Juanito could be interesting. He looked solid when he played in Euro2004, cleaning up for Raul Bravo quite often. This could give him a chance to establish himself in the Spanish team. Other than that, if Cannavaro is being mentioned, why not Nesta? Surely he can't be worth more than what we were gonna pay for Vieira. Or can he.. And yeah, i would much rather have Xabi over any of the def midfielders on that list.
Coloccini - looks very likely, as he can fill in 3 positions (Camacho will like that) and his price is low. Already has experience playing with Samuel. Juanito - interesting... it would be nice to have another Spaniard on the squad... Dellas - played well in Euro 2004, but the style of the Greek national team is obviously quite different than Real Madrid. Would he cope? Cannavaro - Italian national team defender... what would he cost? Diarra - anyone familiar with this player? Costinha - do we really want to deal with Pinto Da Costa again? Dacourt - low on my list VanBommel - almost signed for Tottenham
I don't think Cannavaro would cost that much because of his age. If they could get him out of Inter for a decent price I wouldn't mind. I actually like Cannavaro more than Nesta, I have never been that high on Nesta.
<< I asked for a sofa, they bought me a lamp >> Did you not see Beckham's perfect cross to Morientes for the first goal vs Wisla? I like Beckham exactly where he is. He needs a good destroyer by his side. The list is from AS, so I take it with a grain of salt, but half those names would do. Mantaining the optimism. Great threadtitle!
Good Point. It may take some time for them to figure out the chemistries, but it could be very positive over the long haul. People just need to be patient with it.
Van Bommel is cup tied to PSV, unless they only want a defensive mid for the league, he won't be coming.
I think Camacho will have a sit down with his strikers and lay down what he has in mind as far as rotation. I hope that they all agree that whatever decision he makes on the field as far as substitutions and who starts is strictly based on what he thinks is best for the team in that particular game/situation. They're all top strikers, but they should also understand that if one isn't playing so well or isn't in form, they should make way for the other to help the team win the game. Will they look at that way and set their egos aside?....hopefully This is a promising list, although I think Coloccini is a top priority. How much time do you think the club will give him to rest after the Olympics? (this question is based on the assumption that we do get him) I think the gold medal match is on August 28th. I agree about the whole Costinha deal. Do we really want to negotiate with Porto's president again. Marca even reported that MANICHE's name was mentioned as a possible reinforcement to the team along with Javier Mascherano (the young Argentinian/River Plate DM). The transfer window is slowly but surely closing, but we'll just have to be patient and see how it all turns out like Sinko said.
Cordoba played for Inter Milan in the CL against Basel. Coloccini is the obvious choice, but I somehow think it will be Cannavaro or nobody.
Yeah, a famous sentence of Benitez the last preseason .... and Valencia won la liga and UEFA ...... curious .... I think that Benitez should let to his wife or another person the election of the furniture .... The great problem of the signing of Owen has been the moment. A big part (not all) of the supporters would have accepted good his signing if we would have signed first a DM and/or a CB. But the signing was announced the same day that failed the signing of Vieira .... and the bomb exploded, The supporters received the message "Another Galactico and no defenders, no what camacho wants". The people was very upset (myself included). Now, the people is waiting expectantly to see what happen the next days. If Florentino don't sign 1 or 2 defenders, he is going to have serious problems with the supporters in the games. The people would be really really upset. And Owen will be one of the victims, the fans will use him to attack Florentino, Owen wouldn't have a happy welcome in Madrid ... ... But if we finally sign some defenders the people will accept the new galactico. First, we haven't pay for him like he was a galactico: We haven't paid 65Millions (Zidane) nor 60M (Figo) nor 45M(Ronaldo) nor 25M+10M for objetives (Beckham), .... We have paid 12 Millions. This price is very very far from a galactico/superstar player price. We would have paid similar money for a "good" backup forward. But Owen isn't a good backup forward, he is a winner of Golden Ball of only 24 years old, that has scored 156 goals with liverpool, and 26 goals with England, with a average of O.5 goals per game. It means, a player of more than 20 goals per season. Although he was totally overrated, like some people says, his price would continue being cheap. I can remember in the past when RM tried to sign him, his price was 30, 40 or even 50 Millions when he won the golden ball. But never less than 25-30 Millions .... ..... And he won't earn a "galactic" salary. He will be in the group of Roberto Carlos, Samuel and Morientes. With Ronaldo, Raul, Morientes and Owen the production of goals is totally guaranteed for the next year, even in the case of two injuries, or bad form of 1 or 2 forwards. The last year we have serious problems to score when Ronaldo was injured. This year that won happen. Also Camacho will be able to choose several options of forward depending of the game, the rival, the problems of a specific game, ... for Example, players very fast that play very good with spaces like Ronaldo or Owen, players that play great without spaces Raul or Morientes, players great for aerial play like Morientes. If Owen was searching a big challenge, I can't think a biggest one. He will have to fight for a position with the best forward in the world (Ronaldo), with the captain of the team and forward with the best numbers in CL, Real Madrid, and Spain NT history (Raul) and the top scored of CL 2004 (Morientes). It clear that he has accepted this challenge. The problem could be the players that currently have the team: Ronaldo said few days ago (speaking about Morientes) that he is happy with the competition, that he has had to fight very hard to be were he is, including two terribles injuries that would have destroyed the sport life of the 99% of the players. Only a player very very strong mentally have the capacity of work and suffering required to get over so big injuries, and returning to the highest level. Everybody know Raul and his character, he won't have problems with the competition. The only one that could have problems would be Morientes, seeing what happen two years ago, but this year he seems stronger mentally. Anyway, Camacho will have a big challenge having four players that could play in the 99% of the teams the 90 minutes. But if someone can work with it, Camacho is the man. He has been captain of RM, and he knows perfectly a bench, and the players. He will manage well the situation, and if one player doesn't accepted it, that forward will pass automatically to the number four of the list. Now, Florentino has the key to make the work easy to everyone, even himself. He should buy one or two sofas, and fast ...... if not the hot of the summer could last until december and would be particularly intense inside the Bernabeu, with the highest temperatures near the president's box.
We got a very fragile sofa. I think that Woodgate will be a success because of the change in scenery -- he seemed to be getting in trouble with the law in England, and I think he will be more respectful and cautious in another country. If he can stay healthy and out of trouble, though, I think he and Samuel can develop into a wonderful backline partnership. And he's only 24, just like Owen (other teams fans love to yap about how old the Galacticos are, but they really aren't that old - these two are 24, Samuel, Ronaldo, and Raul are 27, Beckham's 29 or 30...Figo, Zidane, and RCarlos are the only ones getting old.) I still would like to see a young defensive mid brought in, though, so that Helguera isn't playing every game, and so that he can move back into defense if he needs to.
yes, the only weak spot i see on this team is depth at defensive midfield and right back. i would love to see Coloccini since he would answer both of those needs (would he be another sofa? lazy-boy? coffee table?) but i've got a feeling this will be it.
I think this is a great signing. I think Woodgate has had injury problems, but not proneness to injury as seen at his days at Leeds. Not a huge fee for a world class defender. Him and Rio make England one of the best central defence pairings in the world. Then you pair him with Samuel who is at least the equal of Rio if not better. Now this solves a lot of question marks in the squad. First Helguerea can move back into the midfield to give even more depth. Second this gives a defensive first approach in the center even if Carlos and Salgado attack. Third it moves Pavon and Raul Bravo onto the bench where they would better suited as backups.
I think Coloccini would be like a folding table. Versatile, not permanent, does a lot of jobs well... I think Coloccini should be our first option, and we should be willing to pay a good amount to acquire him from Milan. Mascherano's another option, but I haven't been that impressed by him in the Olympics. Coloccini's versatility would be a great asset for this team, and he's talented and young enough to make him an interesting option in a few spots for the future.
totally agree. even though, we've already signed a 'sofa' we don't really want(but coach asked him, right?), we need another 'IKEA', a real one. Coloccini seems to be the perfect solution for depth, he can play central bank, right bank, and also defensive midfield, and price is reasonable.
In theory, yes... but it has yet to be proven for England. His injury/other problems have prevented Woodgate from adding to his 5 caps. Certainly when they were at Leeds together, still both young players, they formed an extremely effective partnership in defence.