Money, Power & Respect: 30 Nov 2024

To Whom It May Concern:

Ninja_Kachori: I see you’re still talking to ghosts…so why have you now resurrected me?

Juninho: …if I told you I was the greatest…would you believe me?

Ninja_Kachori: Crash

Welcome to The Daily Merengue — a blog where you can feel free to discuss all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name!

Shoutout to the Mods who do a fantastic job, Valyrian Steel, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and Juninho (the “?”).

Saturday DT

Since this is a Saturday (non-game) DT with suspect matches throughout the day, I’m just going to write whatever I really want in this DT. I don’t really expect crazy engagement (not like I care) so I think it’s more appropriate right now to actually ignore some of the recent news to just address a few things recently said by MMers.

But if you don’t have access to Twitter here are the few updates: Rodrygo is back, Wirtz is expensive, Endrick may start Sunday (this has to be a lie lmao), and Vini illegally streams La Liga.

A Mid-Season Sacking?

Important Disclaimer #1: I don’t advocate for a mid-season sacking and I’m quite confident that sacking Carlo mid-season for anyone besides Zidane (or like a Klopp) would be a bad idea. In a perfect world, Carlo fixes his issues and we win La Liga. Carlo retires / resigns and Xabi ushers a new era. Again, I don’t really advocate for a mid-season sacking.

Important Disclaimer #2: The below rationale heavily relies on the term “write-off” and MMers comprehending the difference between a “write-off” and “tanking.” I’m taking 3 mins to define this before (you know who) wastes a solid 1-2 weeks of my life twisting my words.

Ok, real quick — tanking in sports primarily derives from US sports terminology. The meaning of this term is to purposefully lose because your team is then rewarded with a top pick in the following player draft. This is often shown in NFL / NBA where a bad team will purposefully lose to draft the next elite college prospect. Since European football has relegation, there is no such thing as tanking in this sport. Or at least if we purposefully lost games, we’d be really f—ing stupid.

“Write-off” — this term is generally used in sports to note that a season is insignificant as it stems from the finance term’s definition, “to acknowledge the loss or failure to recover an asset.” Given this sport context, this term hinges on a fanbase / player / organization determining that said season (or game) is highly insignificant towards their long term goals. If we extrapolate to Real Madrid, it would likely mean that the results of a season do not carry significant long-term merit. This does not indicate that a team will purposefully lose games. Instead, this indicates that the organization is willing to lose games as long as it does not affect long term results. The organization is comfortable with acknowledging a failure to recover said asset (trophy / season).

tl;dr: tanking = i need and want to lose because losing helps the team’s long-term goals. write-off = i am ok with winning or losing (to an agree) as it doesn’t change the long term outcome.

The Rationale For Santiago Solari.

(Please reread disclaimers #1 and 2 before continuing. Read — do not skim).

Ok, now in my not-humble opinion, the only rationale for sacking Carlo Ancelotti mid-season is if the club has determined that following: a) this season is a write-off; b) a new manager has been tapped to lead Madrid in 2025; and c) Carlo Ancelotti cannot be our manager next season.

We’ll skip b) because its Xabi Alonso and really just focus on a) + c).

To begin with a): sacking Carlo Ancelotti for an interim manager of Santiago Solari’s resume (a downgrade imo) would only make sense if the club has written-off this season. The club would need to be comfortable with zero trophies and only a Top 4 finish, which should be doable given the team’s talent. We are currently 4 points behind Barcelona with a game-in-hand (I’m not one to say OMG we’re 1 point behind Barca because we should beat Valencia…24/25 Real Madrid struggles to win games we “should”) and still in a qualification place for the CL. There is still a healthy chance that this Real Madrid team will win one major trophy (La Liga / CDR / CL) this year, and it is very rare that you sack a manager mid-season and win a major trophy. Clubs that sack managers mid-season are often poorly run (queue Manchester Utd joke).

Now c) which imo is the most important aspect of all of this. The club must determine that regardless of results Carlo cannot be the manager for the following season. This is crucial and primarily a PR reason that would then justify a mid-season sacking. From a public standpoint, Carlo Ancelotti is a Real Madrid coaching legend. He has most recently won two doubles in his current tenure and he coached La Decima. Additionally, as discussed above, we still have a healthy chance at winning some trophy. If Carlo wins La Liga or the CL, the board would have no choice but to allow him to continue for the following season. It would be devastating to the board’s credibility if they sacked Carlo (with a La Liga or CL trophy) and then potentially watched Xabi / Nags / etc fail. It’d quite frankly be stupid and bad business. Therefore, if the club really chooses to Game of Thrones our managerial position to a new younger face, it may behoove the board to remove all opportunities for Carlo succeed. Yes, I know this sounds dark but let’s not act like Flo and co are above this. This is a business with long term ambitions and IMO the club has already shown this by continually selling Carlo short by not purchasing short-term veteran players. That CB isn’t coming this January.

Now, I completely understand that many of you are going to act like Flo and co are saints and wouldn’t write off a season. But I’d like you all to just quickly take a peak at last year. We lost Benzema (who already needed a backup) and revitalized our team with just Joselu? We lost two of our CBs and didn’t sign anyone. We didn’t even give Carlo a long term contract until it was absolutely required in December…I’m not entirely confident that Flo didn’t write-off last season and it just happened to work out….

Finally cause this is wayyyy to long of a DT… I going to repeat: I’m not entirely sure any of this is a good idea. But we may have to just realize that could be a potential conclusion. There’s no way Flo is meeting Carlo before these games and just wishing him good luck.

Anyway some pictures to make this not just look like text:

…JNX PT. VI

“Me and MM modding got a complicated relationship. She so controllin, I noticed it ain’t no playing with. I met her, Val last resort email on my — screensaver. She said one day I would right my wrongs and see paper. We started out young, lookin’ for some identity. Made a thousand mistakes, but never did we lack chemistry. Writin cause I had time to waste, that was back when she did — whatever I say. Dreams of cooking some souls, Birmingham Blinders or Kylian Mbappe. I was in love with you, didn’t know what it was with you. Fantasize at all different times, to get the buzz from you. Some users wanted you, but they weren’t committed. Preoccupied with narratives and bullsh—in. Remember when [censored name] died? you looked at me and said “Juni, please dry your eyes. Depend on me as your relief, let your anger be mine.” We were locked in, ever since then. But what will you say about me, when this finally ends?”

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“i got superpowers. i know what power do for you but what you do for power?”