Buyback is only active from 2026 and it's high figure since Napoli are a bigger club than the likes of Girona, Getafe, Almeria we usually sell to.
It would have been even worse planning from their part to take on a player and allow us to smatch him back 6 months later lmao
Yeah this is where I'm at too, I went down a rabbit hole not long ago about this and how tearing the other ACL is pretty common.
The only explanation for not signing a RB is that Flo is extremely confident he will sign Trent when his contract is up, the same way he did not sign an expensive striker after Benzema left, due to his confidence in signing Mbappe.
Is it at pro level? I am only aware about Boniface having two ACLs before Militao. Also ACLs in top leagues seem a lot more common when it used to be a rarity until few years back. Apart from our ACLs, Barca have had Gavi, Bernal and Ter in last 1.5 seasons. Scamacca and Scalvini at Atalanta in last few months. Rodri at City.
I don’t mean to sound too negative but Lucas has had an absolute awful season so far, Dani is obviously out, now Militao is out for the rest of the season. We should sign a RB no matter how confident we are in signing Trent, even if it’s some sort of shorter term solution. We’re playing with fire otherwise, it could blow up in our faces massively even if Carlo is able to get a handle of how to fix the midfield and attack issues.
What is this nonsense about spending big on Wirtz, Flo and JAS need to get their priorities straight and sort out the defense first. We have/had 3 guys with long-term injuries and it is unlikely that they'll ever return to playing at the top level.
Napoli isn't playing Rafa Marin. I am sure there is some 6 month loan deal that can be worked out. If they are worried about depth, we throw in Vallejo.
It maybe poor planning in a way but then again when you look at our net profit after everything is accounted for you see how thin the margin is for error. Personally, I would have preferred we hadn't sold so many full backs from our youth team for example, but then when you look at the books it makes a bit more sense.
Yes we’re bringing in income from Castilla product sales sure, that doesn’t need to stop of course, but starting the season with 2 CB’s is outrageous squad management. Alaba’s slow recovery was not news to us who follow the team closely let along to our management. Let’s call it as it is, Jacobo was so far down the pecking order that Vallejo is/was ahead of him, and if the Yoro and Joan Martinez back up plans failed we still had time to react but didn’t. The insane fixture lists nowadays don’t allow for these kinds of unnecessary liberties to be taken with a title aspiring team anymore. I also maintain that we have taken a similar risk with our midfield depth, right now I’m not a fan of Ceballos as a viable option at all, and think one more Castilla midfielder was needed in the squad.
It's looking more and more like we should accept that we Ramos for 6 months. If he starts training now. He'd be ready after the Christmas break and we'd only be out his wages for 6 months.
I don't disagree, I think we've made a lot of gambles over the years and gotten away with questionable planning. I'm just pointing it that these decisions don't occur in a vacuum.
Not buying a center forward because he was confident of signing Mbappe was a terrible decision on Florentino's part and unfortunately very in character for him, does not make me at all confident about the situation in defense vs. his insatiable appetitie for premier league hype trains mascarading as galacticos.
How was his last stint with Sevilla? No one is expecting him to be the Ramos of old. He could at least be close to Nacho. If he wasnt that injury prone, I dont see the risk. At least hes another body.
The good News is that Jesus Vallejo is still available, and he will be our new signing for January - and he is not injured.
Ramos has been posting Instagram training videos for a while now. No European team wanted him at the wages he had at Sevilla which was a significant pay cut from his PSG days too. Carlo playing washed players over Castilla talents doesn't mean Castilla players aren't good enough. Casemiro saved his ass vs Dortmund in 2014 when there were injuries. Carlo didn't count on him for next season due to Khedira (club refused to extend his contract as his performance had already dropped significantly)and Casemiro was loaned out to Porto. Khedira was atrocious that season. We could have used someone like Casemiro vs Juve that season rather than Ramos at DM as Khedira had become unplayable after 4-0 loss to Atletico. Maybe we are better off if Carlo has to use Raul Asencio and Jacobo instead of washed Ramos.
Nacho was only 33 last season. He still had above average pace (young Nacho was the fastest player in RM squad) and not close to the milege Ramos has on his legs at 38. I think Ramos has reached 2009-10 Henry stage and hence no interest from European clubs that matter.
Carlo doesn’t rotate. Full stop. If you’re in the starting 11 you play no matter what unless if you’re injured. Bellingham, Fede, Rudiger, Vinny, Mbappe are all going to go down with some overloads during this season. The cake is in the oven. I don’t expect us to have the bodies by the end of the season to make any difference. Play the youth. Let’s see what happens, there could be diamond there. we can’t win every year. We’re certainly not going to this year.
If we don't get top 8 in the UCL it's going to make matters worse if Carlo doesn't rotate. With all these injuries he can no longer get away with not doing so.
The chances of Arda/Endrick starting a meaningful game is pretty much zero. Maybe the first matches of the CDR. it’s going to be; Vinny Mbappe Rodrygo Bellingham, Modric, Tchoumeni Mendy Rudiger Alaba Fede