flo is Jose Angel Sanchez.  Everyone knows it. He and Zidane do not see eye to eye at all from what I heard. In fact, Mourinho has tried to pick him off as soon as he joined Man U to be his right hand man. Maybe it's true... or maybe Sanchez told his good friend Mourinho to start this rumor just before the start of this mercato in order to keep Zidane in check. You figure it out.

It's like you're deliberately ignoring my point for some reason. Let me try to rephrase what I said and hopefully this time you'll understand what I'm getting at. Your arguments are built upon hearsay, which though might be true, can't be taken seriously because there's no proof to back it up. You can't expect people to nod along to you about all these absurd theories and you shouldn't base your analysis on them just because they fit your pre-existing views. If you do, you lose your credibility as a poster.

Let me try to explain it further by taking a look at your latest post:

sportsczy wrote:There is no Sporting Director at Madrid after Valdano left.

This is true because it can be proved.

Now Zidane wants to have a decisive say in transfers as opposed to having literally no say like Carlo and Rafa.

This, even though can't be proved, makes sense and isn't too hard to believe. Us being practically and unprecedentedly non-existent in this transfer window shows that Z is in fact in charge or at least has a strong say in the comings and goings of players. Florentino has never been this conservative when it comes to splashing money, and it's no coincidence that he's changed with the arrival of Z.

Those who inherited the responsibility after Mourinho left are resisting Zidane.  Flo hasn't decided one way or another...  he's listening to both sides.

This is what I mean by basing your whole argument on hearsay. Do you realize how ridiculous this sounds? You'd have to be a high-ranked official in the Madrid organization to know this stuff for sure. You're even claiming that Florentino is still undecided which side to listen to. Apparently, you have access to Florentino's subconscious and you have no trouble at all believing that Z is fighting those "bureaucrats" even though the one who told you that gave you nothing but words...and you took their words for it. Are you seriously this gullible? Or are you so incredibly biased that you'd believe anything as long as it suits your views and depicts Z as a hero? Either way, it's ridiculous.

Pogba has become the central figure in this as one side wants him (Zidane), while the other is against it (Flo's football advisors).

And even though you have no proof to prove they're against it, you still threw it out there as a fact.

There are also disagreements on other players like James, Jesse, Nacho, Morata, etc.  Heck, Ronaldo was all but gone this summer too if Zidane hadn't recovered that situation for Madrid.

I know your idol is Z, but trying to give him credit for fights that didn't even happen in the first place is wrong. What proof do you have of this ridiculous rumor?

It's not a surprise either... every organization has internal politics.  Doesn't matter the size.  

Of course every organization has internal politics. But the problem here is that you're giving Z too much weight. You want to believe that he's a superhero brought to bring justice back to the Roman Empire by uprooting corruption from the imperial court; whereas in fact, he's just a football manager with no cape or superpowers, a disciple and loyal servant to Florentino and his board of directors; and he wouldn't last a second if he even thought about going against them.

I really don't have anything against people saying I heard this or that. What I'm absolutely against is when people hear things and then base their whole judgement on those things without proof or even using common sense to see whether it might be true or not.

Lmao how do some of you come up with this stuff? Slow transfers are really hurting, no new players to circle jerk and pit against each other, now random hear say about back room politics , and benzema been on his last season for 5 seasons now , will the butthurt ever end?

Almost fed the troll

we have people claiming to know people close to the club because they kick the ball about with zidane and have the same circle of friends. We have others claiming to be socios and telling us about bar discussions where transfers are revealed.

Hey this is the internet, the moment someone starts writing something that looks like fan faction i stop reading

my take on this, sounds like a lot of he-say, she-say. its no different from when some journalist gets second hand information from a "source" and puts it out there. only difference being that since the journalist makes the info public and withholds the name of his sources, he is putting his reputation on the line and shielding his source cos if he throws his source under the bus, the organization will close the door on such individual and he looses his source. although today, journalist's reputation means little, cos information is received so fast, that people just want any news whether true or not

my point being, sportczy, as far as we know you're not a journalist, and even if you were, there's nothing being put on the line with regards reputation, aside from our usual "you said this at so and so time" that we have on gl. so you cannot be surprised that we aren't all swayed by your story. it may be true, there are a lot of things that go on at clubs, which we only hear about later or when they make the news. i understand that, but to put the buck of this move solely at the feet of 'politics as usual' at real madrid based on information that no football news outlets have carried- no websites, radio, journalistic personalities (no matter how unreliable they are), marca, AS- who can both be very irresponsible , diario sport & don balon- who both hate madrid so much that they even go as far as make up stories.

none of them have carried such a juicy and interesting story line over this dull summer, yet only you have this inside information? if it proves true, then touche, we'll give you props, but c'mon, 120 million is a huge tab. 120 million, you need to play almost all the 60 plus games in upcoming seasons, score boat loads of goals, have boatloads of assists. i appreciate midfield play, but you don't spend 120 million on a central mid....you spend 120 million on tangibles.

pogba's a fantastic player, most of us would welcome him to madrid, i'd sign him asap, but 120 million? i think that's the bottom line, and not zidane vs flo's advisers...which mind you could be true, considering, those same people probably convinced flo to get rafa, and zidane's success plus rafa's failure has put them in a bad light, but i doubt that has anything to do with a pogba move...or even a lewadowski move, cos bayern won't let that go without a fight. and as i said, we haven't heard any outlets carry such a juicy story, you can't expect us to just accept your "sources" as fact.

Reporters in Madrid rely on Real Madrid and/or its players to give them stories... either directly or via intermediaries.  You don't bite the hand that feeds you unless the story is worth it, and even then.  Marca went rogue on Madrid and they were irrelevant for a couple of years...  AS took over and they went scorched earth against Flo later = blacklisted too leading Madrid to send info to Marca again (or certain reporters actually).  Etc.  Zidane is really not the type to wage war through the media anyhow and you don't have an existing star player involved who could blab to someone.  So it's not like you have a lot of noise about it.  

Besides, I don't think internal politics regarding transfers is enough of a scoop to jeopardize your flow of information.  Upside isn't enough and downside is drastic.

Just thought it was some interesting and pretty good info during the slow times.  If we had other stuff to talk about, I wouldn't bother because it's thankless.

And yeah Nick, being part of youth football with pro players at clubs in small towns does count for a lot.  How do you think David Bettoni became Zidane's bench coach?  They were on the same youth team at AS Cannes.  You stay close to these guys because you basically spent day and night together for years in your teens.  You rarely get close to people like that once you become true pros, whether in football or otherwise.

anything can jeopardize a journalist's flow of information, no matter how little, its about trust, and when the story has to do with two parties bumping heads, regardless of the issue at hand, that's not considered a "little" story. the issue isn't even about your story, but rather that you make it seem like its the primary reason for not being in for pogba, when the price tag is as high as it is