Rebuilding Madrid, One Pass at a Time - The Transfers, Rumors & Lies Thread

I don't think that anything to do with Mourinho. If Fran has one year left, then he gets extended or sold. If he is sold, they need to buy a LB, otherwise your stuck with only Carreras. Mendy does not count. The media just likes attributing this to the new coach. But its a squad issue if Fran is sold.

 

To add insult to injury, our most creative midfielder and only proper passer, Arda has always been the one "losing" his spot.

 

As much as people would like to remove Bellingham from the equation. The reality is he is not going anywhere. I don't see the point of entertaining fictious scenarios that I know will not happen.

 

Cucurella is available yet Mou apparently wants a CB at LB. Mou started that trend long back with Gallas at LB before Pep and Arteta.

 

I suspect though that a some of what he/she wrote there will come to pass, i'm surprised by the lack of, "what about castilla players getting chances in the first team" and "we need more Spanish players" i've read so far, only because of how much of it i read during recent seasons, maybe the great one will change all that, Alvaro tried and he was considered an idiot and useless.

It's always astonishing to me to read this about Fede Valverde, a dynamic player both on and off the ball, who can both pass and move with the ball forward, score goals and provide assists, but never Arda who really does struggle on the ball under pressure and spends ages passing safely sideways and backwards, that is "keeping the ball moving" sort of i suppose, for you stats guys well they are about the same but IMHO Fede brings more to the team at this time, as for Jude, still takes far far too many unnecessary touches when he is on the ball, consistently slowing the play down

 

Remember that Valverde doesn't see himself as anything but a CM: he was born for that role per his words.

He and his wife had issues with Carlo playing him out wide. And we know what happened with Xabi when he played Valverde at RB when both Carvajal and Trent were out.

Arbeloa played him at RW in key games (Atletico and City x2) and even though he did really well there, he returned to CM vs Bayern 2L, Betis, Athletic.

 

Cucurella is a La Masia graduate and reportedly wants a Barcelona move. I find it very hard to believe he'll want to play for RM.

 

This is not rocket science. Guler is playing in the 10 role, feeding passes to Mbappe etc. Valverde does not have this trait, he cannot make those key passes. Valverde is a vertical box to box mid. We are not saying he is useless, just that someone in the midfield needs to have those traits.
The whole point is not to have Guler playing deep in the midfield where he does not have the defensive acumen.

As much as Bellingham has been a problem, until he is actually sold, he will be starting in the midfield. So you need to construct a midfield with him in it.

I had to argue with 80% of the board last summer who kept telling me that we had to ditch Modric because he was blocking Guler progress into the deep lying playmaker role. And I was adament that Guler was a not a deep lying playmaker. Not to say I told you so to 80% of the board, but it is what it is. I didn't need to watch Guler a year in that role to know that.

 

Moving Cama on for a Mateus Fernandez is a no brainer at this point. What is there to think about? Cama has to fetch at least 45mil. So you are essentially paying 45mil for a Mateus Fernandez which is not bad at all. Solves all the creativity, press resistance, link up play problems in the squad without losing defensive stability. Bellingham-arda is a fake problem. What we have needed since kroos-modric is someone that can work in tight spaces and bring the ball up from defense.

 

Cucurella wouldn't care as Barca had sold him to Getafe and didn't want him back when he was getting sold to Brighton. Only Atleti willing to pay even 40 ME right now though Chelsea wants 50 ME+.

Barca can only sign him if Balde agrees to leave apparently which I don't see happening as he's at his dream club with a contract until 2028.

 

Playing RW sometimes can be difficult for him because he isn't a pure dribbler, but he can cross well. I feel like his crossing is under appreciated. And you can always funnel the ball to Vini on the left when the other team parks the bus. Valverde usually can take advantage on the counters when the other team is more open.

I find it odd he does not want to play RB, whenever he plays that position, he basically has free reign up and down the flank. And the opponent usually ignores him because they need to first cover whowever is on the right side ahead of him. He is more shackled in terms of position when he plays midfield because he has to maintain his position. When he plays RB, he can wander around the pitch, and when he is caught, he just runs straight back and catches the winger. The opponents cannot seem to take advantage of him when he is caught out of position.

 

Camavinga doesn't want to leave, I doubt he'll readily find a club that is prepared to pay him €7.5m net (by comparison Vitinha earns €9.5m, Neves €6).

 

Camavinga is signed until 2029. We are probably stuck with him at least until next summer. After the Silva signing, he is now basically Ceballos.

 

Yeah, long contracts, undeserved renewals, big wages makes a lot of these 'unwanted' players take the Alaba route.

 

Well for one we already added our fourth midfield starter and we aren't paying almost 100M€ for a rotational or bench player.

Secondly, if we were adding Mateus it would be for Jude or Fede because we need our DM and Mateus is a CM so he would replace one of them.

Yeah, we're not selling either of them unless they demand out.

Which leads to the third point. We can only sell a player who wants to leave and last I checked Camavinga was all smiles at Massachusetts using Real Madrid's program to attend Harvard.

 

Tah and Schlotterbeck will start for Germany in the World Cup, I guess. Rudiger's knees getting rest is fine by me. Schlotterbeck's pricetag can't get inflated if he has an amazing World Cup due to release clause which is good from RM perspective.

 

Yep... our only hope is Mourinho can somehow jolt some life into his new terms "French gato".

 

I feel like Mourinho is going to lose it on either Camavinga or Trent first. After Camavinga's first yellow, Mourinho will give him a death stare. And if Camavinga gets a 2nd yellow within a few minutes, Mourinho is going to lose it.

 

Rudiger can be a spectator the entire tournament. All the better for me, he has no knees left.

 

He should reconsider playing as a leftback.

 

Tchouameni, Valverde and Bellingham are good without the ball but mediocre with it.

That's why I don't think Mourinho can afford to start all three when they all subpar with ball at their feet.

 

There is an absolute duplication of profiles.

 

There are ways to force out players, specially the higher profile ones because there would always be takers otherwise Robben and Ozil would have never been sold. A little nudge here, a little conflict there, a firm office talk, all at the risk of pissing of some players.

 

Hopefully it's Eduardo and he turns that passive, focus lacking gato into an aggressive driven lion.

Trent is just what he is. He is just a liability one on one whether his opponent is on or off the ball.

 

I suspect a couple of players will be uncomfortable with Mourinho especially if he is given authority.

This group is spoiled, they demonstrated consistent apathy on the pitch, flipped out when subbed out/rotated, bitched about post-game films, sent in their parents to argue with Perez/JAS over coach decisions, refused to follow coach instructions/play in certain positions and slapped each other around in the locker room.

This behavior won't magically disappear with Mou.