Out With The Old & In With 7he New - Transfers, Rumors, & Lies Thread

Bale's prime? Dude hardly played at all during that season.

No player can maintain same form throughout the whole season. Everyone goes through some sort of dip in form during a season. What matters most is how he performed overall and how he was during clutch times.

 

Barca? They have won 7 of the last 10 leagues. Oh wait that doesn't count, it's only the main competition we play in every single week! 38 games! CL is all we live for I guess. 7 matches.

Have ever won the treble? no. They did it twice in the last ten years.

We are the greatest in the CL, no one can touch us but we really have to do something about our league form.

 

I agree with this

 

So, according to you, it’s unacceptable for him to have had one-half of an outstanding season in 6 years, and not be criticised to the same degree that other players in the team are?

 

Yeah they won the treble twice so ? How many times have they won back to back UC"s let alone 3 in a row or 5 !

While we might not have won as many league titles as Barca but we havent been a total disaster like Arsenal or Liverpool like you claim. We lost the league by just 1 Point in Zidane's first season despite a disastrous start. Most of the seasons the point difference has been onl 2-3 Points. This considering we were facing the greatest Barca team ever while we had to rebuild from scratch.

People easily dismiss our UCL success as lucky. Truth is if we were as lucky/favored as Barca in League then we would have won as many as barca in recent years if not more.

 

Real Madrid winning 4 UCLs in 5 years in nothing short but an amazing feat and since it was done during a very comptitive era and it will go down as one of the greatest teams in football history when it's all said and done. Everyone knows how succesful Ajax & Bayern Munchen were in the 70s, Milan during 1990s, etc. Nobody remembers on how many league titles they won in their era.

I'd like to say it's even more impressive feat than RM winning 5 UCLs in 5 years during 50s/60s when the competition in European Cup was nothing how it's today and footballers in general back then even had part-time jobs.

I mean, Real Madrid won 5 straight LaLiga-titles during Quinta del Buitre era and they're pretty much forgotten because they failed to win European Cup title.

 

If I was talking to a Barca fan or Man Utd fan, I'd probably say the same things you are saying to be honest. When having internal conversations with other RM fans then it's different and you have to be more honest and self critical. Why lie?

Only 2 leagues in 10 years is an embarrassment for this club. It's just not acceptable for a club like RM to just focus on one competition (7 matches) for the whole year. It's become something we are experts in but has massive drawbacks.

Maybe the perception will change in the future as people look back at these triumphs but football experts right now are hardly calling this one of the greatest sides ever, they seem baffled by our success because if you see our performances week in week out we haven't really been that good. We are the third best team in Spain. Also, we hardly dominated in any of our recent CL triumphs.

 

That's not true. Even Pep's much revered Barca side used to struggle away from home. We have had wins at Bayern twice, Juve etc which is a rarity in CL. Those teams rarely lose at home except against ZZ's RM. Bayern finished 10th in the league and people rave about them as one of the greatest teams 'cos of 3 ECs in a row. I don't give a rats arse about foreign media who are basically Barca wankers. They also disrespect Ronaldo and are Messi fanboys even though dude has been choking in QFs for years.

CL has 13 games not 7. Barca usually have around 10 as they get kicked out in QF maybe that got you confused.

 

You're missing the point. I guess you're ok with just 2 leagues in 10 years. What can I say? I'm not.

 

Flo can never be a Wenger and RM will never be an Arsenal 'cos he won't survive more than two trophyless seasons let alone that without superstar signings. This is the first season without a superstar like Ronaldo and he was not also under any pressure due to ZZ and 3 CLs in a row. There were calls from fans for his resignation when Benitez disaster show was in full flow. Luckily for him, ZZ appointment worked more than anyone could have imagined.

Also targeting top young talents doesn't mean we'd only such players like Wenger's Arsenal. I have no doubts that Flo will spend 300 ME on Neymar in a heartbeat if he's made available. So the only worry is whether that obsession will prevent him from making necessary signings since it's highly unlikely that PSG will sell Neymar. There is no Galactico at Neymar's level right now among the younger generation, but Flo needs to be realistic and sign good players(Hazard, Dybala etc) if he can't get a superstar like Neymar.

Chelsea have 38 players on loan right now. Juventus have over 50. This is 'cos both clubs invested in many young players. So it's not like only unambitious clubs like Arsenal targets young players. But unlike Chelsea of 2018 who have many unknown youngsters on their payroll, Flo is following what Abra did many years ago when he signed Belgium's highly rated Golden Generation. He got Courtois, Lukaku and KDB who are worth many more times what they invested then. Salah also to a lesser extent as he was signed from Swiss league. Obviously, Mou refused to use everyone except Courtois which meant City and Liverpool are reaping the benefits now.

Flo has signed best Brazilian talents of their generation in Rodrygo and Vinicius. Odegaard had all the big clubs after him and is still only 19. Still think he has the potential to be a passer like Ozil. Brahim is also highly rated and could come for free. But these signings doesn't mean Flo will give up on big signings. If anything, I am more perplexed how these youngsters will get an opportunity at RM 'cos we already have players like Asensio, Isco, Ceballos etc and will be adding some established players if we end up not winning any big trophy this season.

RM will always have that pressure so Flo can't afford consecutive barren seasons and no exciting signings. We got Lunin, but that didn't stop Flo from signing a big name GK like Courtois when the opportunity presented itself. Same will be the case with forward line this summer unless we somehow win La Liga or CL. No ZZ or Ron to take pressure off Flo now. He will first need to get a coach with vision like Poch first if Solari doesn't win a title this season. And signings will follow.

 

Out of the 4 CL winning teams, only last year's team didn't complete for the league title until the final weeks. 2015-16 team lost the league by one point and won like 13 league games in a row. Benitez dropping too many points before the sack cost us that league title. Decima season we were in the treble race until week 37 finished. Won the double in 2016-17. Those 3 CL wins are quite different from our 98, 00 and 02 wins. In 98 and 00 we also had to win CL to qualify for next season's competition as we finished so far behind in the league.

And no, I am not happy with 2 league titles in a decade. But if someone told me we'd win 4 CLs too, I'd sign up. Remember Butre said he'd give up 2-3 of his league titles for a CL. And CL was an obsession for us in Mou's words when we brought him in after he won the title with Inter. That's the trophy every top club in Europe covets. Juve is desperate for it. Liga we might win again without being very good like back to back wins in 07 and 08. Messi won't last forever. But no club might win 4 CLs in 5 years like we did.

 

Perez doesn't know how to spend smart. Only big. He'll try paying something like 400m for Neymar and at that amount of the money the oil sheiks will probably sell.

 

People bashing Perez conveniently ignore the fact that he put up a 180M bid for Mbappe. He also tried to negotiate for Hazard but only backed off after they put a 220M price tag.

 

Barcelona won back-to-back La Liga titles in 1958-1959 and 1958-1960, beating RM of Puskas, Di Stefgano, etc. Kubala, Luis Suarez, Czibor, etc formed one of the greatest club side in history. In 1961, they became the first team to beat RM in the European Cup, but they lost to Benfica in the Final.

In the end, no one remembered their achievements. Di Stefano's 1960 team that won the European Cup in Glasgow is considered to be one of the greatest club side. Eusebio's Benfica is also among the greatest.... Eusebio had not even joined Benfica in 1961 when they beat Barcelona in the Final. How many of you actually heard of the other Luis Suarez of FC Barcelona? Yes, he is the guy who won the European Cup with Inter Milan.

RM of 2014-2018 would one day consider among the greatest. People would also remembered that Barcelona has MSN for most of the CL years. Bayern Munich of Lewa, Robben, Ribery, etc is a part of that history.

But I am not disagreeing with others. I actually agree with both sides here. We should have won more La Liga titles. It is an embarrassment for this club. It is one of the reasons why people still disrespected the club during our years. But in 5 to 10 years, the fans especially the ones outside Spain would forget about the league titles. Not everyone in the world follow La Liga, but every soccer fans follow the Champions' League.

 

Yeah, then he refused to sell his favorites (Benzema and specifically Bale).

He refused to bring in reserve strikers to replace Morata.

 

While I agree him backing Benz/Bale was his mistake but from his pov, these two were instrumental in the UCL final. I can understand why he wanted to stick with them. Like I said Perez isnt perfect but considering what he has done for this club I still trust him to get us out of this mess.

And regarding replacing Morata, thats not all on Perez. Zidane is also responsible for that. We already had Mariano. It was Zidane who not only advised Mariano to leave, also insisted on Mayoral !!

 

Cristiano wasn't?

Let's be honest with ourselves. He has his favorites and those he favors he protects and defends. We should have sold Bale the past two summers. Benzema can only be rationalized due to him not returning much from a sale and there not being adequate affordable options.

 

Not denying he's biased towards Bale and Benz. All three renewed in 2016. Ron had a contract until 2021, but wanted an extension with 30 M salary. That's why Flo hesitated but offered him 25 M plus variables. He probably thought we'd have to compensate in the last couple of years of his contract(2020-22) after a renewal given his age.

Not spending big to replace Ron is because of his Neymar optimism(which is wrong imo).

 

I wouldn't have sold Benzema even if we signed a striker to replace him. I'd rather have him as a reserve than the likes of Mariano.

 

It's actually due to poor planning.

 

Zidane loves Benzema like a kid brother. It is Florentino who loves Benzema as if he were his own child.

Same with Bale.

At least Benzema loves the club thoroughly. Benzema doesn't make demands or cause lockerroom issues.

Florentino's other child, sends his agent to whine for him or pulls a 'Cristiano' immediately after scoring twice to win the CL.

We don't play our current backup, what good will it be to add a third under Solari?

 

If you desire to sell him, you better.

He's the one player on our squad you couldn't sell unless you knew for certain you could adequately replace before pulling the trigger.