Covid transfer market

We won the league, waiting for CL. We don't know what kind of transfer activities there would be so if you were in charge, with the pandemic and uncertainty coming up, what would your budget Mercato look like.

I want to have fun with this so how about you post your transfers moves with logic and reasons. Like signing Mbappe or Haaland is not happening.

So what would YOU do?

ps: this is aka how could you creatively get rid of Bale transfer thread

I don't remember the last time it was this difficult to predict our transfers. It's a really odd year for the transfer market, and I don't know when that's going to change. As boring as it may sound, I suspect we won't make any incoming transfers, at all. If we do, it will likely be a more low-profile target than what we're traditionally known for pursuing, and I really have no clue who that would be.

Bale seems content with wasting his career on the bench, in favor of seeing out his contract with us. That's an issue we'll just have to live with. I'm a fan of RB Leipzig's Dayot Upamecano, but I don't think we're in the market for a new CB, and it's not a priority position at the moment. That said, I won't be surprised if we chase his signature in the future, when his price tag has been quadrupled. It's hard not to like a defender who's got great physical attributes, and intelligence to boot.

What would I do, though? That depends entirely on what our current transfer budget is, and I have no idea what it looks like. Chelsea actually seems like the most ambitious club in the transfer market right now, which is almost like a throwback to the glory days of Abramovic and the early days of oil money in football.

I'd go for Bernardo Silva who seems to have fallen out of favor at City.

MTO, the budget is zero. They may use some of sale proceeds (of Canteras not capable to make first team and maybe James, Mariano, Jovic for backups to Casemiro and if both current backups to Benz perhaps a backup striker, but that’s it.

I think a better question will be Who do they go after the following summer. either Mbappe and / or Haaland. There are promises amongst current squad plus loanees for most other positions

@bill you can go create a transfer prediction thread for 2021-2022 this ain't it lol

farfan wrote:I'd go for Bernardo Silva who seems to have fallen out of favor at City.

Really? I don't follow city much these days but I recall he reached he pretty elite level at some point. With Sané leaving there is no way Pep would let Silva leave as well

I think we'll only sign a backup DM and RB this summer/fall.

With Areola gone, Lunin can come back as 2nd choice GK.

Regarding RB, there is Odri but i think he'll be sold seeing as Zidane was content with letting him go this season with no RB cover.

Not sure who would be a good, realistic backup RB. Zidane might try to mold Lucas into a RB, which i'm not too optimistic about.

Jesus Navas could be an option, he is 34 but has been one of the best RB's in la liga this season and has only a year left on his contract.

It doesn't seem like Camavinga wants to leave with Rennes getting CL so i'd go for Roca as Casemiro backup. We've been linked with him before and with Espanyol relegated, he will go for a reasonable price. Plus he young enough to have resell value if we go for Camavinga or someone else in that talent bracket in the future.

Loan out Kubo, Brahim and Reinier, sell James, Lucas, Mariano and Ceballos. Also sell Reguilon and Oscar with buyback or retain 50%.  

Slowly integrate Miguel Gutiérrez as backup LB as i think Marcelo will stay for another season.

I can't see any way to get rid of Bale this summer, especially after his agents comments recently.

@lets say your budget is 50 millions + sales. The goal being not to spend much.

One of the reasons o thought this would be fun is because the current market is in complete opposition to our current transfer policy. We typically sign very young players for huge sums like Jovic or we sign superstars.

I feel like this transfer market, if you have to make signings, you have to go for those guys aged between 23-26 that you can sign around 30 millions and that will perform at a good enough level to help the team. This is something we have refused to do in recent years. Think Liverpool signing Salah or that level of players, who can then become world class despite not having a lot of hype

I don’t see where you get the 50M budget. It’s totally contrary to everything that has been stated numerous times. I will agree with your plus sales to which they are already +45M.

Another consideration is they are still paying for stadium renovations and paying back that loc. stadium sponsorship won’t be done until next year. Bottom line there may be room for 1 or possibly 2 Of your 30M purchases.

But then you have to look at current roster and where might there be an opening. There is an over abundance of forwards even with the possible sales. There is backup to Casemiro available but other than that the midfield is full plus Odegaard will return in a year. On defense there is a need for backup RB and I don’t think Odriozola comes back, think he will be sold. No way Lucas or Nacho leave now and likelihood is they backup RB.

And re Lunin coming back, he still needs to play. He couldn’t catch on with two lowly 1st division teams and although he did well with Oviedo since January it was for a bottom team in segunda. He’ll likely get another shot with a low level 1st division team and Areola remaining.

So Nick, this entire thread is about possibly acquiring one Backup player. Next summer besides the budget and need for a Mbappe is the fact that 5 of the aging veterans have contracts expiring.

Don't tell me what a thread I made is about lol. I want people to post what kind of transfers they would want to see the team making in this weird Mercato "realistically"

Stop trying to guess the future, you are gonna drive yourself crazy lol

@zees didn't Zidane say he wantes Odri to stay?

Unless they sign someone, he has to come back. I don't think Bayern are interested in buying him either.

Regui has to come back, for sure. Marcelo is done.

Modric will probably stay for another year. Before Odegaard comes in.

@Nick, seeing your fantasy thread without activity, I thought I would provide a link to someone else who has been saying same as me re market activity this summer.

https://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2020/08/01/5f255a1c46163fd0548b45ab.html

@Cyborg, I think Odriozola will be sold (if there are any buyers and Reguilon will either be on another loan or sold (if Zidane doesn’t value him). Marcelo is definitely staying another year as is Modric.

It annoys me that Modric starts over Valverde

Hopefully next season ushers in a somewhat new era of players.

This team definitely need another midfielder and another competent striker.

With the Covid market Odegaard should be a definite recall from his loan spell.

Get some money from sales. Marcelo, Modric, Bale, Vasquez. Some Italian team would buy these aging stars.

the club will not sell all those players at least not in this window. zidane likes some of them so one can forget about that, secondly, if you sell you have to have replacements; and the club have officially stated they will not spend big moneys in this window due to obvious reasons. bale james mariano (and some other dudes on loan) are the people the club definitely wants to offload.

how much we can get from those sales, we dont know. we can only be hopeful , it will be tough to get what we asked for last year for them. the more they stay and arent used the more their value declines.

Careful Tito, this is Nick’s fantasy thread. He doesn’t want us talking about reality.

The club has said they are hoping to raise 181M in sales. That’s a couple from Castilla, guys on loan, no longer in club’s plans plus James and Mariano. They have already netted 60M thru 4 sales.

I’m sure they would like to include Bale, but no one is willing to pay his salary let alone a large transfer price and club has said they won’t accept a low offer. Meanwhile he seems quite content to collect his salary and play golf.

How about you go read on Marca that Odegaard is coming back lol. You are essentially a Marca muppet here, that should feed you for the day

@tito I think we'll see some sales. Remember the club has to balance it's books. Bale, Marcelo, Modric have huge salaries.

Getting rid of those salaries and bringing in some money from sales will be most important, if I'm the clubs accountant.

It's seems pretty simple. Those players are not the core of the team in any case.

The players with huge salaries who do not count for Zidane are players like James and Bale but the idea was never to let them go on a free transfer. We will see if this changes but even if you want to set that precedent with Bale he would not want to go to a club where he doesn’t make as much, or at least, there is no indication that he is so desperate about playing again that he just wants out.

Marcelo and Modric are genuine club legends beloved by the fans. They should be in a position to stay one more year to help with depth. Mendy is already a starter and hopefully Odegaard has a level that he can start benching Modric as well. If not, someone else will come in.

Mr Nick09 wrote:How about you go read on Marca that Odegaard is coming back lol. You are essentially a Marca muppet here, that should feed you for the day

I see you also read Marca as you have posted that rumor in another thread, as if it a certainty. José Diaz, same guy that wrote the article yesterday that said 50 - 50 chance of him returning and a week earlier that he was going back to La Real. So in 2 to 3 weeks, he has had 3 different versions of same story!

Meanwhile Perez has multiple times publicly said no signings only sales.

And a returning player is not a signing.

In all seriousness, a lot depends on who (and how much they get) gets sold. If this Odegaard story has any truth to it, it may put Modric and Isco on the market. I definitely don’t think Marcelo as they have Reguilion on the market. I believe the thinking is Marcelo can be used as a sub and that may also be the case with Modric. That leaves Isco, but I’ve lost count of how many times he has been in this position. So you are still down to (re first team) Mariano and James with Jovic a possibility.

And all this, yet no talk about your desired Casemiro backup.

It’s actually Mundo Deportivo which broke the news first last night lol, keep up

And your point is!

thing about signings (and i technically dont consider returnees as signings, for reasons i dont wanna go into on this post); if you cant go for the major ones; which we cannot, spending money on half a** deals may not be the right option, especially if our scouts dont have the needed logistics or followings of such players

i think the club doesnt want to spend say 20 million here, 15 million there, for players they arent too sure of, they wud rather save as much money as they can for post covid

dont get me wrong i've wanted signings for like 5 years now, but i definitely understand flo's stance due to covid and loss of funds from no live fans and all. trades ala pjanic for arthur is a way around, but its not financially feasible and the other party has to want or NEED the plaayers u want to trade and vice versa......i dont think we have the assets for that

so we just have to hang tight and hope for the best. most importantly hope this covid crap ends, not just for football but actual life

I agree Tito. If there are any signings at all, IMO, it will be

1) after they have completed enough sales to offset the lost gate revenue, estimated at 150M

2) only for backup players and that will be confined to backup for Casemiro and possibly for Carvajal (however only if both Odriozola and Lucas sold!) and for backup to Benzema (only if both Mariano and Jovic sold).

Just reviewing numbers, there isn’t room for anyone new, including Odegaard without some sales.

One sub note before I get into actual numbers. Today, Areola loan deal ended and he was returned to PSG. Sounds like he is going to end up in EPL. That likely means Lunin returns as backup to Courtois.

So in squad numbers I’m assuming at least for now, Lunin and Odriozola in squad.

Current squad number is 26. Limit is 25. They have gotten around the overbooking by keeping practice GK (Altube) off of official list and earlier Asensio when he was out injured and at beginning of season Rodrygo was in Castilla numbers. And then there was the offloading of Odriozola with that loan.

If they do sell James and Mariano and go thru with loaning out Brahim, that allows for Odegaard and size is 25. The option of keeping Altube off of official list is possible for next year.

Bottom line if James, Mariano and Brahim are off squad, and Odegaard does return, then they can only sign one player if they use the Altube option. Signing anyone else will necessitate someone else sold.

Love what I saw from Odegaard last season and I hope he is ready to make a strong case to replace one of our mids. In my opinion, Valverde/Casemiro/Odegaard midfield has serious potential.

Also I am going to assume our transfers out would be James, Mariano, Odiorzola (I have a feeling Zidane would want to keep experimenting with Vazquez at RB), Reguilon, Brahim (on loan) and Vallejo. I would also give an ambitious prediction that one of Vini and Rodrygo will be loaned too since Asensio is back, and I don't think Zidane has given up on Asensio.