Better than Ganso I would say - yes I remember that. Gago has always been a professional and has had a decent career. He's played with top teams ever since his career began, and at times, really made teams tick beautifully. His skills are subtle and he's definitely not the best footballer ever, but let's not forget that he's played for Argentina over 50 times, he's won league titles with Madrid, he's provided beautiful assists to his team mates, he was a good tackler, but perhaps a tad bit slow for his aggressive defensive playing style. No need to disrespect our players that contributed to our team. Many people make fun of M.Diarra in this forum, yet he has one of the most valuable goals in Madrid history.
Holy fudgesticks. Y'all don't remember the Mallorca goal? I remember those back to back remontada games more vividly than our CL finals.
Some players you just won’t hear a bad word against, because they have given you moments that you will remember forever.
Jesus Christ Gago? People actually still defend him? It's not often that I have a deep hatred that is stirred within me but reading this shit sure has done the trick.
Needs to work on his end product and decision making. He has improved a lot, I think he has it all in him to be a huge player for us.
The best thing about him is that he's an exciting player in terms of technical ability and that he's much stronger physically than his roots and career path suggested.
Haven't seen much of him play but from what I've seen it is his attitude that stands out most for me. Very easy for him to go in one of two directions: be crumbled by the pressure and end up being a shell of a football player or an arrogant twat that falls flat on his face. When he plays, and even from his interviews, there's a humility about him that transcends into eagerness. He has the flicks and the tricks but doesn't over use them, he looks involve his team mates and always been an option to receive the ball. Very impressed and wish the guy a fantastic career.
I remember Robinho having an amazing debut and me thinking that there was no way we can lose with him in the team. Then remember something Balague saying about how the club told him to "calm down" as he was showing up the senior players. Anyway, just shows how far attitude takes you in this sport.
Robinho's issue was more to do with what happened outside the pitch rather than what happened on the pitch. As long as the seniors give the kid proper guidance on when and when he shouldn't let go then we're ok. It's no surprise that most of the people mentioned above had short careers at the top.
I think we as fans did a good job of keeping our expectations low and have been pleasantly surprised by him. He does seem to be maturing physically faster than any of us expected. I remember talking about how it will take him 3 yrs and his frame was not ready for top level football. He still needs time but I feel like he is ahead of the curve developmentally which is awesome.
What’s everyone’s opinion on how we should handle Vinicius for this upcoming season? I think most here agree that he has impressed this preseason and I like his personality a lot. Being that he is only 18 and just made a big move from SA to Europe, it probably makes the most sense for his maturation to keep him at Madrid for this season rather than a loan. Will he get enough minutes as a substitute to continue his development? Maybe play some games with Castilla? Somewhat depressingly, he looks like one of our more exciting options off of the bench this year. And that is no knock on him whatsoever obviously, but more of an indication of how weak our attacking depth is right now.