Translation : Real offered me a trophy winning project, but Saudi offered me a mountain of cash I don't deserve. It’s cute that he thinks anyone is losing sleep over this.
Never gonna happen. Zero signing. We'll get news that Alaba is coming off the injury list really soon.
This is why playing Castilla players makes a lot of sense. If they are good enough for first team (Asensio), you get a free signing. If they arent, you promote them and sell them for a lot. Barca are experts at this, lots of meh players sold for lots of money only because they got a few first team appearances. Selling from Castilla without any first team exposure means you expect the buying team to do serious scouting work.
He's an idiot, but Simon Jordan once said Chelsea needed to suit up every mediocre youth team player, give them 10 minutes at the end of clear wins for Chelsea, and cash in millions from other first and second division clubs. Sounds great but i wonder how long until clubs figure that you're messing with them and catch up. I do see a ton of value in investing into the youth system though. Bayern practically slipped into some fantastic players by chance (Kroos!).
Real Madrid would never really develop Castilla players. Every manager is basically fighting for his job from day one and is "encouraged" to play those expensive and highly marketable stars. The only way those young players would get significant PT is thru injuries (Asencio). And even that is not guaranteed (Vasquez@ RB)
Bring back Chema, Jacobo and Paz. Sell Fran and Mendy and promote Valdapenas to compete with Carreras.
He can play CB, similar to Carreras but I don’t see a problem with that. More the reason to bring him in as he’s positionally flexible.
Incorrect. He is not LB who can play CB. He is a CB who can play LB. Big difference, as we can see with Carreras.
I think he turned us down because he didn’t want to play second fiddle to Benzema, who was clearly the more elite. Understandable.
Benz literally chose Saudi money over renewing with RM. What's the big deal if Firmino who was not close to 2023 Benzema level rejected RM for Saudi money lol.
Mario Gomez turned us down as well and went to Fiorentina. He was told he was supposed to "push Benzema" and keep him on his toes, Gomez said he didn't want to leave Bayern and head straight into another buzzsaw of a stuation with so much drama and wanted to just have a meaningful fun experience instead. Players turn down clubs for a variety of reasons.
I absolutely believe that. He would have seemed like a good signing once Benzema announced he was leaving, we had no striker, and it was becoming increasingly clear we had to wait a year for Mbappe. edit: Both went to Saudi in 2023.