Transfer Rumours | Tactics | Who to buy/sell etc

He's the first manager to ever win the CL two years back-to-back. That's wonderful. But that doesn't give him the right the run this club to the ground.

If he ends up trophyless, he should be thanked for his services and let go. There's no point in keeping him on if it's patently obvious he's no longer capable of winning major trophies.

I see it same as Nick, Zidane (and his influence) over transfers stays and as a consequence so does Benz. Hopefully they do get a proper striker (it certainly looked like Lewandowsky, until this morning) which should limit the harm Benz can do and eventually result in him leaving on his own - best we can hope for.

But Zidane has another problem! That is the role of both Isco and Asensio. Both are viewed as #12  or #13 on club by Zidane, yet they know they can go anywhere else for a BIG fee and quaranteed starter status. Only Zidane can change that and if he misplays it, they may demand to leave. I’d say at this point, it’s a 75% chance re Isco and 25% chance re Asensio.

My view re summer is

Bajas - Bale, Majoral, Achraf, Llorente, Ceballos (unless both Isco and Asensio leave), possibly Vallejo, possibly Navas

Altas - CF, Winger, reserve RB, possibly Vinicius (although a year with Castilla or a liga loan would be a better option), possibly a reserve CB, possibly a new GK.

i am not arguing for or against Zidane at this point as i think my opinion about him is clear, but i also dont think he is going to be sacked this summer. They are going to shakeup the team and give him another run at recreating his 16/17 season.

Barca fans are terrible lol... at least we understand if our kids aren't played or get injured. We ask them to get loaned out to get seasoning. Barca fans think the players are garbage for not being Neymar or Messi at the age of 20.

Most players don't hit their stride until age 24-25.

Well to be fair they struck gold with a generation of Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and co.

Remember when Barca fans thought that was sustainable?

Well, it did sustain them for at least 10 years of Spanish dominance. Now that Iniesta is on his way out, last men remaining are Pique and Messi. Actually, just round it off to just Messi remaining and yet, they are still dominating La Liga.

I mean that was really 1-2 classes of players. The well has run dry since Bojan

Can we please just sign Firmino and Salah? Please?

vanDEEZ wrote:Can we please just sign Firmino and Salah? Please?

Sure. Do we have 450m?

Benz + Bale for Firmino + Salah

Seems like a fair deal.

Just need to take out a 2nd mortgage on the Bernabeu, nothing too hard.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

vanDEEZ wrote:Can we please just sign Firmino and Salah? Please?

Sure. Do we have 450m?

Club is richest (or second) club, has practically zero debt, haven't spent anything in past two years! Of course they have the capability to buy two high priced players.

Firmino is the most ideal replacement for Benz if we're looking to continue with the same setup. I looked it up quickly and he apparently has £83 million release clause, decent price to pay in today's transfer market imo.

just some thought on the whole Salah hype, he is having a fantastic season, no question. But it's interesting to watch him play and to see the things he does well and not so well. the way Liverpool are playing now, and from watching them earlier this season, Salah is doing a lot of the things that made Ronaldo successful in madrid.

Salah almost completely plays off the ball now, almost in a striker role, with Firmino dropping deeper to have some touches, because he really is not a n9. But Salah on the ball is not this guy that will create chances by beating lines of players, in that way he is miles inferior to someone like Neymar. He has become a monster off the ball and getting into good position in the box, and obviously he is having an amazing season, he cant miss. He doesnt look anything like the player i saw at Roma vs Madrid in CL, making donkey runs on the right.

His tremendous speed and power makes him a problem to deal with. In many ways if i am honest, he reminds me of Bale, who also dominated the EPL when he had space ahead of him. It did not work so well in Madrid, although he still had some success.

Salah game is all about making powerful runs from deep into space and finishing. If i am not mistaking, we already have someone doing that in madrid, even if he is aging. I was having his chat with my mates given that there is a Salah craze, personally i am not so convinced he would fit in with us while producing the same type of impact because i see his game fairly one dimensional and limited. Liverpool are doing an amazing job at leveraging their attackers best qualities all the time and the results in CL are showing that. Teams like City, or spurs who like to dominate possession are exactly what Liverpool loves. Teams like United though, they dont like so much.

there is a lot of similarities between CR x Benzema and Salah x Firmino, credit to the later for raising their level so high. but Firmino for example, i am sure he would play great with CR, but by himself leading the line? the does not even do at Liverpool.

Nick , I’ m really certain on who will go after yet alone who will get. there are now several names floating around.

But I am convinced we are going after two essentailly replacing Benz and Bale. If somehow Bena also leaves, then it will be another to take up the reserve striker spot. But also Ronaldo only has a couple years more so when you say someone isn’t a fit (obviously with Ronaldo) that is a little short sighted.

Is it though? If for example you sign Firmino, to play with CR, i think it will work well because he plays like a false 9, he drops deep, gets on the ball, etc.. he is having a very good season, but if he is without CR then what do you do? are you going to play him as a n9 when that's not what he is good at?

Fit matters, we signed Bale and read everywhere how he would replace Ronaldo, how he would be dominant like he was at spurs, etc... has that really been the case? i dont think so, people look at players in their club, without understanding why they are successful and then imagine they will be as good elsewhere.

I think all the best players have a way of playing specific to them, and if you sign them, then they better fit what you are doing otherwise they will simply not be as good.

you have to think about these things.

Two points.

1. Club is signing two forwards. So how about Salah and Firmino or Icardi?

2. When Bale was signed Ronaldo still had another 6 or 7 seasons in him. Now he has only a couple.

However I think a more likely signing is Martial than Salah.

I would love Salah and Firmino, but I think Salah is definitely out of the question considering he just signed and Liverpool don't need to sell.

I would take Firmino though, has 2 years left on his contract and he's probably in a position to ask to leave.

As for the winger position, Martial is a decent shout, but I have never seen him play on the right.

Now I know this is likely impossible, and we won't know full ramifications but with PSG being in hot water again with FFP, there have been some mutterings about not being able to go through with the Mbappe purchase. Would love me some Mbappe.

What do you think of the Neymar wanting out of Psg? With the FFP issues, they might just let him go?

I ask this since they have FFP issues, would they rather keep Neymar or Mbappe?

i dont know what would happen with FFP and PSG, but if i was a betting man, i would put my money on them being fine. and even if they need to sell, they have other players they can sell to raise money. PSG are certainly not carrying themselves as if they want to sell their biggest assets. It would take some incredible chain of events for them to be in that position

I think when it comes down to it, guys like Hazard whom we stopped talking about, may be the type of player that ends up in Madrid.

Welp, we can probably forget about Firmino now, just signed a new long term contract. Shame.

No chance we buy a new striker for less than 150m. Firmino might have only been our only chance of that (85m release clause apparently- new contract doesn't have a release clause).

doubt PSG would ask that much for Cavani, and the ay he and his agent are talking, PSG are not exactly giving him assurances he will stay or will be offered a long term deal

http://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2018/05/05/5aec9b7d268e3ecd638b457c.html

that sure is a whole lotta nothing.

cant see p$g selling anywho.

I can't really understand why would anybody believe such a poorly-fabricated rumor. Marca is truly insulting everyone's intelligence with this one. There's no way in hell Neymar signs for Madrid this summer or anytime before 2021, and you don't even have to be a master tactician to figure out why:

1. The money factor: Neymar is loyal to nothing but gold and whatever price Madrid throws at him, PSG will beat it.

2. Even if we were to assume he's willing to take a pay-cut to join Madrid, PSG will never sell. They have more money than god and aren't interested in making profit. They wouldn't mind in the slightest letting him go for free at the end of his contract rather than selling him sooner.

3. They went through hell and back to sign him. An entire country rose up behind them to fund the transfer through a sneaky workaround. Now, UEFA is on their trail investigating the transfer like bloodhounds and you think they are going to sell him after going through all that trouble and spending a quarter of a billion on him?

4. PSG, ever since the Qatari takeover, have ceased to be a selling club. The last club who took someone away from them was Madrid when they came for Ancelotti. Other than that, no one has even dared to come after one of their star players.

5. He escaped Barcelona because he was tired of playing second fiddle to Messi. You want him to come to Madrid after that to wrestle with an alpha like Ronaldo with arguably the biggest ego in world football?

6. If Madrid truly were serious about getting Neymar, they would've paid his release clause last summer. Not wait until he signs a 5-year deal with PSG with no release clause and come after him.

I totally understand why many Madrid fans are fantasizing about having him with us. I, for one, was really impressed with his performance against us in the CL. He turned into a beast ever since he quit Barcelona. But unless Florentino holds their president at gunpoint and forces him to sell, there's no way we can get him before his contract expires.

how do you play CR and Neymar together, hypothetically speakin?