I'd sign Saul from Atleti

What an offseason this has turned out to be. A number of past statements from Perez (for which he has been ridiculed) are turning out to be correct!!

From a squad list for this coming season, there are two main deals club is now trying to execute. Sale of Isco and purchase of Mbappe. Both now in realm of possibility with Messi likely heading to PSG.

In order to get squad numbers in line, they are not counting on Ceballos, Jovic and Mariano. There has been no mention of Odriozola and Vallejo, which is a bit of surprise. Vallejo may make it as 4th CB (it looks like it either him or Chust), Odriozola is actual 3rd RB!!

so it looks like squad list will be
Courtois, Lunin; Carvajal, Lucas, Odriozola, Militao, Alaba, Nacho, Vallejo, Mendy, Marcelo; Casemiro, Kroos, Modric, Valverde, Odegaard, possibly Blanco; Bale, Hazard, Benzema, Mbappe, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Asensio. (that's a squad of 24 (counting Blanco) plus 1 for practice GK).

Who's buying Isco then?

Hapless_Hans wrote:Who's buying Isco then?

This is a Madrid section! Trolls aren’t welcome here. But since you asked, any one of the Italians would be interested. The question IMO isn’t who, but rather how much, especially in today’s market and with the state of finances in Italy and elsewhere. I think 30+ would be realistic.

Listen, I have seen many things that go against any form of logic happen in recent years with transfers, and so I'm not going to rule out completely the possibility of Mbappé coming (even though I feel that the only way PSG would let him walk is if their plan to get Messi without breaching FFP falls through and they are forced to free a big salary from the already existing roster).

But objectively speaking, why on earth would Mbappé leave a project that has Ramos, Neymar, Donna, Navas, Di Maria and possibly Messi and join a struggling project that has Numpticius, Asensio and Vallejo?

If it's the CL that he's after, PSG is way closer to winning it than Madrid is.
If it's money, the two clubs are like night and day in terms of spending power.

The only two reasons I can think of that would see him drop their project and join us are maybe:

1. the prestige that comes with wearing the shirt of Madrid.
2. If Madrid happens to be his favorite football club.

Other than that, I honestly fail to see or even understand why would he drop PSG and join Madrid.

Don't get me wrong, I know that Madrid will go back to being very strong financially after the pandemic and after the fans are allowed back into the stadium and latter gets fully renovated. But as things stand right now, Spain is no longer the strongest league in Europe, and if the CL is your goal, you won't win it playing here.

Once again, I'm not ruling out the possibility of him coming completely. I'm just struggling to understand the reason behind it.

How is PSG closer? I mean, both clubs made it to the semis last season. One had apparently had such an inferior side and the other had Neymar, Mbappe and Poch.

And I would mention again, you don't need Mbappe or Haaland to win titles, you really really really do not.

Closer on paper, definitely. You have one side that spends an obscene amount of money every year to sign the best players on the market and then you have another that was forced to change their transfer policy because they couldn't keep up with the inflation, and is riding on the last legs of an incredible generation that were bought back when the club was strong financially and had an ambitious transfer policy.

Closer in the sense that they are improving their squad every year. Every year they focus on a specific position to improve, and their goal is clearly to have an elite player in every position. So they may not win the CL next year or the year after, but it's only a matter of time at this point. They are basically acting exactly like Florentino used to from 2009-2013. He kept improving the squad every year until he finally built a dream team that conquered Europe for so many years and reached the semis for 9 straight years.

In the meantime, Madrid is replacing their former legends with kids, thus deteriorating the squad every year. So for every Ronaldo, Ramos, Varane, Kroos, Modric, Benzema, Marcelo we let go or will let go, you can be certain Madrid will not bring elite replacements. We already saw this with the legends who left in recent years and the sort of players we replaced them with.

Because results are the only thing we can really gauge on to compare, both made the CL semis, both didn't exactly do much domestically and we are currently in pre-season. It does look like PSG is the better team but again, they always look like the better team...until they lose to a better team.

But I suppose it's "safer" to say things like that since Madrid isn't exactly improving their side.

We should play this game with cool heads. We get the timings right and we get a bunch of players for at most 100ME next summer and shed a bunch of players from this bloated squad

PSG get injury riddled Ramos and big game flop Messi for two seasons while we can potentially get Mbappe, Haaland and Camavinga for peanuts next summer

I have one more season of suffering in me if we can force out these overpaid squad players and signing these hungry young guys.

We are not in crisis even if I'd mortgage my house to get better goalscorers but wr have to be realistic Haaland and Mbappe have done nothing to show they are worth the prices quoted. I hope with Covid Perez doesn't go all bonkers spending money when we can get half of Europe's footballers for free from January.

Surely we've learnt our lesson after winni the puh debacle

messi at psg, could determine mbappe's future. if mbappe enjoys what he finds there with those front 3 clicking, i could see him renew his deal with psg. oh and they still have di maria who can slot in central mid; guys like mbappe want to play interesting fast flowing football; if he gets that at psg he'll sign a new contract and may consider leaving when those dudes get older in a couple years time. right now put being a fan aside, and look at reality, if u're mbappe what situation seems more attractive? obviously that can change over the course of a season, but right now, with no football being played yet, what looks more attractive?

if flo really wants the dude not to sign, u have to convince him u got other things in the works, and other moves being made for super talent....cos dude's gonna ask "i'm leaving neymar messi donu to play with who exactly? and how much are you gonna match the wages psg are offering me? because i know thats a concern and ure league has that salary cap. and if i do show up, will you even be able to afford other stars"?

i'm telling y'all, me personally i'm out on this deal, i dont see it happening until he gets old and injury prone at like 32. i repeat the time to have done everything to sign and convince him regardless of what he thought, was at monaco.....once psg got him, we lost em. i dont see the haaland deal happening either. cards just arent in our favor, we might end up with this same squad till they're 40, unless we start thinking outside the box for transfers with a technical director

titosantill wrote:...unless we start thinking outside the box for transfers with a technical director

Not disregarding what you wrote Tito as I actually am in agreements but I honestly would support this sort of thinking.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:Closer on paper, definitely. You have one side that spends an obscene amount of money every year to sign the best players on the market and then you have another that was forced to change their transfer policy because they couldn't keep up with the inflation, and is riding on the last legs of an incredible generation that were bought back when the club was strong financially and had an ambitious transfer policy.

Closer in the sense that they are improving their squad every year. Every year they focus on a specific position to improve, and their goal is clearly to have an elite player in every position. So they may not win the CL next year or the year after, but it's only a matter of time at this point. They are basically acting exactly like Florentino used to from 2009-2013. He kept improving the squad every year until he finally built a dream team that conquered Europe for so many years and reached the semis for 9 straight years.

In the meantime, Madrid is replacing their former legends with kids, thus deteriorating the squad every year. So for every Ronaldo, Ramos, Varane, Kroos, Modric, Benzema, Marcelo we let go or will let go, you can be certain Madrid will not bring elite replacements. We already saw this with the legends who left in recent years and the sort of players we replaced them with.

You  really don’t understand club financials at all! As Perez said when Ronaldo left and Laporte said yesterday, no club can have one player bigger than club. You simply can’t pay the player or players more than your income. It is not sustainable. That is the reason Ronaldo was let go, as the last increase he was seeking would have put club in that same position that Messi put Barcelona in. By the way, it isn’t on the player, it’s the club that allowed in (and thus no sympathy for Barcelona). Do you really think PSG can sustain this; 40M for Messi, 35M for Neymar, something similar for Mbappe, 15M for Ramos, etc etc. and we are talking about after tax salaries. As you said in other thread, that Messi salary will actually cost PSG 75M!

Sports likes to compare the galatico era at Madrid to PSG expenditures, however there is one huge difference that is being ignored. Yes Perez did outbid for them as PSG has mostly done, in terms of transfer fees, but they were within the clubs financial capabilities of capital funding, whereas PSG operates under state funding and plays games with true club funding. The big difference though is salaries. Madrid has always had a salary progression ladder and has never allowed salaries to be more than operating income. That sure can’t be said for PSG. You asked in other thread, how can PSG get away with UEFA’s FFP! Those rules are all about transfer fees, not about salaries. They got Messi, Ramos and others on free transfers.

Anything over 30M! That’s more in line with what the Italians can afford and current covid impacted market than the 50 to 60M the club was thinking about.

lool anybody thinking about 50 to 60 million for isco has to be on crack. there's no way the stats, the maths, the performances adds to any 50 60 million expectation. tbh i'd be over the moon if we even get that 30 million ure suggesting. the guy's been on the bench for the last what, 8 years? if u add all his goals in the last 3 years i dont thin it amounts close to 20 goals. hell his goals + assists together in the last 3 years i dont think amount to 20.

if the club is looking to make money from sales, i hope they arent holding out for a larger amount, cos the buyer would just be like kick rocks. i'd have held out more for varane but even pre covid, expecting 50-60 mill for isco is laughable, especially from serie a sides, that already have money problems. but i get it, set the sales amount high and hopefully u and the buyer can come to a reasonable agreement; i wud have done that for varane cos he has the profile and resume to match....i'd be more flexible with isco, cos tbh that cud turn off a potential buyer. if we do get 30 mill for him, i think its a steal

Isco wont go for 30, I would be happy with at least 10 million, but ill expect lower.

Who's going to take him where he also is ok to go to?

Inter are broke, Juve might not be actually that interested anymore since it became apparent what a zero he is
Milan maybe? Spurs? West Ham? But that would be a severe blow to his ego

It's going to be the FC Bayern isn't it.. deadline day loan ..

And if he does go there, I give you 3 months to start raving that he is the best midfielder Spain has!

Isco has a year left on his contract. The guy is going to ride it out.

Next summer we'll be rid of alot of players

sportsczy wrote:Mbappe missed the second Man City game due to injury.  You also had Diallo and Florenzi as your fullbacks... and now you have Ashraf Hakimi and Kimpembe moving wide with Ramos taking over the CB role next to Marquinhos.

Closer isn't the question...  it's a freakin chasm lol.  PSG just added:
-  Messi
-  Ramos
-  Donnarumma
-  Wijnaldum
-  Hakimi

They lost absolutely nobody.  Real Madrid is a pub team compared to PSG this coming season.

It doesn't work like that though. A Real Madrid fan should know better, especially one who's watched our games from the early 00s.

In connection to your comments regarding PSG's bad luck against Citeh last year, please keep in mind the state we were in the moment we faced chelsea. Can't be worse than that I guess. And, for the record, the squad we have doesn't matter, we are a bigger game than QSG at any time - actually, we are the biggest game out there. Ask Man Utd about the times when they were the best and CR (some guy 3 times better than Mbappe) still wanted to play here

halamadrid2 wrote:Isco has a year left on his contract. The guy is going to ride it out.

Next summer we'll be rid of alot of players

It's the last contract year for Marcelo, Modric and Bale as well.

Modric can stay another year if he wants to. Hope he retires with us

Marcelo deserves a great farewell, he's been a great servant and an absolute legend

The rest can pack up their shit and leave