If the player was even remotely committed to joining us as some of the reports stated, then we don't even get to this point if the club made a better offer to Lille (and I understand all the concerns about his age, contract situation and the implication of us overspending). Also keep in mind, we're two weeks into the transfer window and the player that seemingly only wanted us and wasn't interested in any other club, ran to United at the first sign of a decent offer. I think the rumors of his interest in us and ours in him may have been massively overstated which then makes this turn of events seem a bit worse.
Given how smooth his contract renewals were I don't think he had any influence over his decisions whatsoever
Pepe's? His contract renewal was in 2012. Pepe refused to rule out Barcelona move when renewal negotiations were going on then. Mendes convinced Pepe in 2017 that he'd get him 2 year deal at PSG. So Pepe refused RM renewal offer of 1 year which was standard for players over 30 and demanded two year deal from RM. We refused (just like we did when Ramos tried in 2021). PSG didn't give him two year deal either and Pepe ended up in Turkey.
I do trust Juni's work in the background. Apparently he was in touch with the kid and his family for some time, Yoro knew how the club conducts business so like you said if he really wanted to join the best club in the world instead of that dumpster, he would have, he only had to wait a few days as Perez would have finalized everything before the preseason.
Pepe had always been one of the lowest paid players in the squad. At the time of the 2012 renewal Pepe as a senior player was earning a fraction of what Ramos for example was earning and even less than Marcelo. And Barca wanting him after what happened during the Clasicos under Mourinho is a good April fools joke. Pepe conducted himself impeccably at RM since after Mourinho left both on and off the pitch. Wanting the 2 year deal was unwise as it's rumoured we offered a one year deal with an option for another one. But I think he saw the writing on the wall. He'd fallen out of favour with ZZ after being a starter for Carlo. Would love to have him back honestly. He's still a warrior at his age. Speaks volumes of his character and ambitions.
Actually Pepe was benched in 2014-15 season by Carlo after Varane threw his future in doubt after CL final which he started due to Pepe's injury. It was Zidane who reinstated Pepe as a starter in 2015-16. Then Varane had his best season in 2016-17 as a starter. Pepe leaving started the end of Mendes era at RM. Di Maria left in 2014, but Mendes was happy about it as he made money from Utd for that move and then from RM for James as Di Maria's replacement. Mendes for years had no client at RM. Then signed Asensio and he left last summer for free. Recently signed with Lunin. And this Yoro deal also didn't happen. Think he's the agent of 16 year old youth player who made headlines recent months in Spanish media about wanting to leave as well. You don't even hear about players his age group in Madrid based media usually.
Just gonna reiterate my thought from this morning (it hasn't changed), basically that there's not much devastation for me about Yoro, it's kinda whatever to me (I make it clear which prospects I'm enamored with and disappointed when we pass; lol Estêvão), it's just the broader concern about Pérez and the CB position. It's not entirely Galácticos 1.0-era squad planning but it's not encouraging either. What happened last year should be considered something we got away with, not something that we should be doubling down on, and having precisely one CB on our list this summer and proceeding to low-ball his club makes it seem rather clear that even that was never a truly serious thought, that if it somehow fell in our laps then great but the chances of that were rather low. Our reserve CBs right now are still rehabbing a torn ACL (not gonna be ready in August) and someone who's barely played La Liga football in any capacity for several years now. One of our starting CBs is also still recovering (albeit well) from a torn ACL of his own. Our de facto 4th CB (3rd until Alaba returns) is our starting #6. And based on track record - no CB signed via transfer since 2019, actively spurning any CB signings in January this year - there's not much reason to think the position will be addressed now. It's just so strange to do such thorough business in the midfield and attack and then treat the centerback positions like total afterthoughts. Like, we actively chose to sell one of our CBs coming back from loan and saw another CB walk this summer, the only CB we're "adding" is a guy who barely played last season at a Granada side that was relegated...bizarre. I'm hoping there's some business somewhere before the end of the window for that reason alone. I'm not even asking for a Calafiori or De Ligt when I say that, even a short-term signing would at least tell me that Pérez is aware the position exists at this point beyond just a handful of players across the world. We can't go into next season expecting to compete on multiple fronts with that CB unit as-is, it's reckless.
Would love it but maybe a little awkward given Luka being club captain now? I would probably just sign Hermoso tbh.
I don't get the narrative that Rudiger and Alaba on bosman was some sort of cheap CB route. And both were high profile names. Alaba cost 30 ME in signing bonus and earns 12 ME nett per year on 5 year contract. People might have their opinions on him, but he won 2 CLs as starting CB for Bayern and RM. Rudiger cost 25 M signing bonus and on high wages too. He was the best CB in Europe last season. Spending 50-60 ME on young CBs with 5-6 ME nett wages over 4-5 years would be a bit more cheaper than signing established names like Alaba and Rudiger. Signing Rudiger on bosman is similar to signing any great attacker on bosman in terms of value to the squad.
There's nothing wrong with Rudiger, but the problem with bosman transfer is often times the players have high wage demands like Alaba which ends up hurting us. Had we aimed at young CBs like Yoro, Calafiori, etc. we can negotiate lower initial wages and we might even make a profit later on like we did with Odegaard.
The broader point here is that the club hasn’t exactly neglected the CB position and has actually made investments to address this position over the years, whether rightly or wrongly. The signings of Rudiger, Alaba and Militao who cost 50 ME and was signed when we had Ramos, Varane and Nacho is a testament to that.
Win some, lose some. The player didn't align with our price point and I think we overplayed our hand on the whole Yoro only having eyes for Madrid stuff. Man U showed urgency (or desperation) and offered higher wages + playing time. Rest is history. He looks like a gem we missed out on, but the CB position overall is pretty interchangeable, lots of other players out there.
The whole saga draws parallels to when PSG hijacked the Mbappe/Monaco deal from us. Lille didn't accept our bid here, but it still felt like the player was going to be ours when it was all said and done.
United are going to feed that kid to the wolves and most likely stagnate/ruin his player development. But at 18, this hyped, you've got the world by the balls and you're not really thinking anything could possibly go wrong.
I don’t understand why we’re going back to rehash old transfer windows. We’ve been tight at this position for a while and now more than ever. 21/22 was an incredible outlier where we went the whole season with just Militao Alaba and Nacho essentially. Thankfully we brought Rudiger into that mix. But 2 torn ACL’s later and Nacho leaving, I don’t see how anyone can argue that we have enough now. So why debate whether the position was neglected in the past when it’s insufficient right now
The convo has probably moved way past this now but, first let me start by saying i am not knocking our club, we work how we work, but this is such an interesting take, it makes me wonder why we are not bringing more players through from Castilla, i'd like to see Mario Martin get some opportunities no matter how rare this season, but reality is that probably won't happen No one in history has, ever "single handedly " won any trophy, it's a made up thing that people like to say to hype up the players they like, playing a bigger role than others maybe, singlehandedly, never, they are 11 players per team on the pitch for a reason, but i'm absolutely sure you know all this but..... You shouldn't make stuff up, Eder just came off playing every game for Brazil at the Copa and was actually looking more like his old self, i'm not the coach but i don't think we are "going into" anything with Rudiger and Vallejo, but i guess it's good to say to try to drive home some knid of point.....
I think almost everyone here is in agreement that we need to address the CB position this summer, no argument there; we’re clearly thin at CB. My point was more in response to the notion that the club has neglected the position in recent years, which is factually not true.
I don't have the desire to go back and read that particular conversation right now, so apologies if I gloss over important details, all I'm gonna say is that, in response to your question at the end...it would seem relevant when discussing overarching trends with squad planning with the club. That the last transfer fee paid for a CB was in 2019, that the position was handled very, ahem, boldly in 2021-'22 with essentially three CB's handling the mix for the entire season, that we were down to 2 CB's in January for the remainder of the season (expecting Militão to return same-season from a torn ACL was not reasonable and, as it turned out, he was woefully out of form and ineffective; understandably so) and actively chose to do nothing about it. It's just how the squad planning has been handled for some time now. The only two CBs we've brought in externally in recent years were market opportunities, and while there's absolutely nothing wrong with taking advantage of free transfers when you can find them, you're also not gonna find young players on those frees either. Alaba was 29 when he came here. I think Rudi was 30. As it's turned out, we might've only gotten 1+ seasons of effectiveness from the Austrian before his form dipped and then his knee slipped. Monster wages too that are as problematic now as Hazard's were previously. Alaba's always been a model professional though and I have zero hard feelings towards him, maybe we get lucky and in limited doses Alaba can still find some form again in the future. It's just troubling in some ways that, for all Pérez has learned from and improved over the years with, that he still exhibits blind spots with his CB planning, and even just defensive planning in general. It wasn't that long ago that Carvajal looked borderline-cooked and the solution to that was to do absolutely nothing at all. If Dani didn't discover how evil gluten was, things could've looked drastically different right about now.
A lot of revisionism going on here. Club always looked to have a good back up for Carva not to burn him out. Spent 32 ME on Danilo, he ended up being mediocre, Pep helped us by paying 30 ME and we signed Odri for 30 ME who was an absolute bust. Had Hakimi as back up in 2017-18. Hakimi has good loan spell at Dortmund for couple of years. His agent proclaims he will only return if minutes are guaranteed. Club and ZZ refuses to give any such promises backing Carva and Hakimi's agent goes on public rant against Zidane. Then Lucas has the season of his life at RB in 2020-21. We renewed him as back up with 3 year deal. Carva was key to our 2022 CL run as soon as liability Asensio was moved to bench and he had Fede's support on right against double teaming. Lucas has been a competent back up when top clubs arguably had worse starting RB like Cancelo. Club made absolutely right choice to back Carva than move him on for Hakimi in 2020 or 2021. Doubt we'd even win a single CL let alone 2 if Hakimi was starting RB over Carva.
El Mundo article claiming RM are interested in Laporte. This is not Barcelona based sports daily btw. It's a reputed news paper that covers daily news. Same reporter on El Mundo was the first to report that Pintus is returning to the club in 2021. Laporte has a contract until June 2026 with Al-Nassr, who paid 27 million euros for him from Manchester City , but he would be happy to return to Europe to play for Madrid and would do his part in the negotiation. The Spanish national team defender has been the best centre-back at the European Championships and was already a possible reinforcement for Madrid when he was playing for Manchester City. Last summer he went to Saudi Arabia, accepting a generous contract at Al Nassr, but his excellent tournament in Germany has put him back in the spotlight on the continent. At 30 years of age, he appears to be a cheap and high-quality option to breathe new life into a position that is giving the coaching staff a headache. While waiting for the names that may emerge in the coming days, a loan, whoever the central defender, would be the best way for Madrid to sign him, gaining time. It would secure the position for this season and look for a new young CB project during the coming months. https://www.elmundo.es/deportes/futbol/2024/07/17/6697c0dce4d4d88a208b45a7.html
We clearly wanted this Yoro kid which means the club both knows the necessity now, and going forward. I believe we might still do something there, which is why I don't run trying to do the math on why our current situation is absolutely fine.
Why not get Matthijs de Ligt since he wants out of Bayern? He's proven on the big stage and should be cheaper.