2017/2018 - Real Madrid Offseason Discussion

Players and Zidane are apparently lobbying hard for Navas.

I think paying 80+ mil for a keeper is ridiculous myself although I think De Gea is a better keeper. For that money, let him stay at Man U. Navas isn't noticeably worse anyhow.

you guys don't waste time, you're already talking transfers lol. i'm still in celebratory mood, can't believe we freakin did it. we did it

With all this history being made. I hope the results of this season force teams to respect us in the next season.

La Liga should be easier when our opposition are afraid of us.
For a couple of years most teams we play dare to try to get a result before we score a goal and then they give up.

It would be real nice if we could have our opponents play like they've given up before the first whistle. like in the good ol' days.

@ sports kek i linked a marca article about that in the transfer thread.

I agree. 80 million would be better spent on M'bappe anyways or a key forward signing.

@ titosantill Still feeling great but I think most of us, especially Zidane given his position, are always prudent and calculating. cant setup success for next season idling by in the offseason. Esppecially when everyone else now sees Real Madrid is the team to beat. For there to be a dynasty, one can never truly rest.

titosantill wrote:you guys don't waste time, you're already talking transfers lol. i'm still in celebratory mood, can't believe we freakin did it. we did it

I am literally still trolling my Barca mates. The party has not ended for me.

Turok_TTZ wrote:
@ titosantill Still feeling great but I think most of us, especially Zidane given his position, are always prudent and calculating. cant setup success for next season idling by in the offseason. Esppecially when everyone else now sees Real Madrid is the team to beat. For there to be a dynasty, one can never truly rest.

zidane can't idle. him and his coaching staff probably started work after the game. for us fans? we've got to milk this moment for all its worth. my daughter's been complaining about how i've been "bragging about his football team all week". been a fan for so so many years and never saw us win successive champs league. considering the bloody injuries and form dips we went through

we actually won a double in a year we played that useless club world cup (i'm sorry but i hate those "tournaments"). i haven't watched the full celebration videos cos of work and family time. i'll have to find some good videos on it really soon

i have a strong feeling we could see a super healthy bale next season. you could tell he really wanted to start when the game was over........campeones

Marca has come out saying we will not bother with De Gea and that Donnarumma might enter the frame, more likely for next season.

Yeah paying 75 mil for De Gea became a no no after we won te CL and people pushed for us not to sell Keylor.

But Donnarumma will renew this summer at worst and will be hella expensive next summer.

I have no problem keeping Keylor but if you do it, be ready to keep him for 2-3 more years because a better keeper won't immediately become available.

Also I know we like Kepa for more Spanish flavour

Will Donna actually renew? His agent has been talking a certain talk (his agent being Raiola) so I'm not actually certain he would. The last I read he was insinuating (or plain out saying) that the 5m/year new deal is "not enough" which is madness to say the very least.

Milan and Madrid have a good relationship but I wonder if Perez and co. would be pulling off a Bosman transfer with this one? I hope not, not good business practice to do such things.

A very interesting turn considering marca have reported earlier that the Madrid brass would have bid for de gea anyways.

I see Zidane and Ramos and co. Lobbied successfully for Keylor. I don't mind but I'm sure few be disappointed by this turn of events.

At the same time it puts us in a stronger position with regards to transfers I'm certain mourinho's interested in varane and morata. With us backing off in de gea, he will have no position to bargain for. We hold the advantage.

70+m is too much for a gk, even if he's Spain's #1 he ain't no iker. He ain't that good to warrant the money. He should have never renewed with manutd if he truly wanted to come here. He lost his chance. Now we move on to attacking targets where the money would be better spent.

hoping we angle for Oblak in the future, now that the peace is over.

for now it looks like we will only be signing

Vallejo
Llorente
Theo
and we are still bidding for Mbappe

I just don't see how we can let Morata go without signing someone. If the Mbappe deal falls through there needs to be a plan b.

Borja Mayoral

What happens in 17/18 will be pretty important as we look towards the team's long term future. In his most recent interview, Perez sounds reasonable about Mbappe, he shouldn't be coming if we're not ready to definitively unload at least one of the BBC.

Imo BBC has to disappear soon if we really want to structure for the future.

It looks like Asensio will be supported by club so if you couple this with an aging Ronaldo and the supposed team management plans that Zidane has, then Benzema should stop being an undisputed starter and possibly be gone by 18/19 to make room for Mbappe. Who knows how Bale will perform next season, he could also be gone in a year.

Isco may bite the bullet soon too all things considered. Mbappe, Asensio, Ronaldo, Bale could all be ahead of him as forwards in the next 2-3 years and in the midfield i don't feel he'd convince, that's not where he best plays/fits. Players like Ceballos/Valverde could be waiting in line.

Mbappe can stay in Monaco one more year, i doubt he's ready to torpedo his chances of playing at the GOAT club. If he comes now you have to be ready to bury the playing time of Benz/Asensio/Isco imo.

I sort of feel that what we have achieved in the past 4 seasons has given our players the right to take their mobile phones to the football pitch and provide their fan base with realtime updates about how they just nutmegged a player, or how Ronaldo superbly controlled a pass or how unmotivated they are about playing against a recently promoted team. But when you are Real Madrid, you are obliged to best your previous season every season.
If you win the 6 trophies, you are obligated to win it with record points in the next season;
If you win it with record points, then you 'must' do it with record goals;
If you win it with record points and goals, then you are obligated to win it with record signings.
Whatever goals we achieve, we set higher ones the following season.

2016/2017 was an historic season. I still feel like I'm in the refractory stage as a fan, but the board don't feel the same; they are ready to go for the second round.
We finished the 2016/2017 season with a squad stacked with starter materials. Even though ZZ was somewhat prudent in his division of game time, there were some who showed enough potential and performed well enough to get more game time.
James and Morata are obviously first team materials and even though they got their fair share of game time, we all know they weren't trusted in the biggest of games. It's not news that they are now seeking moves away.
In my own mind, i do not even count them as part of our squad anymore; they are definitely going to leave and I hope they do, most especially James.

We have made some really good moves in the transfer window, Theo to back-up Marcelo, Vallejo as the 4th centre back, Marcos Llorente to back-up Casemiro. Now with the impending signing of Ceballos, We have 7 midfielders. (Im listing Marcos Asensio as a forward)

you have the 'almost' untouchable BBC and then the otherworldly fan favourite Isco. You have the promising Asensio, Ceballos and Marcos Llorente who need consistent game time to continue improving, and not to forget Kovacic (the most dispensable) who always turns up when called and has immense, immense, unreal potential (I regard him as the most skillful player and player with the highest ceiling) and then you have the first choice midfielders - Kroos, Modric, Casemiro.

Please, how the hell does ZZ plan to satisfy everyone? (subject matter)
I am just hoping that the First Team players and every other squad member is sold on the importance of rotation and how it was the key ingredient in winning trophies last season and trust the coach when they are not given game time.
I some how cynically hope that Bale stays injured, but at the same time, one can only wonder how influential he can be when fully fit.

One thing I have learnt is this: Regardless of a player's popularity with the fans, in the end, as fans, all we care about is winning trophies.
Of course, there is some sort of gratification seeing Ronaldo steal the show and heat up the Clasico and Balon D'or rivalry with Messi; the aesthetic pleasure we get from Isco discoing his way out of challenges; the condescending superiority of obliterating your opponents in the ostentatious Tiki Taka fashion, as opposed to the humdrum Inter/mourinhoesque style. But in the end, we honestly don't care if its the mourinhoesque style that wins the match, or the much-maligned Danilo or Benzema that produce super performances on the way to a trophy-filled season. We just want to win!
We all have a 'the end justifies the means' mentality to the game.
Does that make us unethical fans? (this is not the subject matter, please dont dwell on this)

With Morata gone now. We definitely need another striker. I hope we use a youth product as back up and not mbappe. Cos an mbappe purchase will have a knock on effect on the midfielder's playing time.

Time has gone slow in regards to our team. I cannot wait until we start seeing these boys in action

Pintus has been working hard with the team in getting their fitness level up to scratch. They have done minimal ball work

With Ronaldo away and Morata gone we wont have the personell to play 433 so we might actually see the 4312 that we saw at thr end of last season. Excited to see what Theo has in store for us at LB

The first game is against United who are well into their preseason having played 3 games prior to our encounter. We will obviously not be as physically ready as them but I still think we will give them the run around

I think we will play two different line up seeing as this is the first game back

1st half:


2nd half:

1st half team is still a really strong team to be fair. Would be nice seeing Madrid matches again, haven't complained in over a month

I wish our u21 lads were with us. Would've been nice to see them along our starters.

I was wondering why you didn't add Llorente in that mix. Or Ceballos unless that would be the Dani you wrote. Where they at?!

Ceballos, Asensio, Llorente and Mayoral aren't with us yet as they had that tournament with the u21. Not sure when they'll be back. Hope it's soon, I really want to see them in action with our first team, particularly Llorente and Ceballos

Official line up v United:

Theo Hernandez is awesome. So so strong and fast yet quite technical

Yeah, Theo is definitely gonna keep Marcelo on his toes, great talent. This match was screaming for the likes of Asensio, Ceballos, Llorente. Some of those Castilla boys lacking big time.

Some great penalties!

Good God the state of our penalties. You know you're in trouble when the striker does not take a penalty

lost a game but this is the purpose of preseason. just warming up for the season that is to come.

having said that, the penalties are a disgrace. preseason or not.
This is professional football damn it. why the hell are we taking pks like high school drunks? I know a 12 year old who would have taken a better pk shot than our men did today. embarrassing.