Transfer Rumours | Tactics | Who to buy/sell etc

@Nick, I'm a little late responding to this, but I agree with you, that the club will not or should not be pursuing Odriozola.

The background is the club started looking at him, probably as the best youth option at RB when Carvajal developed the heart problem and around the time Achraf inexperience showed. The club has been concerned that they may have another De La Red type issue on their hands. Dani recently spoke about the possibility he might have had to retire. However that problem has been resolved and although they will keep a close eye on it, it isn't like De La Red's issue and hopefully is permanently resolved.

The interest in Odriozola intensified after his first appearance on NT in replacing Carvajal. He was unexpectedly very good. Since then he has kept up that form at his own club and a second NT appearance which was even better than the first. He has now moved into the backup spot for the upcoming WC beating out Azpilicueta. (Marca recently posted the ranking by position for NT, it's not definitive but looks pretty sound IMO).

So you are absolutely correct that it doesn't make any sense to have the #1 and #2 RB in Spain to be on the same club. Both are young and need lots of minutes.

Plus I suspect the price tag would have gone up and this talent has gotten better (and known). My fear is that spot is a weakness at Barca.

Back to our club though unless Achraf improves with more minutes (and perhaps gains more experience with Morocco WC), he will be better going out on loan next season and as such we still may need to go after a backup for Carvajal (as you said last summer, although we can rely on Nacho, it's best to have someone as a true backup. So we are looking for someone better than Danilo, not as good as Odriozola and more experienced than Achraf. Let's hope he gets lots of minutes in Copa games and in WC.

There are stories out today, that Zidane may be open to looking for solutions in the Winter market! They don’t mention names, but the positions are GK, CB and CF. They also mention that Majoral and Llorente could be lent out.

I take this story with a grain of salt.

First off the reference of GK is obviously the recent somewhat weak performances of Casilla, the worrisome injuries and recoveries of Navas and the possibly availability of Kepa if he doesn’t renew with Bilbao in next month.

The mentioning of a CB is the initial slow start of Vallejo. However he has gotten better with every appearance to the point that he was decent in last two appearances even getting better rating than Varane.

It’s pretty obvious Zidane and Flo made a mistake taking on so many youngsters this season. Although most of them have lots of promise, it is dificult to give that many kids enough action to build the confidence they need and earn the coach’s trust. We saw that initally with Vallejo, Llorente, Achraf and Ceballos. Two of these are now showing good signs, but it’s debatable if Zidane has any trust in them, let alone know that they exist!

And then with CF, this is all on Zidane. First with not seeing the obvious with Benz, but also the absense of a plan B to keep either Morata or Mariano. Then there is the choice of Majoral, who couldn’t get off the bench with a second tier German club, and who lost his starting position with U21 NT and as 3rd CF on that NT looked pathetically uncomfortable in the few minutes he did get. Never before was it so obvious, this once promising talent needed to go somewhere to try to rebuild his play and confidence.

So I’m not sure if this article is Zidane’s attempt to retify some of his errors?

CF is really the only thing we desperately need. We can reinforce GK with Kepa for free in the summer and I am not sure why we would need a CB. I feel good about Vallejo, and Nacho.

i would rather pay 50 mil to sign a true world class keeper than to sign a project for free like Kepa, just saying. i agree for CB, Vallejo looks good, it would help if we sign a back up RB but that's it.

@Nick, I'm on the same page as you. I'm not sold on Kepa, I just think considering how cheap RM have been lately, it seems like the most likely move. I was only responding to the claim that we might go for him in winter- doesn't make sense when he would be free in just 6 months.

Either way, I'd rather still go for De Gea or someone of that ilk, but it feels like that ship has sailed.

there might be an opportunity to sign Courtois because he is openly in dispute with chelsea about his contract. next summer he will have one year left, it's an opportunity. Even for De Gea, if he has not renewed by next summer, he will have one year left on his deal. And i still expect Kepa to renew with Bilbao, ill be shocked if he doesn't, it's not like he is not negotiating to do so.

Zidane has opened the door to January moves. Again, as he did with talking about Mbappe several times in the summer, he's giving a subtle hint to management about what he would like to happen. Remains to be seen if management will take action.

http://www.espnfc.us/real-madrid/story/3286990/real-madrid-coach-zinedine-zidane-open-to-january-signings-while-gareth-bale-returns

You keep posting this illusion you have of Zidane not in charge! I read the same article, not from espn and in Spanish and there wasn’t that quote that others make the decisions!

If he truly wants to make signings, why does he have to offer hints, he can simply talk to Perez about what he wants.

As I stated above, all of the problems are on him and the January market may be him trying to correct some of his errors.

That's your opinion Bill. I know a socio whose family has been a socio for over 50 years (his father passed it down to him)... and he says that Zidane has a voice but it's not his call. The board has input, the scouting department and Zidane. Flo makes the final decision. He's also said that nobody... player, manager, etc... is allowed to publicly criticize the institution if he wants to survive.

Biggest thing he's told me is that the manager isn't just the football manager... he's the media voice of the club. Basically the press secretary. So his job is to communicate the club's message to the media as he is the public representative of the club.

My hope is that Zidane is mentioning a January transfer because he's been given the green light to publicly. It's very softly worded. But it's hope at least. We typically just say that we don't do business in January lol (unless it's Mourinho).

Lol you just keep coming up with these inside contacts.

I also am a socio and obviously talk to several of them, a couple are board members. It’s not just my opinion!

I'm really not sure which socios you talk to dude.  

Because one of them... and his family have had season seats forever...  clearly told me before Zidane that the manager role at Real Madrid is about being the manager AND acting as the press secretary for the club with the media.  It's not the same as with most clubs.  The manager represents the institution first and foremost.  He's the White House press secretary.  His job is to say whatever the club wants to be said and work his own message in there if it isn't contrary to the club's (if you want to keep the job that is).

One of Zidane's close friends who lives 10 mins from where my mom resides in France (known him since I was 14) told me directly that Zidane gets a voice but he has no power.  Only Flo does.  Zidane says his piece, so does the board and the scouting department...  and whoever Flo wants to listen to.  Flo makes the decision.  Now, if there's consensus, the transaction is easy obviously.  But when there's a problem, it's Flo. Do you think Zidane wanted Ceballos and Llorente? Really?? Is that why they never play?

Not sure why this simple thing is so controversial.  It's always been like this.  Even when we had Valdano, it was Flo.  Only time he didn't have full power was with Mourinho... and that's because Mou had contractual veto power on transactions lol.

You can go on and on about your supposed contacts!! Do you realize that a socio is just a normal fan, that there are thousands of us. A few have real inside information, but that is a rarity.

I will acknowledge that as a socio you have more contact around the club and therefore may know more than an Internet fan. But bottom line is it's generally only a few select few that really knows the inter working of the club.

But all that aside, from Zidane's own words and actions, it painfully obvious who he favors and doesn't. It also painfully obvious that Flo has not done his traditional signings at all in the past two years which happens to the same time frame as Zidane.

You won't admit it, but it is equally obvious that you will go to any lengths to divert any criticism of Zidane.

So let's just stick to our own versions of reality, whether it is delusional or not!

2 years?!?!?!  How about since the James signing and selling Di Maria.  That was the last splashy move we made...  summer of 2014.  Zidane became the manager in early 2016.

There is a hierarchy amongst socios from what I understand.

Hierarchy!!! You have management, the board and then 80,000 of us. You need to work more on your fairy tales Sports

Two I T K fighting over who has the best sources

Can we all admit that no one on this forum is really in the know?

Yes, I can!

Nobody "knows" anything because 99.9% of transactions under consideration lead to nothing, even if they are truly being looked at.  It's the job of a lot of people at clubs, not to mention the agents, to looks at every single possible transaction.  That's how all deal making works.  

The only cool thing for me is that I grew up in Cannes and played football there.  ZZ is very loyal to his childhood friends and his family reside in the region.  So you hear a lot more stuff about Real Madrid than you otherwise would because his entourage is here.... and his bench coach's entourage as well.  In fact, David Bettoni, his bench coach, is 100x more ingrained in Cannes.  He came back in the 00s and briefly became the coach of AS Cannes.  Just a lot of people surrounding these guys live in the area.

As far as the socio thing...  A family who were socios had a vacation apartment in the same building as my mother's.  I played football and tennis with their son.  We've been more or less friends since.  That's how i get a glimpse of what the socio benefits and info are.  Now, he may be full of shit and boastful, which is always a good assumption.  But he gets emotional about certain things so I tend to take those more seriously.

When I go back to Cannes next, I'll scan in a group picture with me, ZZ and Bettoni in it.  That should take care of all questions in regards to that.

In any case, it's just in good fun.  People in Cannes are very proud of ZZ and Bettoni... especially the old footy crowd.  So they talk about them a lot. I certainly think most of it is just fun talk. But people tend to overstate and talk about ZZ as the master of the universe lol. So when they say he has no power in regards to certain things, it goes contrary to the entire dialogue. Wouldn't make sense for them to say that unless there was some truth to it.

just spend the money on De Gea for godsake, Kepa

De Gea having another godly performance

Meh he can stay were he is

I am more interested in Martial. Quality winger, good technique and always takes players on. All of which we lack

Martial is a good player but Man You will sell him to you for 100 mil lol, not worth it

Mr Nick09 wrote:just spend the money on De Gea for godsake, Kepa

What I've been saying.
Why gamble on a highly promising young GK actually stepping up when you can just get the guy who has proven time and time again he can step up, who's from Madrid and has agreed to join you before

except for hala, i dont know who else think it's a bad idea

and wtf hala lol

Zidane: "I'm sad for the players because the fought until the end & deserved more out of the game. I am worried about the lack of goals after creating many chances."

Interesting comments. Perhaps this means Zizou wants to make changes?

guest7 wrote:Zidane: "I'm sad for the players because the fought until the end & deserved more out of the game. I am worried about the lack of goals after creating many chances."

Interesting comments. Perhaps this means Zizou wants to make changes?

Now he's throwing Cristiano under the bus? Smh