Martin Ødegaard discussion

nah, Valk has a point. Those two were two diamonds in a rough, but Madrid crushed them, just like they crushed most if not all of the youngsters they signed and rarely ever played.

Valkyrja wrote:such a cheap post lol, that know it all attitude is deplorable for a nutcase like u with a well known history of nonsense posts

take a nap boy, you’re tired.

the old insults lol, you thought he was the new Veron or something lmao

I also felt insulted when reading that starting week in week out that 2016 XI minus 2 legendary players Marcelo and CR (replaced by scrubs) is a good thing for the club

wish you well watching your future legend Asensio leading us to the Intertoto cup

Who cares about Asensio? He sucks

Is Odegaard a spoilt kid or someone who thinks too highly of himself

Maybe he's a coward and afraid to fight.

The reports make him seem like he thinks he is entitled to starting berth.

He hasn't proven anything of worth really. Was good at Sociedad, was ok at Arsenal and has been pretty much nothing at Real Madrid.

That being said, he is a good talented player and everyone would like him to stay and battle his way into the starting eleven.

We really don't know that. The reports you're reading are mostly coming from Madrid's mouthpieces, so I would take them with a grain of salt.

Ultimately, people believe what they want to believe. And in my opinion, the kid's biggest mistake was signing for Madrid, a club that truly sucks at spotting or developing young talent.

Now, he'll just join the long list of failed young signings post-2015.

Odegaard shined at LaReal and Arsenal.  Why isn't it working out in Madrid?  Casemiro, Kroos, Valverde, and Modric.  He doesn't have a regular spot and he doesn't want to be on the bench (rightly so at this stage of his career).

The days where "the cunts" could sign top-level talent and they would be satisfied sitting on the Madrid bench are over, unless the player is Spanish.

sportsczy wrote:Odegaard shined at LaReal and Arsenal.  Why isn't it working out in Madrid?  Casemiro, Kroos, Valverde, and Modric.  He doesn't have a regular spot and he doesn't want to be on the bench (rightly so at this stage of his career).

The days where we could sign top-level talent and they would be satisfied sitting on the Madrid bench are over, unless the player is Spanish.

What is this we? You have long since jumped off the bandwagon. Good ridance!

Agreed. Force of habit. I should have said "the cunts". I will correct.

Was one of his biggest supporters but he's constanly complaining. Just best to cash in on him

sportsczy wrote:The days where "the cunts" could sign top-level talent and they would be satisfied sitting on the Madrid bench are over, unless the player is Spanish.

I don't think Madrid had any malicious intent with Ode. I think they really signed him as part of their youth project because they truly believed he would burst onto the scene in a few years.

I didn't work out because they failed to develop him, but you can't help but feel bad for the guy because he chose us even though at the time many clubs were trying to convince him to join them, including Barça.

The trail of failed young signings attached to Madrid's name in recent years is frankly alarming and doubly disadvantageous: For the players for getting their development halted in their golden years  and for the club for getting nothing out of their investment.

This whole attitude problem began which his father insisted the 15 year old would practice with first team be in the contract. That led to entitlement and no need to work in practice!

Shined at Arsenal is a bit of a stretch, he wasn't exactly lighting up the place. At all. He did show genuine promise at La Real but faded as the season went on. My dear friend Thimmy could pin point exactly when and how it really started (the downward trend that is).

All in all, Sports is a bit wrong on this one as "the cunts" were not exactly at fault. This investment simply didn't work out, it happens. Though it's kinda funny we are just gonna pretend Zidane didn't give two shits about Ode when he came back. Or at all.

I'd say 40 million is solid. Arsenal spent 50 million on some scrub named Ben White, surely Odegaard can go for about the same

I don't know where to start in addressing this conversation. I think it would have been more fair to say "he's not that great" than this media inspired, mumbo jumbo.

I don't know Martin personally, but based on my brief conversation with him, I think it's pretty safe to say that he's a very down to earth guy who wouldn't brag or complain about anything, even if he had golden opportunities to do so. That kind of attitude absolutely doesn't seem to reflect the type of guy that he is. After he joined Castilla as a 15 year old, the poor guy had to endure both criticism regarding his supposed, arrogant attitude, as well as people pointing out that he was too timid, and lacked aggressiveness in his play.

The "entitlement" regarding him being contracted to train with the first team is lost on me. If it's in the contract, then the club should be contractually obligated to grant those terms. Someone on here pointed out that such contract terms aren't meant to be taken seriously, and maybe that's a cultural thing, but that seems absurd to me. Either way, It's not like a big deal was ever made out of it, and I fail to see where the supposed entitlement comes from in all of this. The club did initially accept those terms, after all.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:We really don't know that. The reports you're reading are mostly coming from Madrid's mouthpieces, so I would take them with a grain of salt.

I love you, man  Several of the media rumors surrounding him were debunked in the past. Off the top of my head, some journalists manufactured replies he supposedly made about Zidane in two seperate interviews, and I recall there being rumors about him being arrogant while he was playing for Castilla. Straight up lies. Why do some of us seem to lack to ability to be even remotely critical or sceptical before swallowing all of these stories? We aren't kids anymore.

Futbol Bill wrote:This whole attitude problem began which his father insisted the 15 year old would practice with first team be in the contract. That led to entitlement and no need to work in practice!

This is pure speculation and mind-reading. Feel free to list a single source that suggests that he doesn't work hard in training.

I didn't watch him regularly at Arsenal. Based on what my Arsenal supporting friends have told me, he had some great performances, but also had some where he wasn't quite at the same, high level. Sounds to me like he was inconsistent. From what I can tell, the vast majority of Arsenal fans would have wished to sign him.  

He spent half a season there, and I recall him being injured while playing for our NT during that period of time, so I imagine he didn't play that many matches for them while he was fully fit. For me, his highlight for Arsenal was his second half against West Ham. That was an absolutely special performance by him, and it highlighted all of the things that he's capable of doing. I do get the impression that he can be quite inconsistent. At 22, that's something he still has some time to improve on, in my opinion.

Sensationalist rumors and speculation aside, we've never been known to have much, if any patience with players who don't perform consistently from the get go. Young, talented playmakers are exceptionally rare these days, but I suppose we're a financial powerhouse who can get anyone

Forgive me Thimmy for repeating what I’ve heard regarding his attitude. From what I have seen, both with return from La Real and this time with his return from Arsenal is he hasn’t been impressive with his opportunities under two different coaches. And yet, he almost immediately seems to want a starting spot or a rotational role. It just doesn’t work like that especially for a youngster. You need to at least show something to warrant that request.

In any event, Arsenal is after him and it looks like it will happen and could be the key to getting the scorer we desperately need

At 22, he needs to play every single game or as many as possible... not sit on anyone's bench.  That's the bottom line.  Nothing to do with "he doesn't want to compete" or "he has a bad attitude".

He's at the stage in his football career where he must be on the pitch and he demands it.  Anyone with half a brain should absolutely understand that.

Besides not being the player that he was for 6 months at La Real, sadly due to injury, Odegaard is also not stupid. I think he knows what kind of player he is, he loves being a number 10 and he sees how Madrid plays and he would basically be competing for a CM role where he would fare worst than his current competition.

I think he knows Madrid won’t change the system to accommodate it, it could have happened with the new coach and so he waited but he clearly sees that it’s gonna be a 433 and that’s it. Arsenal and Arteta will play him in his preferred role so at the end of the day, too bad it didn’t work out.

He should be careful though because Arteta might get sacked if results continue and he might have this issue again in the future. There are a bunch of playmakers like him on the market today looking for clubs and none of the top clubs trying to sign them

I agree Nick. The #10 role is disappearing not only from Madrid but most teams. To me that has been the reason or some of the reasoning,  several of Spanish players aren't turning out so well. I think we  (Spaniards) produce more 10s than any other position. However, if I look at the latest national teams (both Euro and Olympic), the newest generation have a lot of versatility, being able to play several positions and not fixed on a single position or system.

I was hoping Odegaard would make the grade as I certainly prefer him over Isco. However I believe your explanation and I do regret the attitude posts I made. Interesting injuries both after La Real and as he went to Arsenal have been a factor as well. I wish him well.

In another club development, looks like Ancelotti is solving the forward overload dilemma by shifting Asensio to midfield. It's now Isco or Asensio as backup to Modric.

I never really liked Odegaard, always thought the original 2014 hype job was grotesque considering his quite evident and arguably limited player profile which I doubt he'll ever transcend: the CAM/RAM type of player. Nowadays the dream players at the very top level imo are the complete center midfielder types, the wingers/goal scoring wide forwards who can make runs ahead of the ball, stretch defenses, and produce goals. I lost some respect for Spanish analysts like Miguel Quintana and Co. who alleged that Odegaard could play the Modric role and be his successor as an "interior" because he had already done so at Real Sociedad, bs, I watched some of his full match performances and there was never such displays in the slightest, different players. Always looked more uncomfortable and disconnected in more deep sitting tasks, whether attacking interplay or defense.

Generally not a fan of RM signing AM's like these, Kubo and Brahim are different but alike to Odegaard, CAM zone type of attacking midfielders, not excited by them at all but can have a place in the squad similar to Isco who also never really transcended beyond his 12th man role, not a coincidence.

The Madrid One wrote:I never really liked Odegaard, always thought the original 2014 hype job was grotesque considering his quite evident and arguably limited player profile which I doubt he'll ever transcend: the CAM/RAM type of player. Nowadays the dream players at the very top level imo are the complete center midfielder types, the wingers/goal scoring wide forwards who can make runs ahead of the ball, stretch defenses, and produce goals. I lost some respect for Spanish analysts like Miguel Quintana and Co. who alleged that Odegaard could play the Modric role and be his successor as an "interior" because he had already done so at Real Sociedad, bs, I watched some of his full match performances and there was never such displays in the slightest, different players. Always looked more uncomfortable and disconnected in more deep sitting tasks, whether attacking interplay or defense.

Generally not a fan of RM signing AM's like these, Kubo and Brahim are different but alike to Odegaard, CAM zone type of attacking midfielders, not excited by them at all but can have a place in the squad similar to Isco who also never really transcended beyond his 13th man role, not a coincidence.

I think those are very fair opinions to have about him. The "entitled" and "doesn't work hard in training" claims are hilarious, though. I can't help but feel like I have to respond to them, because they're blatant lies, and I don't understand why anyone would have any reason to go out of their way to spread such lies about anyone. All of his non- Madrid coaches have described him as someone who works hard in training.

This is a similiar theory to what Nick posted the other day. I’m inclined to agree. The CAM or RAM role is or has just about disappeared. As I said earlier Spain has been producing too many of them and it does seem as most of them can’t adapt to other roles, although the recent NT and Olympic team has shown today’s prospects are more adaptable.

But that ‘never liked’ statement is not called for. He is obviously a talented guy. I do wish him well. I believe what happened is similar to what Sports said a few days ago, that he realizes he has to play and after that reported conversation that he had with Ancelotti where it was pointed out there was a lot of competition to get playing time, he asked for the trade. I do accept that the attitude stories are more than likely bs and I regret the post I made saying I had heard those stories. I also didn’t realize how much injuries had affected his RMadrid ‘tryout’ opportunities.

As to TMO’s comments about Kubo and Brahim, i believe he has it wrong. Kubo is similar in the CAM / RAM role as is Asensio and Rodrygo, but Brahim is a RW, not at all similar to those other guys. I do feel Isco is similar as well. At one point, we Spanish thought Isco would be our next Iniesta as there were many similarities. But Iniesta could adapt from playing an AM role to CM with ease. That really in a nutshell is the difference (of course ignoring player attitudes).

I find there is just too much trashing of players not making it at Madrid. Bottom line to me is they wouldn’t have been here in the first place if they didn’t have talent. Just because they don’t make it because of the system, coach’s preference, lack of adaptability or pure competition, doesn’t make them poor players!

I'm not mad at the deal. It's not like we signed him for 40 million or something crazy like that. He got signed for 4, sold for thirty something. So I dont mind the business, on the football end, it is what it is, he wants game time, cant get mad at him for that. When u reach a certain age, ure still young but if ure not getting game time or starter minutes at like 22, 23 u begin to get that cloud above u as a utility player and it could halt ure stock. So not mad at him at all for not staying.

Apparently the club had planned Isco as the sale, but he is reluctant to go and no offers were coming. When Odegaard put in his request that changed everything. Neither Varane nor Odegaard were original plans, but they were the deals that could bring in substantial transfer funds especially in this covid market place. The income of funds makes it possible to have some transfer funds to try to get scoring talent.

This is partly speculation since Ødegaard takes good care not to say anything controversial to the press, but his recent interviews seem to suggest that he had a talk with Ancelotti, and did not agree with the latter's plans for him. Which isn't surprising, considering Ancelotti pointed out in his autobiography from 4-5 years ago that he never asked to have Ødegaard in his squad, and felt forced to give him an unofficial debut in pre-season during his first stint as our manager.

I wouldn't want to play for a manager who doesn't want me around either, and I really don't blame him for finally wanting to settle down somewhere, as opposed to how we've handled him since he arrived as a 15-16 year old, with the many loan spells and absence of tangible plans for his future.

Personally, I wish we had kept both him and Achraf Hakimi around. Hakimi did not particularly impress me with his defensive work while at Dortmund, but the threat he provides offensively is invaluable in a modern fullback. They're both young and have many years of football and development ahead of them. If we no longer have the financial muscle to compete with other, top, European sides, I can't imagine what our plans are, going forward.