Transfer Rumours | Tactics | Who to buy/sell etc

That's what I know, the manager barely has much say in the transfer policy in Real Madrid. Mourinho had it but he had it in his contract (and had the reputation to demand such a clause too). Zidane has a voice that is heard in Madrid affairs but I seriously doubt it affects what goes on behind the Iron Curtain when it comes to transfers.

You can't make a fuss tito... you'd get fired on the spot. Being a manager is about self-preservation first. Heck, in any job, it's about self-preservation first... but it's really precarious as a manager and especially at Real Madrid.

You'll get a few more paychecks in though...  that's quite a bit

And you also won't have an awful squad even if management is stupid at Real Madrid.  You can still win.  It'll just be unnecessarily challenging.  If you get fired on the spot, it's over.

I also know for a fact that clubs don't like managers that are vocal and don't fall in line. If you get that rep, you're just making your job opportunities very few.

Let's stop pretending we know what happens behind the curtains at Madrid and look solely at facts:

1. Z kept repeating during the summer that this squad was very difficult to improve on and only minor tweaks were needed.

2. This has been the quietest summer window ever under Florentino's reign, and it just so happens it coincides with Z being in charge.

3. The absence of evidence renders one's theories weightless and consequently, they shouldn't be considered as facts, but merely baseless opinions.

Fact is, we don't know what happens behind the curtains at Madrid. So to say Z didn't buy players because he wasn't allowed to is unfounded, and slightly nonsensical.

We're talking about a guy who is at liberty to bench and sub whoever he wants. Are you seriously going to stand there and claim with a straight face that the reason he didn't buy any player was because the club refused him? Who did he ask for? Neymar, Messi, Suarez and Guardiola as an assistant coach?! No, come on. We're talking about low profile signings to strengthen the squad, and he would've gotten them had he asked for.

I'm not going to say Z is entirely to blame for our quiet summer window, but he's definitely partly, if not mostly, responsible for it.

We're talking about a club that broke the world record multiple times and signed an army of Galacticos over the years, a club that paid almost 40m for Illarra and 30m for Danilo. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind spending another 30 or 40 mil for a back-up dm, especially with a transfer ban lurking in the background.

Given Uncle Flo's tendency to splash, and especially in light of the transfer ban, that he didn't means that he likely constrained himself based off of the coach's wishes, or at least lack of insistence

Problem is that some here can't see past 10 inches in front of their faces when they have his presidencies from 2000-2006 and 2009-present to look at.

But let's just ignore all that and go with "the facts"

Let's see is that "can't see 10 inches in front of their faces", an opinion or a fact!!!!

No, sports, the problem here is that you only believe what you want to believe, and you don't give a flying fck whether it's true or not.

If it's something that fits your agenda, you accept it. If it doesn't, you discard it without even blinking.

Same situation here, you're claiming Z wanted to sign players but the club turned down his request. Ok, give me your proof, I'll wait.

The problem is, everyone seems to be making claims (on both sides), but it is literally impossible to know.

As much as we would all like to believe, none of us are linked in to the upper echelons of the club.

The only reason I made that post earlier is because it seems hypocritical considering everyone is typically on the Perez hate train (especially considering transfer news), yet now that Zidane is the new topic of hate, the blame has entirely shifted towards him.

I've had the same view towards this as I always have. It is likely that the fault partially falls on both (still impossible to know). We do know that at the end of the day Perez makes the final decisions. If Zidane came to Perez and said that he wanted 0 transfers, it's possible Perez would have listened, but it is just as likely that Perez would disregard a manager's input, especially one as inexperienced as Zidane.

I trust that Zidane is smart enough to know that we needed more cover defensively, and in the midfield. He was either ignorant in this instance or got denied. We won't know for sure because we don't know what really goes on.

Also want to add that the poor handling of defensive midfield signings under the Perez era has been a bit of a trademark dating back to selling Makelele.

Cristiano should have been sold in the summer. Missed opportunity.

Now because of Perez's crush on him and the transfer ban, he is most likely going to renew his contract till 2020.

That's four more years of him in the starting eleven; wasting a spot, trotting around the field demanding the ball and putting on a show when he is substituted.

I am really beginning to dislike him as a player.

For all of the off seasons moves or desires, Zidane was the spokesman, not Flo and not Sanchez.

We don't know what went on behind closed doors (except Sports of course because he has insider info! ), but there are a number of things we have heard.

1. Zidane said it was difficult to improve squad and he had three "wishes" (Pogba, Lewandowski, Alaba) that would help if they could be obtained for a reasonable price. And all three were looked into with the result being only Pogba could be available, but certainly not a a reasonable price. End result was no major changes.

2. Zidane also talked about young players with talent going out on loan to give them playing time to develop.

3. Club was reluctant to bring in new players with transfer ban looming opting to go with players they know (James and Isco) rather than rolling dice with players they didn't know.

4. Zidane did want coverage at three areas (CF, LB, DM), and he essentially got that in Morata, Coentrao and Kroos. It is really a disagreement with Zidane's assessment of Coentrao and Kroos when needed that is the contentious issue.

So bottom line, from everything we saw or heard last summer, it seems pretty clear, it was either Zidane decisions or he was the communicator to whatever he and Flo discussed and agreed upon.

Sports of course will say it was "the contract guy", but where is there any proof or indication of this?, other than the fly on the wall.

Zidane did alright this summer imo, pogba is a proven waste of money, lewa and benz ain't rotating every week, same goes for marcelo and alaba, so out of those 3 wishes obvious pogba was probably the only wish.

As far as DM back up goes one of isco or James had to leave and they didn't, everybody knows this so no need to hate zidane, even though that not the real reason why zidane hate is going on here.

Also casemiro injury was a freak accident anyway so other than the haters hoping he would get injured just to complain, no one really saw that coming, once he is back along with modric, the midfield will be stacked again and playing time will be tight, the extra DM would be nice but a space needs to be available for that to happen.

Also way too many excuses for zidane here, zidane and flo have known each other for quite sometime, so I don't see why zidane would be afraid to make demands for players, that he thinks can improve the team or why flo would suddendly feel like ignoring him, end of the day the starters are set in stone and they made additions around that, fans being butthurt about that is gonna lead to shitty theories and hear say, to express their hate that x player is still starter, that been going on for 4-5 years now, why can't you guys just support the team as a whole, and leave these posts until the end of the season like it should be? When we know if the team wins a trophy or not.

Last season you guys were talking about how shit the team was and everybody need to be sold for lesser players who are hot on YouTube, then the team won another cl, you guys turn around and falsely praising the team like hypocrites, if you guys really had chance to influence the squad, I'm sure the team would be relegated, chill out, support the team and discuss games without agendas.

Saying that Isco or James should have left for us to sign a much needed DM doesn't even make sense. If that's was the thinking of management then they are idiots on that specific case. Having a DM contributes to the team equilibrium much more than having Isco and James on the bench. I think we should have forced one of them to move out, instead we tried to be nice to everyone. Sometimes tough decisions needs to be made, this summer we did.not

You have to open roster spots.  Most established contracts have a clause in their contract that they cannot be banished to anything but the senior squad unless it's for cause or with their consent... namely, returning from injury, being out of shape, disciplinary, etc.  And/or it automatically triggers a sell clause they can invoke.

So when they say that they need to sell someone to bring someone in... they literally mean that they have 23 players that are required, contractually, to be part of the senior squad.  Real Madrid could not bring someone in unless they had 100% intent to sell/loan someone else.  I personally "heard" that there was significant disagreement on who needed to come and go.... and nothing got done as a result.

Since we won the CL with Zidane, Flo didn't feel he needed to do his typical galactico purchase so that people would focus on something other than our problems...  That's the reason Madrid made outlandish buys in the past a lot of times btw.  Either a player demanded to leave or the club didn't have a successful season or both = president needing to make a move.  We didn't have any of that this summer.

sportsczy wrote:I personally "heard" that there was significant disagreement on who needed to come and go.... and nothing got done as a result.

hey if you "heard" it, it must be true.

sportsczy wrote:
Since we won the CL with Zidane, Flo didn't feel he needed to do his typical galactico purchase so that people would focus on something other than our problems.

"He didn't feel", hein? So, aside from having sources, you're also capable of reading people's minds and knowing exactly what they feel?! Enough said, mate, I'm absolutely convinced.

Again i am not going into the whole "i know people" thing but your theory doesnt make sense since we technically still have a roster spot open in the first team and signing a DM doesnt mean signing a galactico.

We traditionally leave a roster spot open to reward a Castilla player that's in form.

Of course, I think we shouldn't really count Coentrao either

When NOTHING happens when you're facing a transfer ban and you have obvious flaws... and you have as much money as Madrid... one or both of two things happened:  1) You think the current squad is fine and you can't fin anything better on the market or 2) you have internal disagreement that preclude you from making a move.  I say the issue was a combo of both these.  

Management wasn't dumb enough NOT to recognize the needs... but you couldn't get agreement on the moves that needed to be made.  If Flo had picked a side, he either would have completely hamstrung Zidane's authority, or his executive right hand man would have quit and left for Manchester United.  He decided to do nothing and keep both...  to the detriment of the squad.  

Pretty much a no win situation for Flo.  I think he picked the solution that he felt was the least costly while hoping that time would build the relationship between Zidane and his right hand man. I don't think Zidane is unreasonable so I'm optimistic it will work out. But the ban is the kick in the groin.

That of course is your OPINION! The other possibility was as per your 1) above and the coach said the backups of Morata, Coentrao and Kross (when required) were satisfactory. I'm willing to bet that Zidane's plan if they had gotten Pogba was that Kroos would have been the starter DM! The issue with the roster is our collective disagreement with Zidane's judgement on both DM and LB.

Is your insider info (the fly on the wall) telling you differently? or perhaps it time you admit that your so called theories are just your opinion!

Yeah... Zidane is in charge of tranfers at Madrid.  Right.  Once again, let's completely ignore the entire history of Madrid and Flo Perez in general.  Other than Mou (who was able to put it in his contract), NONE of the managers have any say.  It's all at the discretion of Perez and, FIRST AND FOREMOST, he listens to his business advisers, then his heart and the manager is a very distant 3rd.  Only because he has such a relationship with Zidane... did he not just ignore him.  But he also wasn't going to go against his business advisers. So it ended up being a stalemate.

But hey, believe what you want lol.