Because he wants to play with Neymar, who is 25, and he grew up a hardcore PSG fan. His Madrid love was more about CR than Madrid itself.

This wasn't about him picking money when his dream club came along. Both his dream clubs made him an offer and he went with the best one.

Also, his father and mother have a lot of influence (his father is his agent). According to reports, he personally still wanted Madrid slightly over PSG but his father talked him out of it.

Finally, Madrid dragged its feet. If we wanted to, we could have pulled the trigger and he would have been here in June. We wanted to wait until we squeezed every last dollar for Morata... and that gave time for Mbappe's mind to change.

A lot of changing factors. He's a teenager. Kids in general, and millennials particularly, are very prone to changing their minds drastically.

That said, PSG is now dragging its feet and Mbappe is being forced out of Monaco for all intents and purposes. There may be an opportunity for Madrid still. However, City are being more aggressive so the feeling is he may end up there if PSG cannot pull the trigger.

Madrid can still steal this one though.

all i hear is that it's done deal with PSG

they've been saying done deal for weeks though Nick. There's something holding it up and many think that, even with the new endorsement deals, the money is too much with Neymar. So they need to make sure they sell enough first.

Given the crazy pushback. PSG can't afford to have the money come even 1 cent short.

it took them weeks to sign Neymar too, that's the way it goes. and you are wrong about Madrid not working to sign him, we did. but without moving Bale he was not comfortable moving here, not to mention that PSG offered more in wages and more to his dad as well.

well that's the bottom line isn't it. It's not really doing work when you offer a fraction of what other top club are offering, don't make room for him to play and just say "come to madrid because we're madrid".

I understand the arrogance. But that really only works with Spanish players these days.

Yes but you are talking about a club that is the absolute best in Europe, won back to back CL and that seems to be doing everything well, literally.

You are asking that club where everyone is happy to see bend its knee to a young 18 years old and tell him he is a guaranteed starter... no i think it came down to be club not feeling like they would enter a bidding war with PSG, specially on the back of what we experienced trying to sign Neymar vs Barca.

It's a reasonable view on things. In my own opinion Bale is not worth the hassle and I thought selling mbappe the idea of growing into a starting role was perfect. But he wants to be an absolute starter, and for our team it's a hard sell.

And that's why clubs don't really stay on top for very long tbh. They think that you need to stop working to get better and should protect what you already have.... which leads to stagnation.... and eventually decline... while other clubs work harder to catch you.

If you want to build a lasting dynasty, you should compete against yourself. I was hoping Madrid would do that. But instead, we're taking an unnecessary chance by selling Morata without a proper replacement while hoping that Bale somehow regains form and health.... not to mention Benzema's inconsistencies.

Still the best in Europe... but we could have increased our gap instead of, honestly, losing some of it by having a very passive summer. Losing Pepe, James, Danilo, Morata, Mariano and Coentrao for Theo Hernandez, Llorente and Ceballos ... we lost a lot of depth here. Still deep... but not WC deep. Our back 4 is only backed up by Nacho tbh. The midfield is deep no doubt. But our strikers are paper thin too.

Disagree, it's not that we are refusing the plan, on the contrary, we are planning ahead. We are choosing to work differently than most clubs, because we work from a position of strength, meaning we dont have to splash cash.

we lost Coentrao and Danilo, one guy that never played and one that sucked and gave us multiple heart attack for the most promising LB in spain in Theo, and Achraf who is a great talent. i dont see how it's a step down.

James left and we signed Ceballos, a more natural midfielder that fits our schemes better + Llorente is back, again not a downgrade.

the biggest loss is Pepe because we dont know how Vallejo will cope, there is a gap there.

and in attack as well, we lack a back up CF.

those are positions that can be addressed without splashing 80 mil per player on the market. They lost a lot of time as you said getting money for mortal and pursuing Mbappe who wont come so they have two weeks to course correct.

I dont think we will sign a centerback this late, but hopefully we do sign a back up CF, i have 0 faith in Mayoral.

Pepe's departure is not a big deal he did not even play last season. Theo is clearly an improvement in coentrao and Hakimi can't be worse than Danilo.

I swear, Sports must be getting some sort of cut on the french players transfers!!! He over hypes these players and berates any club not bidding or in what he perceives as obstructing potential deals. Last summer it was Pogba, Kante, Payet and at least 2 others. This summer it's Mbappe and Dembele.

He claims the market price has doubled because of these players yet it is only the Pogba, Neymar and Mbappe, potentially Dembele and Countino deals. There has been some escalation of transfer amounts for strikers, but it's these 3 deals that are aberrations, not an indication that transfer amounts have doubled in just a year!

As to his comments about Madrid not competing, come on look at the realities. Saying we are missing depth by getting rid of Coentrao and Danilo? I've said it before and I'll say it again, you guys will be surprised by end of year as to how good, Vallejo, Ceballos, Theo and Marcos Llorente are. They all are excellent talents and have the same potential as Asensio showed last year. Plus they have a coach that will give them the playing time they need to develop.
Nick, as per Archaf and Majoral, they are not yet decided if they stay or go. Re RB it's a decision between Archaf, Meunier or go with Nacho/ Theo/ Lucas combination. And re Majoral, I really doubt if he stays. A year ago he was much better than Marianno and all of the U21 particularly Sandro and Williams. But his year of inactivity has really stunned his development. Another year of that would kill his career.

But looking at the entire team and in particular Zidane adopting lineup to fit his players, we are basically going with one or two strikers the majority of the time so having Ronaldo, Benz and Bale is more than enough. Of course we all would prefer two of them to exit, but it's not going to happen and Zidane definitely has confidence in the two of them.

It's interesting to me that Sports is very critical of the club but never of Zidane yet these moves or lack of them is mainly attributable to Zidane. As to building a dynasty they have already done most of that. All they need to complete that in terms of aging players is a striker and a GK. But they have a couple of years to accomplish that.

Hakimi has been promoted officially. Will wear #19

He is not officially promoted. Read the entire article. He has been given the number to be able to play tomorrow. Majoral has also been given a number. Club has another 12 days to make final decisions!

futbol_bill wrote:He is not officially promoted. Read the entire article. He has been given the number to be able to play tomorrow. Majoral has also been given a number. Club has another 12 days to make final decisions!

Aren't youth players allowed to play with numbers above 25 though? What's the point in giving a 1-25 number if he isn't promoted?

lol...  you forget 100 mil for Morata and Lukakaku.  50+ mil for fullbacks (walker, mendy, etc.).  Far lesser players than Mbappe, Dembele and Coutinho.  Dortmund are angry because they had given the 10 role and number to Dembele and had put him in the prime attacking position.  Now they have to change that around a bit.  They'll be ok though.  Monaco never expected Mbappe to stay so it's not that big of a deal.  Coutinho is a huge problem for Liverpool however... they have no alternatives.

The market is what it is.

Also, how are Kante and Pogba overhyped?  Payet didn't want to stay at a relegation level team... which is entirely understandable.  He's always had an attitude problem though and I didn't want him at OM.  He also doesn't deserve to start on NT over the likes of Dembele and Mbappe.  But it is what it is.

keeping hakim is fine, i would have rather signed a CB and used Nacho as back up right back, but...

sportsczy wrote:lol...  you forget 100 mil for Morata and Lukakaku.  50+ mil for fullbacks (walker, mendy, etc.).  Far lesser players than Mbappe, Dembele and Coutinho.  Dortmund are angry because they had given the 10 role and number to Dembele and had put him in the prime attacking position.  Now they have to change that around a bit.  They'll be ok though.  Monaco never expected Mbappe to stay so it's not that big of a deal.  Coutinho is a huge problem for Liverpool however... they have no alternatives.

The market is what it is.

I didn't forget. i did say the market had increased with a couple of stikers, but not more than doubled as you have stated with the two or three aberrations. No way are Mbappe, Coutinho, Dembele worth double Morata and Luka... We can determine were the market is next summer when we find out if these aberrations work out or not.

As to Pogba, are you still saying he is a bonafile 120M player. Did Man U get the results they expected when they paid that outrageous price? Just because russian and oil money is making these clubs make desperation purchases doesn't mean others will follow. If they get results then maybe, but for now let's just wait and see what these signing actually produce before making your biased conclusions.

120 mil? 100 mil. And yes he is. Don't let idiots who rate CMs in double pivot system on goals lead you astray. He'll score more this year because he has Matic to help him and allow more forward runs... which will have everyone clamoring "WC!". But he's playing the same as he has been for a while at Man U.

Imagine rating Modric and Kroos on goals...

Both Kroos and Modric are better than Pogba and even then I'd not say they are 100mil players

Mariano and Coentrao barely featured last season so I would not consider that losing depth. Losing Pepe is a big deal (no matter what Valk writes) and was replaced by Vallejo. Remains to be seen if he is up to scratch but he is a decent back up. Got 2 very talented Spaniards in Theo and Ceballos to replace both James (loan) and Danilo (heart attack inducer). Only real position that is not actually rectified from a back up aspect is Morata. That also was a huge loss but it seems the club is gonna continue with what they have (which, quite frankly, is still pretty good).

I always wanted to see Madrid show patience and shrewdness in their transfers, go figure it could be so "boring" at times.

So many excuses when I said outright since the start of the transfer window mbappe deal made no sense, I don't care how hyped he is, he still only has 6 months footy under his belt, the fee alone was stupid I'm sure people gonna say its the wage demands but I'm 100% sure the club wasn't going to pay fee regardless just by going a lot of the recent transfers, seems more like flo was humouring the lad more than anything, since the media and fans kept making stuff up.

If flo really wanted him the club would have brought him like the other transfers and offload bale whether he wants to stay or not, as usual RM fans run with anything online as fact couldn't wait to treat bale and Benz like shit cause mbappe is a sure thing, now everyone chill "the team is good only need a back up cf" lmao joke forum.

Its funny how you guys get so hyped over transfers that never happens season after season, then pretend to rate the team when they win, like you guys never wanted half of them sold off every summer

I hardly talk about transfers cause the club has changed how it goes about them, no one other than the club itself know what's going on, they will leak details when they feel like it so I just wait for official announcements, instead searching the whole internet for fake stories like bill with dem Benz out links so funny and petty, hopefully you guys learn something from this summer but I sure you won't.

He said no to Madrid personal terms and required one of BBC to be sold Chad...  that's the reality of what happened.  He had no desire to rotate or take less money.

So this "if Madrid really wanted him" junk that Madrid fans like to throw around...  is really a bunch of crap.  It's more if Madrid want him and the terms of the deal are right for the player.

Flo didn't travel to France to spend the evening with Mbappe and his family for kicks.  He only does that to close deals.  It's failed twice...  Neymar and now Mbappe.

Plus chad you act like the players we've been linked to and thus hyped are shit. Let's look at those players that could have come to Madrid but ended up going elsewhere:

Neymar, De Gea, Pogba, Aguero, Hazard, Vidal.

These are all quality players and arguably could have improved us, so are we wrong to have hyped these players? No.

Aguero and Pogba wouldn't improve this team to be fair.

Valkyrja wrote:Aguero and Pogba wouldn't improve this team to be fair.

Agüero would most definitely improve us for his 20 healthy games a year.