Preseason discussion

Oh didn't even know. In that case then he's gonna be good for rotation for the Europa league. Not too bad I think.

What a fu ck ing goal!

Side talk. I find it very hilarious that Man U fans are trolling Madrid fans for missing out on Pogba
http://metro.co.uk/2016/08/11/manchester-united-fans-troll-real-madrid-as-paul-pogba-reunites-with-david-de-gea-at-old-trafford-6060743/

Like seriously! do they think we are bothered?
they also mentioned the De Gea Saga, but what they fail to check is the pulse of the fans and not the Board.
I think they need to visit the Real Madrid section on goal legacy and notice how unperturbed we are.
Majority of us felt Pogba was superfluous. Even without his signing, we are still clogged up in the midfield.
Everyone was also campaigning for Keylor Navas to stay.

Well alot United fans feel like RM fans act superior after buying Beckham and Ronaldo off them in their prime. So any sort of resemblance of a victory will be seen as doing a one up on RM.

oh true..I almost forgot..we stole beckham from them and the most painful one - Ronaldo...now I see where the hate is coming from but they should know we have nothing against them....its an imaginary victory for them though..

let's let them have it since it makes them feel better

Those days are over for us.  Madrid and Barca became capable of a galactico policy for the past 15 years because our revenues dwarfed most everyone.  Man U is going to have larger revenue than us next season because they're going to get an additional 100+ mil from the EPL media deal that just kicked in.  They were only 50 or so mil behind before that.

And you have a ton of other teams in EPL that are going to be flush with cash... including all their elite.

I predict we're going to go back to the 80s and 90s where a super-wealthy Serie A hoarded talent.  Just how it is.  We can compete (along with Barca)... but we can't bully financially anymore.

We did not financially bully man utd when we took Ronaldo or beck ham from them. Same can be said about most players we sign. Yes we paid a lot for most but the players themselves were the one driving the moves to abandon their club and to play for us. It's just about club appeal, how Madrid make some players feel etc... That will continue to happen as long as we remain a successful club, and as long as player power exist and they can with their agents will themselves out of a club. The only way to counter that is club power in the way Bayern is holding onto their players, and just outright flipping the bird to agents and clubs. Obviously there is a limit as to how much we can spend but the player wanting to move is always always the first key driver

Yeah, Utd was never a poor club we could have bullied around with a check book. They were always lucrative even when the Glazers seem to have put them in (huge) debts. It was the players who forced the move. Golden Balls fell out badly with SAF and Ronaldo always seem to want to come here.

As Nick said, as long as we continue being a successful club, players would always wanna come here regardless of other circumstances.

as long as we are successful and have people who can close deals. we won back to back league titles with calderon and we found difficulty closing many deals. he was an expert at signing dutch players who were always injured. so many players who we could have got with our eyes closed turned us down with him at the helm

We will always be able to attract the best players because we are the greatest club in the world and everyone knows it. The best players will always dream of playing for us. And besides that, as long as Perez is in charge, we'll always be on par with the wealthiest.

more about perez being in charge or someone with the technical know-how, networks and connections than 'because we are the greatest club'. kaka turned us down twice, david villa, capdevilla, and fabregas. the 'because we are the greatest club' works when you have someone who can market it to players and their agents. not some incompetent character

It's about wages first and foremost, and then commercial appeal... and then if things are close enough, club appeal... I'm assuming we're talking about a player who has several elite clubs courting him.

The change will be that EPL elite clubs can now outbid our wages (which is what happened with Pogba according to reports). Real Madrid or not... if you're talking millions a year... the vast majority of the players will go for the money.

Another advantage was La Liga being the top league... EPL is going to challenge that throne too. Definitely already the most commercial one.

yup, wages too. there are a host of things related to this; depends on the kind of player you're signing- players with no drive who just want to sit back and win a medal will move from being stars to sub players to fulfill it, until after a year or 2 of being bored on the bench, desire to play minutes. some players will look to the money (Which isn't a bad thing. you've got a family to support, its a business). some who are stars can be swayed by the "our club is this and that", and even they request top notch wages. cristiano did NOT take a pay-cut to come here. so don't think you can sell on because it is madrid, and pay a superstar peanuts

that said, it still matters who is at the helm. you can have all the money, the history, and all that good stuff, but without the connections, and a complete moron running your club, not much is appealing. unless your side is presently winning everything and players want to jump on the bandwagon. this isn't like before, florentino doesn't just sit down and say we are madrid, and everyone comes rushing. and i think even he recognizes that

I also think tito that getting the opportunity to be the "alpha" on a big team plays a big role nowadays. Individual brands are starting to overshadow club/team brands and players are very conscious about their brand value.

Another note... big teams with elite managers is very important. Now you have Man U/Mou, City/Pep, Chelsea/Conte, etc... They can realistically pitch a path towards CL success with money/manager. Before this season, you felt that Madrid, Barca and Bayern were the only elite teams that gave you that clear path towards CL success. More teams are entering that group.

getting to play a role as the alpha depends on how big the player is to begin with., as well as the player's current situation. cristiano ronaldo for instance would never want to be on a side where he's second fiddle. that's his pride; not every player is cristiano, not every player has his kind of pride. and some players might have that pride but their situation strips them off it.

when a player's at a club where they haven't won titles, keep selling their main players, and don't look like winning, all his pride goes out the door, he tucks his tail between his legs, and decides to play second fiddle elsewhere. as for managers, i think it makes sense speaking to the manager before the deal than just going off names alone. at least to know where you stand.

but so many things affect the transfer process, and players and their agents have all the info they need before any move. they know the wages of all their teammates, deals their clubs have, they know everything. its not down solely to 'my club is the best' anymore....as a matter of fact, i don't think it was ever strictly down to that; that was just another of florentino's creations - just like how nobody said anything about jersey sales until florentino used that as his cop out for excessive singings

We are playing against Stade Remis tonight

All are called up except Ronaldo, Navas, Coentrao, Pepe and Benzema

Probable line up:

Danilo is definitely starting. Have a feeling Nacho will too. Kroos needs minutes before the start of the season. He will start imo. Basically the guys from the Euro will all start in order to build up their match fitness

Starting XI

Casilla; Danilo, Ramos, Nacho, Marcelo; Kroos, Modric, James; Bale, Asensio y Morata

Another chance for the Euro players to get some match practice before the start of the season

Morata needs to play on the wing or something. He has no idea how to be a CF, but at least he has speed and some technical ability

Is Roberto Carlos a commentator now ?

Why whenever Morata scores he acts so pissed off

I can conclude that only Kroos puts in good crosses consistently. Can't believe I had to witness these God awful crosses this half

Where did we fish this team from btw. Even Steau Bucarest defend better. We were able to make penetrative passes from our half to their box lol

Morata should be pissed off.... he's been awful. Scoring against, a div 2 team that is resting its regular CBs, should be a given. At the very least, he should be making killer runs easily but he's not doing anything.

And you do realize the meaning of this game, right? It's the "champion's trophy". We only play teams that we defeated in the past to win the CL. Reims was the opponent in our first CL win in the 50s.

Oh i did not know that

a goal is a goal sports. ill take that over nothing.
Asensio is impressive... We really need to work on our defense though, 3 goals is unthinkable considering what we are supposed to be gunning for.

I dont think our defenders even tried to defend. All goals bar one would never have happened in a competitive game. Ramos never let people run at him without pushing him away or slide tackling and that 2nd goal, please if they did that in a competitive game they should go and train with the B team for all I care