Agreed I hope he doesn’t leave but contract ending in 2022 and no contract talks. He may want to be somewhere else or they have already agreed to discuss contract renewals at a later date.

Varane’s renewal is a must, as he along with Casemiro are the only elite players we have at the right age (27-28) and starters for the next 4+ seasons

It is being reported that Alaba move to Madrid has already been agreed! Nick also mentioned it in another thread.

If this is true and with ongoing negotiations with Ramos now coming into news, it sounds to me like club is covering all basis re future CBs. Also considered the interest in Pau Torres.

I believe there is more noise than anything in Ramos’ situation, mostly coming from his brother. Reality is there is a good relationship between Ramos and club and the main issue (as was the case previously with Pepe) is length of contract. End of day, I believe Ramos will be renewed.

The interesting thing is no talk or action re Varane. Could it be, club is considering letting him go or is the Alaba move just to apply pressure.

The other reality, that I mentioned in another thread some time ago, is perhaps all 4 CBs may have to be replaced in next couple of years. In addition to Ramos’ age and Varane’s missteps, Nacho is fast approaching retirement age and jury is still out on Militao’s capabilities. Signing a versatile CB / fullback like Alaba can easily be accommodated on this team,, while they begin to deal with defense renovation.

I do think Varane deserves a pay raise, when you consider what he was won with the club and country and his consistent performances. However I don't think its about money tbh, its likely that he wants to a new experience elsewhere as nick said and you cant blame him for that. If that's the case we have to sell to the highest bidder.

As per Ramos he has rejected our offers of either a one year extension or 2 year extension with 10 percent cut. Its not looking good. Same with Vazquez he also rejected.

So right now we are looking at a very plausible scenario where we are losing our 2 starter CBs. In my opinion, there are no defenders that can adequately replace these two. Alaba and Pau Torres are good defenders but definitely not on Ramos/Varane level.

If it were up to me I would extend varane with a pay raise, for he is still in his prime years and has about 5 years or more at the top level. If Ramos still doesn't renew, then Alaba and Pau Torres should be signed. There's also Militao but Zidane is losing confidence in him he can't start over Nacho

Perucho, you do realize in that in any negotiations, there is posturing! Don’t get sucked into the daily statements.

Why would Ramos want to leave the club he ‘rules’ and is already at legendary status? Similarly, why would club let go, their legendary captain who play and leadership can not be replaced? We will see more posturing, but at end of day, they will reach a deal, IMO. Also, the 10% salary reduction is covid related.

Varane is a different issue. It doesn’t appear as if there are any discussion from either side. For starter, the club isn’t too anxious to have any negotiations at this point in season. There weren’t going to be any with Lucas for example until his recent play. So the details you are referring to either are in the past or they are initial posturing positions.

Also keep in mind
1) our primary need is forward positions and certainly transfer budget will be focused on that position.

2) there is no need to redo the entire CBs in a single year. We have 2 to 3 years to do this.

3) this current season is largely about evaluations, particularly in this case re Militao.

Taking on Alaba, a free transfer and especially one with versatility is a good move plus doesn’t necessarily mean any one of current CBs have to leave.

What do you guys think of Dejan Kulusevski as a possible right winger for Real Madrid.

I think he is really talented and his energy and speed suits Real Madrid style of play.

He may be unpolished right now. But he can be a long term player. Juventus have a really good player in him.

Cyborg wrote:What do you guys think of Dejan Kulusevski as a possible right winger for Real Madrid.

I think he is really talented and his energy and speed suits Real Madrid style of play.

He may be unpolished right now. But he can be a long term player. Juventus have a really good player in him.

I know absolutely nothing about him, other than that he's Swedish. I don't suppose we'll snap him up while he's still wet behind the ears, though. We already have more young prospects in our ranks than most other teams do. Right now, I think we need someone who's closer to the finished product. A consistent performer would be preferable.

Yeah enough with kids now, pretty much all that we have signed have flopped to some extents or need more time to be polished. It was a smart tactic to sign a bunch of talented young players but it’s a bigger gamble than signing more confirmed professionals. Not to mention that the competition and the demands at Madrid makes it difficult for them to succeed.

In part this is why I don’t want us to sign Camavinga. He is an very good young player but he is very unpolished and I will be shocked if he becomes a world beater for us within 1-2 years, which is what we need in midfield today.

I wish we had a more defined plan for developing and integrating these kids. Casemiro was loaned out, returned a much better player than he was when he joined us. Ødegaard went through several loans, and probably should've continued out on a loan considering he's only recently turned 22 and is already showing signs of possibly being career threateningly, injury prone.

I think he would've benefited from playing alongside the likes of David Silva, and I believe it would be better to supervise his development and injury situation from a distance, rather than as a developing youngster who's also expected to live up to our standards. We never needed another player in development in our ranks. A quick look at his profile tells you that he's had niggling injury problems, and that's by no means an indication that it would be a good time to bring him back.

Loan moves have traditionally benefited us. Piling pressure on youngsters who are expected to have instant impact for us, has not - nor do I think it has a positive effect on their development. I don't know about you guys, but I think this new transfer policy of ours has been a bit all over the place. It was expected that it involved some degree of risk, but making teenagers an integral part of the team, always seemed oddly naïve to me.

There are many teenagers out there who have the talent to succeed at bigger clubs, but hardly anyone have the mental fortitude to withstand the pressure and motivate themselves to adapt and perform consistently in the face of both the criticism and adversity that comes with playing for an assumed elite, top team.

His passing is better than all the wide players in the squad bar Hazard

Not much good right sided players at the moment.

Son and Mbappe maybe. But I don't know if they will do a job defensively as well.

But for Zidane's current system, who are the experienced players that can be signed??

Unless you're willing to pay buckets there isn't anyone.

We had plenty of opportunities to sign more experienced players in a more stable market, as well as a younger Hazard, but we explored other options. The way I see it, we're looking at the early results of that change in transfer policy. Securing talented youngsters is one thing, but we did so at the expense of strengthening our immediate squad. And again, I don't think it's good for their development to slot them into the team this early. I can't predict what would've happened to the likes of Mariano and Jovic, had they stayed at their respective clubs, but I'm sure it would've been better for their confidence and self-esteem

So David Alaba seems to be coming. And it doesn't look like it's a negotiating tactic to force Ramos to reduce his demands for a two year contract.

I'm in two minds about Alaba. I don't watch Bundesliga, so I can't judge his recent performances.

But I know he is very versatile. Can play centre back, as a defensive midfielder and also at left back.

With Nacho getting older and Militao lacking game time to improve as a young defender. He seems like a great free agent signing.

I just hope that Ramos is not shown the door. I think the two can coexist.

Ramos and Varane need a competent backup. But would Alaba come to be back up for them or even Casemiro?

In the case that no-one leaves, I can see Alaba be the starting LB, as well as backup CB and Backup DM. In addition, if Varane continues his slip ups, he may well be Ramos’ partner.

Casemiro is so useless at times during these games.

Maybe I'm not seeing his importance to the team. But sometimes I wish Zidane will sub him off when Madrid are chasing the game.

Casemiro offers nothing in attack. His passing is God awful, his control is atrocious. Put Kroos in there at times.

Kroos isn't as defensive, but look at Xabi Alonso. He wasn't super defensive but he dominated when he had good workers around him.

According to Marca, Madrid have contacted Rennes for Camavinga.

If this is true, I hope the kid turns them down.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:According to Marca, Madrid have contacted Rennes for Camavinga.

If this is true, I hope the kid turns them down.

lmaooo I hate how this is probably in his best interest. Him being French will help his playing time though

Lmao, Camavinga is nice but I don’t like his skill set.

It’s funny how our team biggest strength (Casemiro, Kroos, Modric) in terms of controlling games, is also our biggest weakness in terms of creating chances. Things just compound when our wing play is non existant.

Camavinga will not help that aspect in any way, but at least he is the right profile in terms of signing, providing he plays

I wonder what is happening? What started out as a fairly reasonable plan in the Covid crisis has literally been torn apart.

The plan WAS to go with what we had, sending only a few of the more promising youth out for development on loans and for everyone on squad to undergo a season long evaluations, determining who should stay and what holes needed to be filled.

Seems like most are failing to make that impression, counting at this point in the
"dismiss" category - Isco, Jovic, Odegaard
"just a question of time to dismiss" category - Hazard, Asensio, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Odriozola, Militao, and Marcelo
and the "renew or not" category - Ramos, Varane, Lucas

plus word is most of the loanees are not advancing leaving possible sales of Ceballos, Reguilion, Brahim (also in this list re possible sales Bale and Vallejo)
which leaves only Kubo and Reiner, although neither of them are doing well either.

Disaster is the only way to explain this. Now it seems like a complete overall may be needed and for sure there are not funds available to do anything more than 1 star player.

How can club (or maybe it's just Zidane) be so wrong with so many youth!! The odds were all of them wouldn't make it, but surely we should have expected some of them to come thru???

I understand your frustration, but I honestly don't share your sense of surprise here because it was fairly obvious from the get-go that his policy was doomed to fail eventually.

I mean, It was really, really, really easy to see the writings on the wall and the landscape changing, even in 2018.

Honestly, Ceballos, Brahim and Reguilon could be rotated as starters if they were at Madrid.

The team needs quality players to rotate.

Can't just have a starting eleven and that's it.

So many talented players. Players who want to succeed at the club. Many of them are talented enough to start as well.

It’s a legit article, you can believe the source if you want but the writer of that article is not someone that is known to have great sources. The club has financial issues, like every club at the moment that’s normal.

If you read Jose Felix Diaz his tone is not the same and he has got better club sources so I would not worry about that too much for now

Every club is in a financial crisis due to CoVid, one of the main sources of income for every club has been completely absent for almost a year now.
You will notice that big money transfers were absent last summer, Pogba to Juve didn't happen, Sancho to Utd didn't happen, because the big clubs are literally missing out 100 million+ in income.

Chelsea is the proverbial exception proving the rule since they explicitly decided to pounce on the lack of competition spending power and with sugar daddy money secure big money trasnfers for targets that else would have had other, more attractive offers.

It's amazing how us fans (me included) somehow expect business to continue as usual in our clubs, when it's clear everyone's getting messed up badly at the moment with consequences to all areas of operation, and of life.

Things are so bad that Inter have not even been able to make the first payment for Achraf lol

No problem, our manager already has Carvajal and Lucas Vazquez.

Hakimi for sure isn't good enough for our manager who's doing a wonderful job, both short and long-term.