El Confidencial reporting R. Madrid has rebought Oscar Mascarell for 4M. It says the plan is for him to replace Llorente on squad. Not sure whether Llorente will be sold or lent out.

They also saying club is thinking of rebuying Raul de Tomas and letting Mayoral leave (or lent).

If we are going the buy-back route why the hell aren't we linked to Mariano ?

My take on these moves is both incumbents were not right for club at least at this time, and whether they are sold, lent or sold with buy back option really doesn’t matter a lot. They are a much different story than Ceballos who still has a potentially huge upside.

Both canteras coming back are older and have a fair amount of top level futbol experience. They obviously are not going to challenge for starter status, but they can provide some backup when needed. I think Mascarell will be more than adequate, but assuming they do bring in at least 1 new scorer, I would prefer the backup striker to be more of a challenge for starter.

Valkyrja wrote:If we are going the buy-back route why the hell aren't we linked to Mariano ?

I don’t think we have a buy back option for Mariano.

replacing castilla scrubs with more castilla scrubs, sounds like a plan

Anyway it will be interesting to see whether we keep Kovacic or not, that's the main change I am expecting.

I doubt it Nick. These kids have been long rumoured to be going elsewhere. Kind of good to start getting these out of way. By the way it diesn’t Necessarily mean the canteras coming back are coming as replacements. It can be more of return and sell. Both of them have a higher value that what buy back price is. In reality they are pawns in this chess game.

Look next for movement of Achraf (might wait a bit to see how he does in WC. It still isn’t clear on Vallejo and Theo.

I wouldn't be surprised if we did nada in this mercato. This club never ceases to surprise

Mr Nick09 wrote:Anyway it will be interesting to see whether we keep Kovacic or not, that's the main change I am expecting.

Highly unlikely this time. They know they screwed up big time last summer by not doing anything and that their attack is in desperate need of major overhaul.

Madrid will go for the hunt this summer, regardless of whether they win the CL or not.

We must be very smart, i hope Perez is very astute this summer.

We have an opportunity to offload Ronaldo and/or Bale, i think it would be great if we could sell them and start looking towards the future with good purchases. Mbappe and Salah for example. Maybe Ronaldo is being a diva again for a pay raise, but he can fck off to PSG for what it's worth imo.

Bale i think is serious, and if Zidane really doesn't like him, then it's time to

We still need signings. We can't afford another league season like this neither can we hope to turn it off and on in ucl's all the time. Which I really didn't think we could do.....i was spook wrong. But let's not risk it again

both Bale and CR hinting they want to go

Ronaldo always does this in contract negotiations... nothing new.

but the reaction of zidane is telling.

Zidane about CR: we have to keep him no matter what

Zidane about Bale: we understand he wants more time

it's clear who is leaving

Bale Zidane saying thank you and good bye loooooool.

The fact that Zidane sat Bale in his jump in form and then also mentioned in the press conference that things will not change in regards to player rotations makes me happy about the possibility of Bale leaving. If Bale wants to play week in week out and get his ass kissed by media then go to Man U.

This transfer window is such a question mark. We have a lot of older, complacent players, but we also just won the CL with those older complacent players. Will Zidane continue to trust the old guard? Then there is the WC that throws even more question marks on the situation.

If Zidane is committed to keeping the old guard around, there needs to be a few stipulations-

1] We need a player to compete with Benz (take over obviously but if Benz is happy with staying then I think it is fine).

2] Put more confidence in Asensio (in particular) and the other role players like he did last season. Last season we greatly utilized the bench, now it is just Lucas, Asensio, Nacho.

3] Bring in a proper 3rd CB who doesn't have serious injury issues.

Personally I would cash in on some of these older players and just start a rebuild project, but I can see how some of the higher-ups would again confirm their thinking that this squad can continue to win CL, which is clearly what they want.

Our priority for next season should be Zidane getting an assistant coach with great tactical prowess in setting up teams. Zidane will take care of the motivating, the press talk and the voodoo stuff and we'll be golden.

Zees wrote:Our priority for next season should be Zidane getting an assistant coach with great tactical prowess in setting up teams. Zidane will take care of the motivating, the press talk and the voodoo stuff and we'll be golden.

if you're getting such a person, why is such a person not a coach? the coach chooses who he wants as his assistants. you might as well fire the coach if you're hiring an assistant when the coach hasn't asked for one , and telling the coach that he should only be giving speeches. you might as well hire the so called tactical prowess guy (who doesn't have a head coaching job) to be your coach , and fire zidane, then re-hire him to be the team's psychologist . we just need players and proper depth.....not castilla scrubs as back ups

humm not true, remember when Rijkaard resurrected barca? he had a master assistant coach doing all the tactics. Likewise when Blanc took over PSG and they started playing positional football. It's an odd thing that happens in footy

I saw a recent documentary on Zidane that explains the close ties he has with Betonni since youth days so we might not see Zidane parting ways with him. In any case, i hope Zidane keeps improving as a manager, buys who we need, and sets up a team and motivates them to win La Liga. We need to keep being the Kings of Spain.

zero chance Bettoni is let go by ZZ... none. And why should he? Explain to me why we should change the coaching staff after winning 3 CLs in a row and a La Liga in 2.5 years.

Mr Nick09 wrote:humm not true, remember when Rijkaard resurrected barca? he had a master assistant coach doing all the tactics. Likewise when Blanc took over PSG and they started playing positional football. It's an odd thing that happens in footy

the club didn't impose those coaches on them. to come to your coach and tell the coach "hey you're good but we'll give you this assistant" is ludicrous, especially in football. you might as well fire the coach, any coach with pride won't stand for that. its different in a sport like basketball or nfl where there are offensive and defensive sets.

and btw rijkaard's so called great asst. coach did little of note when he left, to be a first team coach,(can't remember if it was celtics or ajax he went to, but we heard nothing from him) just as rijkaard did nothing after leaving

That's a good point and maybe someone can clarify. I don't know much about David Bettoni, but he is not "technically" the assistant coach is he?

He is just part of the coaching staff, but has all the responsibility of an assistant, without the title