The Daily Merengue is a place 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, Felipejack, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Kung_Fu_Zizou
3 More sleeps until the biggest game of the season..
For now.. Some housekeeping.
Unsigned Hype
The scouting department.. All that noise about Couto and then he gets wrecked by Vinicius and suddenly all quiet. What was he seen to be good at which disappeared from his list of attributes in 90 minutes? If he was good enough, he’s still good enough. The links never made sense to me because I don’t think he’s balanced even though I would take him over LV as a 2nd rightback out of sheer desperation.
Nico Paz.. All that noise for nothing
Real Madrid will have several decisions to make regarding the futures of some Castilla players.
Nico Paz has a lot of interest from top flight clubs.
Mario Martín will have strong offers to leave, the player already received interest previously from important clubs… pic.twitter.com/61dAyLHmsp
— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) April 6, 2024
I think most of us were intuitively aware of how Nico’s journey would lead away from the Bernabeu. It’s a shame that the chances for Castilla players are basically non-existent now. Forget that player growth and development is not linear. Or that some players grow faster when introduced to a higher level. To go from Castilla to Real Madrid, you need to be impossibly good. To be better than players who are given chances to play at higher levels and develop more than you. It’s rigged!
New contract plus loan?
The club could even sell him with a clause. He will be so cheap right now that it should easily work in the club’s favour. I don’t quite see the benefits of staying at Castilla in too many cases these days. Arribas and his group stayed 2 years too long. If a player is really talented, promote him at 18 or 19 and then you can loan or sell with a buy-back. Keeping players until they’re 20 or 21 just means they fall behind prodigious talents even further.
Headscratcher
Raul needs to go and find a job. There’s other managers like Arbeloa who are no less deserving of a chance to manage Castilla. What really is the point of Castilla if Raul can use it as a place to hideout instead of applying for jobs like his peers?
Physical development cannot be rushed
Age creates biological limitations. I think it’s good for Arda to stay with the Real Madrid first team for his physical development but he’s at least 2 years away from the required level. To be fair, even Bellingham is still developing physically and so is Camavinga. Vinicius is the finished article. It takes time.
El Buho
Ozil just decided to get jacked after retirement. Wonder how his career would have been affected if he had done more work on his physique during his playing days, Not suggesting he should have been this jacked. He always seemed a bit short physically.
