Definitely mutes the interest but also I think it's putting a ridiculous amount of mileage on these athletes, national team football would be far more interesting and healthy if if they capped at a specific number of first division players in the roster and total minutes of said players for qualifications.
Carvajal is a RB from the old days. Great going forward and great in defending. They don't make RBs like him anymore. Big loss for us imo. Alaba is the 2nd or 3rd top earner at the club and one of the top 5 in La Liga, by 2025/26 he'll probably spend 40% of his contract injured. He was good for one season, then his form deteriorated severely. Morale of the story for Flo and co: sometimes free-agent transfers don't work out and end up costing you a sh!t load but sure let the club's media minions use Jovic and Hazard as excuses for not reinforcing our squad. But hey I'm sure Alaba's a good cheerleader on the bench, emotional support, holding up chairs and all that.
After the fact experts complaining, however when David was leaving Bayern , everyone wanted him, he chose us, we needed to pay him, moral of that story, too many Monday morning quarterbacks, David has won titles with us playing an important role.
If club signs TAA, he has a ton of negatives and Frimpong who gets benched in big games by Xabi is the one club should have gone for. If TAA renews, club missed out on a world class RB. Just like Mbappe was top class when PSG wouldn't sell him and misfit when he joined on bosman. This would be the narrative of some.
I’m not 100% sold on TAA, but he’s probably the best option out there. Whoever we get will be a lesser talent. Players like Dani don’t come along often, he was a generational talent as he was great in attack and defending and even more valuable he laid the first brick for DecStefano stadium. Mental how he’s been consistently the best RB for better than a decade. Sad to see him go out like this. I hope he’s able to recover to be a back up for a season or two and lift one CL trophy as captain.
He was holding up chairs when he was immense for the club. Also, him being long term injured means we only pay a fraction of his wages. This is a key fact. That status is probably a matter of the club and the players insurance.
Dani has been amazing for us, moments like these really remind you not to take good things for granted in life. The fact that the club already had some sort of a channel open with TAA is great and I hope we can snatch him now. We're not going to find a Dani Carvajal replacement, but at least we're getting a good talent. The question is if we'll go for him now or in the summer.
He was a disaster in 21/22. It took us miracle goals and saves in the UCL to overcome the atrocities he committed at the back.
🚨 JUST IN: David Alaba is training on the grass. pic.twitter.com/O3Aebiy4sE— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) October 15, 2024
🚨⚪️ Rumours about a possible early end to David Alaba's career or new pain in his knee are complete nonsense.Alaba’s recovery is still going according to plan; player, doctors, fitness coaches are satisfied with healing process.Alaba, continuing his plan and feeling better. pic.twitter.com/jgZYCF5ngS— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 15, 2024
Asensio wasn't helping Carva and Mbappe/Nuno cooked us in both games on left side. Is Alaba to blame for that? You said Alaba was atrocious last season and even blamed him for early chances Girona created when he didn't even play in that game. RM had least goals conceded in last 30 years during first half of the season. So Alaba doesn't get any credit if we rarely concede and is blamed if we have conceded goals. RM won majority CLs in last 11 years due to great scoring record and key saves. Rarely had great defensive record in CL after 2013-14 tie against Bayern. Needed CR hattrick remontada to beat friggin Wolfsburg after 2-0 loss away. 2017 & 2018 Bayern scored twice at the Bernabeu and we scraped through. 2021-22 we played all the tough teams and Alaba isn't the reason why we got outplayed in midfield for large stretch. Just like Pepe, Ramos, Varane and Nacho can't be scapegoated for the goals conceded and offense having to bail out. ZZ & Carlo's public theory has been to "suffer" in those big games.
Hope we get to see a positive side of Alaba on the pitch once he returns, yes he’s not looked like his old self prior to the injury but when on form, he’s one of my favourite players to watch. When he joined us I don’t think anyone else could have dictated play from the back like he was able to, was really a joy to watch. Really cool player.
🗣️ Varane: “All the big clubs should copy Real Madrid. I was lucky enough to experience it.” pic.twitter.com/srRem4cPcO— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) October 16, 2024 🗣️ Varane: “José Mourinho started something huge. Ancelotti managed to turn it to La Decima and then we had the golden generation at their peak, with Zizou at the helm.” pic.twitter.com/MnBuMHHqxN— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) October 16, 2024 🗣️ Varane: “I was lucky enough to get to a club that gives young people time to learn at a very high level and mature physically. What Real Madrid have done for years, with me, Valverde, Vinicius, Rodrygo… is exceptional.” pic.twitter.com/XQLqHFy53y— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) October 16, 2024
That photo of Mourinho, Zizou and Carlo... They're the big three of Florentino's second term. Iconic. I was just reading how Varane was dealing with injuries. Back in 2013 he apparently played a match for France after they drained fluid from his injured knee and shot him up with painkillers. He then later injured the other knee because of the overload/compensation. And he says he'd do it all over again for France. What a guy. Not surprised his peak wasn't as long as it could've been, but what a great defender he was.
but why though? whwt 2013 match could be that important? I understand the World Cup but what, a qualifier? Bad decision tbh
World cup qualifier playoffs vs Ukraine. https://www.espn.co.uk/football/match/_/gameId/382195/ukraine-france Definitely not a smart move for a 20 year old professional player with his whole career in front of him. But it seems like he has no ragretz. He was out for 2 months after that. Edit: It was a do or die game for them, after being 2:0 down from the first leg. They managed to win 3:0 and qualify.
🚨 Real Madrid are very happy with Nico Paz. They are monitoring him both with Como and now Argentina.Real Madrid have control over the player, and Nico Paz loves Real Madrid. @FabrizioRomano pic.twitter.com/09TCFDLbDD— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) October 16, 2024
Next summer the likes of Paz and Marin surely have to look at our lack of viable depth in midfield and think seriously about making a move for a similar career to Lucas at Real Madrid if they’re up for it. Luka will be almost, if not 40 by then, Ceballos’ availability record in the last 12/18 months is very patchy, and that’s it, everyone else in midfield already start a ton of games for us.
Cool to see Varane acknowledging Mourinho. I don't know where we would be right now had we kept that pre-Mourinho passive attitude watching Barça win every trophy.
I think he pretty obviously is taking his own path here. I personally think his path mirrors that of Odegaard in a lot of ways. Former football playing father very involved, this is somebody who will not look at how he fits best into Madrid, rather than where he fits best for his own career.
Well it’s fair either way, if he wants to be at Real Madrid and if he proves himself good enough then it would be great to have a Castilla player as a depth option for us. I like Paz for his tall frame, this is why he intrigues me as he might be someone who can turn into a true central midfielder as opposed to a purely attacking mid being shoehorned into central midfield, which hardly ever works. If he wants to stay away from Madrid and go the Mayoral route and eventually start for a Sevilla/Roma tier club instead (something that Lucas, Nacho, Brahim etc could have done with their eyes closed) then fair enough, we’ll have other options.