Exception to the rule. The amount of quality players Madrid have sold and then replaced with a nice shiny new toy is ridiculous and it usually doesn't work out better.
James Rodriguez
- Thread starter Adcuth
- Start date
Very correct and I was about to post that, even though I was thinking that selling Ozil was a mistake myself. Dunno how this James-Di Maria move will turn out, we will have to wait and see.
Are you still talking about makalele? I would count robben in that too as imo he was a loss but he and Ronaldo are too similar and single minded so maybe it wouldn't have worked and di maria while not as talented individually as robben gave better balance to the team and worked harder. Morientes too as he had a great partnership with raul and while not as good as Ronaldo, he had a better chemistry in the team and was a loss. What others would you consider to have been big mistakes? Big clubs go through lots of players and there will always be some that shouldnt have been sold in hindsight. Barcelona do it too and Bayern as well with all the midfielders coming and going from the club as well as the fact that you could say they replaced heynkkes with a shiny new manager (if Madrid did it people would definitely say it). What trophies in recent years that Madrid have missed out on or bad performances (apart from the obvious 09/10 season) would you attribute to the selling of players to replace them with a shiny toy?
Florentino bites the Galactico bad apple again.. Rodriguez is a luxury player, I don't see him being effective enough to displace Di Maria. Kroos is good, but I wouldn't touch Alonso-Modric-Di Maria partnership, which has brought balance to the team. Of course some important players will be left on the bench, lets see what happens in the locker room because of that.
walter samuel, figo was sold too soon (still superb at inter... became a legend there), roberto carlos was sold when he still had 3 seasons of great form left, seedorf, enrique, sneijder who was replaced by kaka... and who both had opposite fates.. sneijder went to the treble, kaka never returned to his best, cambiasso, luis aragones, canizares.
that's the world class players that weren't adequately replaced, or were sold with poor judgement as they all went on to be extremely successful (or showed they could still remain at an extremely high level for a sizeable amount of time, in the cases of figo, carlos.
that's not to speak of the sublime talents that were never given a real chance... the likes of borja valero, mata, eto'o, negredo, van der vaart, cassano, (robinho?), huntelaar (arguably not madrid quality, but still one of the best finishing 9's in the world).
not that i think this should be held against madrid, although it is a quite remarkable team of rejects when you compile it in the whole.
True, a lot of good players were allowed to leave the club. Although Carlos wanted to leave himself and it thought figo while still good was very slow and it was the correct decision to go. Samuel was a very good defender and maybe would have improved at Madrid if given time but back then the team played with a high line and I don't think he suited that at all due to his lack of pace. I also don't think sneijder would have been as good for Madrid as he was for inter as his motivation levels seem to fluctuate Mourinho was the right man for him in that moment. Cambiasso was a mistake to have let go. As for aragones, he was a very good player but at the time Madrid had so many good players and big players from all around the world it would have been so difficult to have gotten into that team. I cannot remember 100% accuarately, but i am pretty sure Mata was taken from Madrid at age 18 or 19 by Valencia when he was out of contract and Madrid didn't realise which is quite embarrassing
. But at the same time I don't think he was a loss, Madrid have had a lot of good players in that position over the years. Etoo was a massive mistake as he went on to become one of the best strikers in the world. At the time he left Madrid had raul and Ronaldo as well as morientes so it wasn't seen as a big loss, but in hindsight it was a big one.Negredo wouldn't have been around for long as he would have been a sub and would have left. Van der vaart is good but I think spurs was his level. He has a reputation that is bigger than his ability. I remember pellegrini describing him as a player that is 6 or 7 out of 10 and one that doesn't win you a match but doesn't lose you it either. That is similar to how mourinho described arbeloa and imo it shows that at the highest level he isn't rated so highly. Cassano was very talented but had weight problems and fought with managers regularly, i guess like a less controversial balotelli in ways. Robinho wanted to leave but that was because he was treated badly by the club as it was planned to sell him to fund the Ronaldo deal. Its a pity how that worked out as he was getting better every year. I think in the end Madrid eventually ended up replacing these players and I don't think there would be one of them that I would think selling was massively detrimental. For me the biggest mistake was sacking del bosque (much more so than makalele who I consider to have been a big loss) and apart from one year with capello, he wasn't adequately replaced until mourinho took over.
Cannot wait for the first Clasico of the year. Anything below 6-7 goals would be a disappointment.
James seems like a luxury player to me as well, just another shiny toy for Perez. He has bags of potential, no doubt, but he is not worth the money being quoted about.
James seems like a luxury player to me as well, just another shiny toy for Perez. He has bags of potential, no doubt, but he is not worth the money being quoted about.
He really is an unnecessary signing. I think he'll unbalance the side especially if Madrid plan on playing Modric and Kroos in a midfield two, you've got Ronaldo who doesn't track back so he won't have Di Maria covering and helping Marcelo. They really should be adding another central defender or at least drop Pepe.
If Ancelotti made these decision he wouldn't sign Rodriguez especially if he means selling Di Maria.
If Ancelotti made these decision he wouldn't sign Rodriguez especially if he means selling Di Maria.
Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, it's not like you go after bad players (occasional Faubert/Gravesen descents into madness aside) but there's no rhyme or reason to it. Do you need James if you have Isco? Did you need Isco when you had Ozil? Was Ozil necessary when you had Van Der Vaart etc etc. Real don't look at what forward players they really need, they just look at who is nice and expensive and sounds like a Real Madrid signing, and sometimes they toss aside players they need more to do it, which would be the case if you got rid of Di Maria, he's one of your most important players.
I find this one pretty pointless too...especially if it's leading to Di Maria's exit.
He was arguably their best player last season and the system they played won them certain games as opposed to individuals - the counter attack became fashionable again.
Rodriguez looks like he's a bit of a world beater, but I don't understand where he would fit because a midfield two of Kroos and Modric behind a trio of Bale James and Ronaldo looks good on paper but it just lacks a balancing act.
He was arguably their best player last season and the system they played won them certain games as opposed to individuals - the counter attack became fashionable again.
Rodriguez looks like he's a bit of a world beater, but I don't understand where he would fit because a midfield two of Kroos and Modric behind a trio of Bale James and Ronaldo looks good on paper but it just lacks a balancing act.
I wonder if Ancelotti actually thinks about moving CR into the striker position and drop the unloved Benzema instead.
Would be interesting to see if Ancelotti could make it work with Ronnie as a striker.
Xabi
Modric -- Kroos
James -- Ronaldo -- Bale
Modric -- Kroos
James -- Ronaldo -- Bale
Would be interesting to see if Ancelotti could make it work with Ronnie as a striker.
It'll be interesting to see what Ancelotti does. Personally I think he'll stick with the 433 and James will be rotated into the front 3, because Ancelotti talks a lot about balance and I don't see how he can balance 4 de facto forwards on top of Kroos and Modric.
I can just imagine Perez finding out how much Barca paid for Suarez and making sure Real pay at least 5m more.
Unloved Benzema ?
Sometimes things just work out right in the end, eh?
Then they went and bought Bale to neutralize it.
Good thing about this Real Madrid buying frenzy is there'll be plenty of players available for a cut-down price because of huge turnover of footballers there. They'll sell Di Maria this year, probably Benzema next year and I fully expect Bale or Rodriguez to get sold at some point in the next 3-4 years too, likewise Kroos or Modric. They just want to buy and sell.
Bad thing about it is they will go everywhere but United.
Bad thing about it is they will go everywhere but United.
Madrid are the evil sports team in every bad sporting movie.
According to "As" and "Marca" James is already in Madrid and the deal is as good as finished. Real has increased their offer once up to 80 Mil. € and James will sign a contract until 2020. Absolutely nuts....
don't get it, madrid have loads of decent wingers, Rodriguez isn't even gonna get in there team.
they need a striker! weird signing
they need a striker! weird signing
or they could of just bought a striker instead of wasting money on a player they don't need. stupid signing.
Another big payday for Jorge Mendes. Absolutely detestable individual. A vulture taking advantage of clubs work. Very surprised with James Rodriguez evolution. With what he showed at Porto, i expected him to struggle at Mónaco, nevermind a Madrid transfer.
Benzema
Ronaldo - Rodriguez - Bale
Midfield
Course he'll get in their teamRonaldo - Rodriguez - Bale
Midfield
I would consider ozil to be a much better player than van der vaart and I would consider isco to be more hard working and complete than ozil as well as a player with a higher ceiling. Although yes, there are transfers that boogle my mind.
I agree and I think that is kind of cool tbh. If you are the villain you want to be the main one and not one of the minor ones. But who do you think arsenal, liverpool, city, Chelsea, Tottenham (apart from arsenal) and everton (apart from pool obviously) consider to be the bad guys?
Both Barcelona and Madrid are, Barcelona being the lesser of the 2 evils.
I hate how both teams conduct themselves, but like someone else said, you've got to admire them, when they want something they will do whatever it takes to get it, be it kick arse/kiss arse/tapping up etc.
A great talent from what I saw at the WC but it's a small sample size to extrapolate from
This is indeed a typical Perez sort of purchase, we'll see how it works out. Interestingly enough, wasn't long ago he was singling out Messi for high praise
This is indeed a typical Perez sort of purchase, we'll see how it works out. Interestingly enough, wasn't long ago he was singling out Messi for high praise
Although i don't like the way they go about their business i do like how they just get on with it and get their signings done quickly. Something we can learn from i guess, Kroos and Rodriguez done in matter of weeks after the WC, if only we could do the same with Vidal.
It's his world cup performances who created that opportunity not his season with Monaco, he was good but not 70m good. He was also extremely inconsistent.
Florentino said that we gave up on Neymar because the whole thing was very shady and there were 4098731 people that need to get paid to finalize the transfer, which would drive the cost up to 150 mil €.
He also said he doesn't know how Baraca managed to sign him.
And few months later the whole world found out about what Flo was talking about:
FFS Santos got only 14.6 mil Pounds for the transfer? This is such a big farce!
Also why so much money for scouting and marketing?
Also why so much money for scouting and marketing?
Guess the scouts that found him wanted a piece of the action.
As for marketing, i may be wrong but in South America i think players are owned by 3rd parties, i don't think this is allowed in Europe so they probably had to buy out his marketing rights from the company that owned them.
€36m spent on wages should not be included as you don't normally include this in a fee. Without it Neymar would have cost them €68m in transfer fees, still too much but not that crazy.
Friend of Essien's by any chance? Did he lend you a calculator?
Wages are £36m, so that still leaves £73m (which would be well over 90 million Euros) as different fees out of which Santos only received £14m.
Maybe we'll find out in court. There's also info coming in that Bartomeu (current Barca president) might also be called up to testify or that the whole indictment might be extended depending on what they find out in court.
Btw, Messi will pay 53 million € taxes in Spain for calendar year, reports La Vanguardia!
...don't know how, but I bet Wesley's feeling all jalous..
My point is, Real Madrid treats players like shiny toys to showoff.. Yes, Ozil started good for Arsenal, and then had a dip in form, where Bale started not so great and build up to get better.. the point is they already had a World Class attacking creative midfielder, and then they spent 100M to get a new one... yes Bale is a bit better than Ozil, but is that difference worth 100M€ .. I don't think so... I may be biased cause personally I .. well kinda despise both Real and Barcelona... same goes for now tweaking the team, to get James.. Let's say it will be Falcao or Benzema up front, with Bale, Ronaldo and James who all now must play, with such an offensive lineup, against stronger teams, real could be overrun in midfield... luxury signing, and it proves how much of a waste it was to sign Isco, better to leave him in Mallaga where he would play...
On the other hand, I can only be envious and congratulate Real on getting Kroos, that's a player who in my view is an improvement, even thou Modric, Khedira and Xabi Alonso are world class players, but with Xabi's years, brilliant move to get Kroos...
On the other hand, I can only be envious and congratulate Real on getting Kroos, that's a player who in my view is an improvement, even thou Modric, Khedira and Xabi Alonso are world class players, but with Xabi's years, brilliant move to get Kroos...