Transfer Rumours | Tactics | Who to buy/sell etc

The way the football market has gone, you need a tremendous amount of luck to replace any top player you lose due to age or transfer out, with a player of the same quality without making a loss.

I give you a simple example: Modric. The club would love nothing more than to sign another "modric" for 45 mil as we did 6 years ago. But in this market, impossible, unless the guy has a year left on his deal. For a guy like Eriksen, Spurs are asking over 150 millions. How do you for sure identify the next Modric if you are not already looking at a confirmed player? clubs now just price up everyone.

you HAVE TO make gambles on young talents you allow to grow.

Ronaldo left and the only potentially available "star" (who isnt even half as decisive) was Hazard, and we would have had to break the transfer ceiling at over 222 millions to get him. Neymar and Mbappe were not available. If and when they will be, their price will be closer to 300 mil if anything.

We will soon need a CB to replace Ramos, should we go to the market and spend 75 millions on a player like Van Dijk?

This is an unsustainable way of looking at things, and i really wonder whether you even care about these things because all do is ask for top signings. But like who? and and what cost? You keep asking for top players but you never name anyone. You have to say it clearly, like "I want madrid to break the bank for Hazard" so we know where you stand.

To be sustainable long term you have to make gambles on young talents and seize opportunities wherever you can take them. Maybe if Hazad doesnt renew, with one year left on his deal, chelsea has less leverage and has to sell for a lot less. You have to look at a player like Rabiot who is not renewing his deal with PSG and pounce hard. Alderweireld might be in the same situation, etc... this is the new market reality, you sink or you swim. It seems as though you are stuck with the mindset madrid fans had in the 2000s when we started signing Galacticos, as if we could get anyone at anytime (and it wasn't even true back then).

There was a time that we could sign every superstar there was. Figo, R9, Zidane, Beckham, CR7, Kaka etc....

but right now there are clubs like United, City, PSG and Barcelona who could easily outspend us. This is not 2005. we need to learn to cope. and i think the club are doing that.

We will buy a superstar but it's not like few years ago. we can't pick whoever we want. we need to understand there are now some players that we can't afford.

Spending 90 million on Vini's+Rodrygo's is a better deal than spending 80 million on that average Valencia striker.

you also have to remember that we signed those who really wanted to come to madrid, and at top price at the time.

There were players like Henry, Vieira, Gerrard, Totti, De Rossi that we tried signing and could not. I forget a lot of names too but we have selective memories as with everything.

So the rhetoric that we could sign anyone is not even true...

I suppose Courtois is an unproven youth. Signing a big number of promising youth's doesn't mean that the club's policy has changed to only focus on that segment of the market. It would be foolish not to recruit a huge number of promising youths given that most of them likely won't amount to the superstars we want, but they will turn into decent enough players to recoup the initial outlay, and those who do make it will more than make up for those who don't. It's a simple strategy of spreading risk. When big players become available, if there's a need for them, the club will be there, but we're also not going to go out and recruit a huge player for every player who ages or leaves. That's what leads to players like Kovacic leaving. It's what leads to high potential players like Ceballos becoming disillusioned. You to back the players who show they're worth backing, and supplement where reason says you should. Should any huge player become available/suggestively available, Madrid will be there, as we always have.

The lack of available world-class players is the result of poor planning on Madrid's part and you know it. In this market, you blink and you lose a transfer race.

You know as well as I that the only reason Mbappé didn't sign for Madrid was because Florentino didn't guarantee him regular playing time because of the BBC. The price tag wasn't the issue because he offered the same amount of PSG (180m). Then a year later, Ronaldo left and we ended up with nothing. Then you have Icardi who had a relatively affordable release clause and who was delivering decent numbers with mediocre service. Ignored. Those two alone would've immensely strengthened the squad.

You're claiming that the reason we're going after youngsters is because the market has gone crazy. Fair game, but let me remind you that it hasn't just gotten crazy for Madrid, it's the same for everybody. However, and unlike us, the rest didn't let that daunting fact scare them into changing their entire transfer policy. You don't even have to look further than Barcelona to see this. They signed Coutinho and Dembelé for obscene amounts. Do those two deserve those price tags? No, but Barcelona understood that if they truly wanted to stay competitive, they would have to feed directly from the very top of the food chain. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm more inclined to believe that Dembélé has a more decent chance of becoming a world beater than Vinicius does. And they were also being linked to Griezmann and Pogba not too long ago.

In case you haven't noticed it yet, Barcelona now have a more solid bench than we do. Not too long ago, they didn't even have a bench and we had the strongest bench in Europe. But things change, I guess.

Every year we say that 60 mil was stupid (Cavani and Falcao at the time), then Bale was crazy at 100 mil, then Pogba at 110 mil...  and now Neymar has gone for 250 and Mbappe for 180.  You can't touch a young star for less than 150.

Do any of you really think the market is going down?  Has it EVER gone down?

CBs and keepers cost 50+ nowadays.  With the EPL media deals, nothing is going down for 10 years and will likely go up.

So here's the deal... is Madrid now a mid table team?  Because we're spending like one.  Atleti outspend us ffs.  ATLETI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bale is the last big bang we made on the market.

I am arguing that we have long have a policy to sign young players, this is nothing new and i can go back in time and find you numerous examples. Just as we have also signed stars when they were available such as Ronaldo, who took two years to get to Madrid because Fergie said no the first summer we went for him.

As for Mbappe, PSG were offering 17 mil net + guarantee starter spot vs us i think we were at 12 mil with no guarantee spot. Hindsight is undefeated, but you are essentially arguing that after 1 year in Monaco (or rather 6 incredible month) the club should have broken the wage structure of a team 3 times CL champions, paid Mbappe more than anyone not named Ronaldo (so way more than Modric, Ramos, Bale, Kroos, Benzema, Marcelo, etc...) and benched CL champions for Mbappe? is this a serious argument? The summer we went for Mbappe, you could not have made this argument with the data we had at the time. Now Mbappe is rocketing as a superstar so it's easier to say "we should have". If he had flopped the world cup you would not be making this point.

I dont think Icardi is anything special, so i can't blame this club for not spending 110 millions on him.

Barca signed both Dembele and Coutinho is desperation lmao, i can't even believe you are using those two signings to argue we should spend like them. There was absolutely no reason to do that. Barcelona have Messi, that's about all there is to say about them. But i wish them to win 2 CLs in a row like us, if they can lol

No but seriously, i am not here to talk about barca and their signings, we are in the summer 2018, Ronaldo and his cockroach of an agent decides they want to go because they clearly realize they can't bully us anymore and their money laundering schemes are being busted in Spain. who do you think we should have signed? because throwing a hindsight argument like "we should have signed Mbappe" here doesnt work

We don't have a long term policy of signing young players unless they were hyped and WC in the making. The other kids were footnotes... even the ones that became stars eventually.

Kind of an awful argument to say that the kids we signed were footnotes, even when they become stars. It's pretty bad actually. We sign young players with pedigree, not complete nobodies to hope we can turn them into stars. Whether they shined in the world cup or otherwise.

We are not going to sign Portu from Girona and hope that he turns into Vicente 2.0 this is not what we do, we leave that to clubs like Sevilla.

Is this supposed to be criticism against how we sign players? i hope not.

Yeah not really understanding that line of reasoning sports. Are you saying it’s a bad thing to sign young players who have good prospects of becoming WC?

Because they put the Vinicius transfer this year, Transfermarkt says Madrid spent 131 mil while Atleti spent 111 mil. Take that as you will.

madrid and every big club have always either signed young talents or have been linked with young talent. that's just the way it has been. i welcome signing young talent if you know how to manage them, but if signing star players for huge prices is a concern, signing on the basis of potential for 45 million should also be a concern. imo its practically the same move. but you need both; it shouldn't be one or the other, but it should be done smartly....i don't think anyone else was bidding for vinicius, for us to have paid that huge amount

If anything, i am wary we keep getting linked with young brazilians, we should have great scouts in netherlands, germany, italy, etc, but we've mostly gotten only spanish or south american youth recently. I think the Juni Calafat fella held accountable for Rodrygo and Vinicius was also responsible for the purchase of that disaster of a player whos name i cant even remember...

Lucas Silva...

Vinicius i think lacks a bit of more pace but he has good technique, agility, etc, and Rodrygo has yet to impress me from the full match highlights ive seen of him.

Well the latest rumour is Luis Rodriquez, from Uruguay. So MTO, maybe they are listening to you (lol).

He’s a CM, age 21 and apparently called La Puma.

I think it's a shit policy...  do you know what our track record is for signing teenagers (or developing them for that matter) and have them turn into anything let alone WC?  It's not very positive.

The list of sorrow over these kids just in the 2010s is very long.

So if the policy is that we're going to solely rely on gambles (that's what they are), then I think Flo has finally gone crazy. Don't mind having known quantities signed AND THEN gamble on kids. But kids alone???

That said, what we do next summer will be greatly telling.

And if it had been done your way, we would have signed your two french hyped players, broken all records re signings except Neymar, and greatly overpaid their salaries and have all of the guys that won us the three CLs upset that they are not paid enough, most of them likely demanding to leave!

I agree with sports. Basing your entire transfer strategy Around kids is borderline insane and rarely ever bears fruits.

Signing established players is vital to staying competitive at the highest level. Madrid of all clubs should know that.

sportsczy wrote:I think it's a shit policy...  do you know what our track record is for signing teenagers (or developing them for that matter) and have them turn into anything let alone WC?  It's not very positive.

The list of sorrow over these kids just in the 2010s is very long.

So if the policy is that we're going to solely rely on gambles (that's what they are), then I think Flo has finally gone crazy.  Don't mind having known quantities signed AND THEN gamble on kids.  But kids alone???

That said, what we do next summer will be greatly telling.

I don't think anyone's suggested that the sole focus should be kids. The only reason that there have mainly been kids is the lack of viable stars/superstars. Our core squad are known quantities, and there hasn't really been room for more, barring the front three. When Mbappe was available, there were no clear signs of a short-term opening, or that the guarantees/package he wanted were/was justified.

Next Summer, Benzema is in the thick of the natural end of a top player's peak career, so it's likely the club will look more seriously into replacing him. If Bale doesn't step up as the media has painted him to be (ie. the team's marquee, + actually being available), he'll likely also be replaced. He's also approaching the same stage Benzema will be in next Summer, which just strengthens the need for a future replacement. Depending on how the next 2-3 seasons go, anyone from Vinicius to Asensio could be that replacement, even Hazard.

This Summer, there were no viable candidates, planning or not. Planning would have entailed bringing a top-level striker into a team where Ronaldo dictated how that player got used, which would have been a problem for any even remotely available top talent. Either way, not investing in youth just means you're going to be investing in them at the hundreds of millions level instead. As with all things, it's about balance, and spreading risk.

Since when splashing cash equal winning? Pretty sure the club belief in the core is what brought success, not spending 300 mill every summer like fans wanted weak argument.

If the club wants to take a step back and servey the landscape, looking for proper value than being pressured by numpties to buy the likes of hazard and pogba for 150+ mill for style points, no thanks I like the approach from the club is taking keep buying talented youngsters to be the future core and splash when they see a bale or a modric running at a spurs or wherever, anyway it's easy to see what really bothering certain poster about this approach.... Cavani for 100mil do it now cause Cavani didn't blow a 5-0 lead lmao.

Lol at that vinicius dig, cause he didn't play in shitty ligue 1 he is not good enough? so funny coming from someone who has raved about countless young French scrubs who are atlethic beasts that suck ass and hardly ever make it to elite teams, tell me how many of saw quality in someone like casemiro? no one did, cause he wasn't some superhype pleb like pogba, then goes on to be a lynch pin in a dynastic team, lmao get off your high horse already.

We are not basing our entire transfer policy around kids though, we are also ready and open to sign top players, but not for ridiculous prices.

If Neymar or Mbappe were available last summer we would have signed them. we have enough money in the bank to make that kind of transfer but we wont spend 200 mil on players like Hazard or Eriksen, just because we need top signings lol

we just came from winning 4 CLs in 5 years, you guys make it sound like this very same model has not been successful and our last trophy was in 2005. Care to look at how that team was built? only bale and CR were mega signings, the rest? footnotes: casemiro, carvajal, nacho, varane, marcelo, ramos, asensio, vasquez.

I think we might need to make more footnote signings lol

Also, just because you spend a lot of money on a player, does that mean it's a guarantee success anyway...

Honestly, while I'm not accustomed to this prudent version of Madrid, I get it. Hell, I kinda like it. We're not really prudent either, we just can't buy other clubs' starters easily. Unless there is a release clause or they are a legit smaller club, it's gonna be a difficult signing.

With respect to Mbappe and the time he could have ended up a Madrid player, I've always maintained that both parties had a legit point. Madrid was well within their rights to not make a then 18/19 year old one of their top paid players after, what, 6,7,8 months of good football while Mbappe's peeps wanted to make sure homie got compensated nicely. Not like we suffered, 3 CL in a row, that shit makes everything else seem like hogwash.

I still maintain we would be fine.

You know what so funny to me is that some of you spend so much time lying and making shit up just to trash the guy, over and over writing ridiculous posts just to discredit him solely out of the entire, now is the perfect opportunity to see if benzema can lead the team or not with no cr, a lot of real Madrid all over internet are so salty cause they know damn well benzema is an elite cf that been under utilized for years, so cr can sell shirts for scoring meaningless hattrick,but instead of being honest and acknowledge this, nope benzema hides behind the great cr cause he is scared to take responsibility for the team lmao, no one on the team sacrificed more than him, if I kept harping on such nonsense I would be terrified of benzema having a great season too,and ask for an old cavani who has never won anything of note, misses a lot of big chances in big games for ridiculous amount of money, cowardly fanbase that can't face their arguments head on, I hope benzema scores 40 just to see how much lies gonna come spilling out.

Now now, Benzema scoring 4 goals in 3 games, does not make his past two mediocre seasons disappear like magic. He was incredibly submissive over the years and he never fulfilled his potential in madrid playing with CR. I would say that we were right to criticize him, specially when he enjoyed an unparalleled amount of protection in Madrid from Perez and Zidane, in spite of his performances which, as i mentioned, were downright mediocre in the past 2 seasons. He blatantly ran away from responsibility at times when if he had fulfilled his potential, he could have become with CR, a terrifying 1-2 combo.

Now, this is a new season, a new chance for him to revitalize his name and legacy in Madrid. He has started well, and we all wish him to do well, there is no reason not too. We are Madrid fans first and foremost, so the more successful he is, the more successful we will be as a club as well. This is not Benzema Clube de Futebol.

If he does indeed have a 40 goals season or what not, we will rate it for what it is, with the context of the season, with his ability to score in deadlock games vs elite opposition, in CL knock outs etc... The past won't disappear, but this is a chance to change the narrative of his legacy in Madrid.

Where did this narrative of Benz not scoring because of CR even come from? they had a great partnership with both scoring tons of goals for several seasons before 2016. Also CR had been absent a lot the past few seasons due to injuries/rotations/suspensions and Benz was hardly lighting it up in his absence. Just last season he had 2 goals and 2 assists in 13 apps w/o Ronaldo on the field.

Positionally and in terms of touches, Benzema has been getting a lot more involved this season (and so has Bale).  I mean nobody is going to deny that CR was a volume player.  Psychologically, it makes a big difference when your role is to be the top scorer as opposed to a secondary one.

If Benzema puts a monster season together, then the CR narrative will have a lot of legs.  If he doesn't, then it was an invalid argument.  It's all on him to justify himself.

That theory wont stand because we all saw Benzema having successful seasons in Madrid, scoring 30 goals in the season or so. And right when we expected him to make a leap, his production dropped off massively.