Yeah, we’re loaded. Thx Flo for being the best GD president a soccer club could have! If anything, his reckless spending days, as well as the state of the transfer market, have made him more cautious about who he gets, and thanks to that we have James playing with us, instead of watching him somewhere else as well as having a lesser eriksen on our team. He maintains a great relationship with most clubs and agents, as Applebob said above, I hope he sets things up to continue to run as they have once he is gone. The reality that this club could easily fall under the hands of some crooked mofos like at Barca, really scares me. Hope I never see it happen.
Thanks for the info Miami. I will check it out. I will also need TUDN which is the new spanish sports network (merger of Univision Deportes and Televisa Deportes) which carries everything else besides La liga ( Champions, F1, Bundesliga + all Uefa and FIFA tournaments) I think I can do without the EPL which I get on NBC sports /Telemundo
If we would have defeated Atleti by scoring 7 goals on the in pre season, James would be wearing their kit now. We basically didn't sell him because we were that embarrassed by the whole deal that selling him to them after that whooping would look like a total capitulation. The deal was close enough to happening that Simeone actively talked about James as a player. The club was just afraid of the media circus it would create. I am a huge huge admirer of Florentino and i've never been shy about it, but this summer he let other people on the wheel and it's obvious. Nothing about this summer was what people would associate with his style of doing business, neither do i think is he even that involved with the football side of things any more.
His next in line is JAS. Do you think he had more of say in the transfers then (both incoming and outgoing)
Florentino has been this way for years now. Let's be honest with ourselves. No point in trying to deflect blame to others.
I'm not trying to say he's being held back from spending, i think he's stretched this sauce as thin as it can be stretched. But the particularls i don't think he's that involved with anymore. I just doubt he sits down and watches players and decides on who comes in and who goes out. I believe his whole thing has been mostly getting the most out of managing the money as conservatively as possible. I think he'd spend, but the math doesn't check out the way it did. You don't recoup on these huge transfers any more. He just suck it up, and Floren never did that, he always believed in getting a return off investment.
Madrid has become a team without courage except for Benzema, they all lack balls. I see no improvement with Zidane. I think it is actually worst because he now has a better roster than last year and they still play embarrasingly bad I will be very happy once Kroos and Casemiro stop playing for Madrid
Florentino is the one who renewed Kroos, Modric and Nacho before December last year. Florentino was the one who was barking about having the best roster in the world for years while running from making any real investment in the squad. Florentino was the one who made no effort for a super player like Neymar, yet was giddy to sell Cristiano in his arrogance. We are suffering heavily due to Florentino. Heavily.
Mou back to Real?ex-RMCF sporting director Pardeza: "I don't know. Anything can happen in football. He's a coach that creates tension with all those around him. Each person has their own style. When you gamble on one person or another person you gamble on all the consequences."— M•A•J (@Ultra_Suristic) September 18, 2019
The real question is what is he doing for the team? Recovering balls? Nope Making plays? Nope Making precise passes? Nope Moving into space? Barely Losing balls? Yes Giving away possesion? Yes Slow? Yes I lost inspiration, but Casemiro and Kroos are actually harming the team. Madrid's midfield needs players that know what to do when they have the ball
I for once don't think Florentino is able to spend like he used to. Fact is market has changed. He used to be able to buy a world class player for 35m and he wouldn't blink an eye. Now, every mediocre player with a good season is asking for 80m. And there are now so many clubs with money who would bid high for players. It used to be only RM, Barca and Man Utd. Now every Tom Dick and Harry is able to spend.
It's always about spending smart. PSG got 2 Galcticos and still haven't got past last 16. Liverpool who spend a little over 100 ME for Salah, Firmino, Mane won CL and got 97 points in PL. Even City for all their spending haven't signed any player for more than 80 ME. Football is back to where elite coaches like Pep and Klopp are creating the best teams that's youthful. From 2013-18, it was about having Messi/Ronaldo and good supporting cast even if Lucho and ZZ weren't the best tacticians. And before that it was Pep with Messi and co vs Mou with Inter and later with Ron at RM. We have an ageing squad in key areas and top 2 coaches right now aren't realistic options for us.
How do you supposed one can always spend wisely? Every player bought is a gamble, and we had many underperforming galaticos bought in the past. We are not the only team that experienced this, every big club has it's own expensive mistakes and it's just inevitable. Now the stake of the gamble had increased immensely due to the insane market.
It's irrelevant who you sign if the team shows this amount of lack in preparation and cohesion. Mendy is a bright example. He seems highly competent, but in an a team with zero plan or guidance he looks out of place too often. I kind of feel sorry for him because he could have been a fantastic transfer but he has to be looking at the team and everything and think "wtf did I get myself into?" right now.
Teams that are balanced get most transfers right. You can afford a 32 ME flop like Illarra, but only if you have made smart signings like Modric, Xabi, Kroos, Casemiro etc. Illarra crumbled at Dortmund and Casemiro steadied the ship coming on as a sub. City made several smart signings like Bernardo, G.Jesus(35 ME), Laporte, Sane and Pep had inherited Sterling, KDB, Aguero, Silva etc. Liverpool got front three for cheap, basically used Coutinho fee on VVD and Allison. Milner for free, had TAA coming through the academy and signed Robertson for 10 ME. Basically, core of that squad built around 250 ME. And most importantly, Klopp appointment gave the club the direction it needed.
Same issues for Barca. Messi covers Valverde's lack of system to a large extent, but we know they'd be such a machine with Pep or Klopp. I think Klopp would really ensure a culture change at RM, but he won't leave Liverpool.
He was also given time and trust to lose over and over again until he got it right.We gave Lopetegui a few months. Players have way too much power in Madrid right now, in a way it's like the end of the galactico era.
Perez's worst flaw. He gets attached to our players, especially our star players. Struggles to move them on when they start regressing.
This is what is really happening to the team. It does not matter who you bring, if you do not maximize their potential either with position or strategy, then most likely they will not perform to their best. Strategy is key now in football and Madrid has nothing. They try to improvise but that will just not do. I was surprised by how little movement the midfield had, they way they were trying to build up a play consisted in crosses or lobbed passes to a player running away from the rivals goal with his back towards it and a rival right behind him. That just makes the receiving player try to control an air ball while running while being marked so they end up with not so good ball control and playing it back to defense. Rinse and repeat. Lopetegui had no personality and the way he was making them play was bad. I agree they should have waited for the whole season, but the the top 4 was slipping away. Also, Klopp's team were not playing as bad as Madrid was.
We're playing his Sevilla team on the weekend. With Lopetegui what I feel happened was that many players got lazy and felt comfortable to sacrifice the coach instead of taking responsibility. Zidane arrived and instead of taking care of the problem, he rewarded them for their attitude.
Oh my god this was so horrible to watch. I could not believe what I was seeing for a second. I thought I was watching a South American friendly game between Peru and Colombia from years ago where the midfield has zero creativity and no idea how to move the ball forward out of their half. It was really bad
Agree, people have a short memory, Klopp’s Liverpool were no way as bad as Madrid were with Lopetegui. You could clearly see the progression and potential that Klopp was building. It wasn’t $hit on a stick football.