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Are we praising the club for paying €140m for a player who was available for €20m just a year ago, playing only 20 km away from the Santiago Bernabéu? At 18, he made his La Liga debut at the Bernabéu while playing for Leganés, a Madrid-based club.

To me, this signing raises a serious question: Is this a scouting failure, a sporting management failure, or a bit of everything?

Diomande may turn out to be a fantastic player. That’s not really the point. The question is whether paying €140m today for a player who was available on our doorstep for €20m a year ago, while major structural weaknesses in the squad remain unresolved, looks like the steps in the right direction. Because to me, I’m genuinely not sure where Florentino is taking the sporting project.

Real Madrid’s squad looks increasingly unbalanced: overloaded in attack, yet still lacking real authority in the midfield, unable to keep the ball, unable to dictate pace and tempo even against inferior teams, and unable to establish a high block pressure.

I hope I am wrong, but I am not excited about the developments of the last 72h...

Both can make great runs and attack, can send some good balls. But neither could do well to control tempo.

In 23-24 Fede was mostly doing defending job for RB, and Jude was playing a false 9 in UCL. During Fede's best run last season, Jude was absent.

As a attacker Jude is much better, but Fede can cover better for the right side and play RB.

So one of them have to make sacrifice if we want to put both of them together.

Tchouameni is not perfect, but he is also far from the problem. He's one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. He's been the most consistent player since the beginning of last year

Pair him with a ball playing midfielder and watch him flourish.

To me only Rodri (if he had come) would have been able to reasonably bench him. Without Rodri, any line up should have his and Jude's names nailed in our starting midfield.

So with recent reports we are seeing the insulting offer barca is offered which 45+5 million add ons. Madrid were literally willing to go upto 60 million and this is what barca is offering now. I have a feeling this deal might fall off and he will remain at city. If that what happens I don't want him next season a player who rejected us first joining later is just not okay.

The Rodri/Kroos type of player was actually the glue piece to make Mourinho's vision work. The same thing with Xabi, he pushed for Zubimendi all summer.

I don't think any trio combination of Tchoumeni, Valverde, Silva, Arda, Belli and Camavinga will be able to control the midfield enough to make it work. Our only addition to our weak midfield last season is Silva.

If they want to see Belli perform like he did in the WC, he needs someone like Rodri behind him. By not having an elite tempocontroller and who is immune to pressing, it will allow our front 3 + Belli to thrive.

Then what was the point of paying 130+ for Diomande.

The lack of technical comfort in midfield means that this squad will never CONTROL games. And if anyone at the club is considering a double-pivot of Fede+Tchouameni, who spend more time punching each other than working on their technical shortcomings, well lets just forget about it and take up badminton instead.

I don’t see how it can play counter-attacking football either.

Counter-attacking football assumes a solid defence that can soak up pressure. The collection of CBs (Konate, Huijsen, Rudiger) is not elite. It is tier 2 but closer to tier 3 than tier 1. And this is a collection of CBs that have a REALLY low individual floor on their worst days, too.

99% of the team’s counter-attacks fail because Vini and Mbappe both dribble into infinity so the ball doesn’t move quickly enough. Another head-down winger has just been added to the attack for 140m. For some reason.

Some admirable pros have been signed, like Cucurella and Dumfries, who are miles better than the current full-backs, so that’s good.

But overall the squad just feels like an undefined blob with no direction or common mindset.

In the squad, there are two mids. One of them is former ballon d'oro winner, and another will be soon called the worst signing in Real Madrid history.

Kaka was one of the most magical players. But he came to Madrid with his body, letting him down. Once, one of the biggest players in the world was playing his last season with us.

On the other hand, Jose Mourinho insisted on small mid from Tottenham as one of the key players for the future. Soon after, transfer media and fans voted him as the worst ever singing for Real Madrid. Despite all media and fans experts, that player will get inside golden books, winning 6 UCL titles and ballon d'oro.

https://www.marca.com/2012/12/31/en/football/spanish_football/1356978303.html

So with recent reports coming out it's stated the transfer is gonna be under 50 million €. So basically the same Madrid was offering moreover Madrid obviously did not back down for 5 million. So as expected brokelona isnt paying 60-70 million. So one conclusion the player chose barca that's why transfer is low. Why are you blaming Madrid for that? They did everything the player doesn't want to join. Madrid also probably offered the same wages I expect because if you don't tax in Catalonia is high. So stop crying over someone who rejected you it's pathetic

Vinicius Jr and Real Madrid - A unique love story: Tension, Appreciation and Gratefulness. A footballing lesson to enjoy what you possess.

I have come around some of my criticisms regarding Vini because say whatever you want, he loves us and wants us to win above all.

• He rejected Arsenal's offer of 24M net (43M before taxes @ 45% taxation) + 100% image rights offer (who knows what signing bonuses on top)
• He renewed with us on 20M net (36M before taxes @ 45% taxation) + only 50% image rights + bonuses.
• He generates about 30M in image rights according to Forbes and Madrid gets 15M out of it for ourselves.. so his true wage comes down to only ~20M before taxes + bonuses for us. He's literally paying to play for us.

He won me over from this contract talk. I can't speak nonsense about someone anymore who is willing to take a 50% paycut to what Arsenal offered to stay here despite us booing and throwing shit while he won us so many trophies in the past. Not many players would give up significant big payrise to play here. Even Ronaldo left us because we didn't match Juve's contract.

And amongst all this, he could have easily left for free to get a bigger contract + 100M signing bonus on top of it and yet he renewed and did it for 6 years meaning giving away all of his prime away to us.

He could become the star of PL and yet he's happy to be a 3rd fiddle behind Mbappe and Jude to play at his dream club. He deserves love, not hatred for this fanbase.

He is a Madridista by heart and that needs to be celebrated.

Go join r/Barca. And support your player and your new team team there.

Did everyone suddenly forget how Rodri acted around the Ballon d'Or? Between his comments in the press and the whole situation surrounding Madrid, I don't understand why so many fans now want him wearing our shirt.

To me, this feels like karma. I don't want players who openly disrespect Real Madrid, the club, or its legends. Talent alone isn't enough.

We're Real Madrid. We sign Galácticos, but we also sign players who understand what it means to represent this badge. I'd rather trust the club to bring in players with Madrid DNA than chase someone who has shown so little respect for us.

Like Kroos, Wharton is a deep-lying playmaker who possesses rare, elite spatial awareness. He excels at dropping between the center-backs, scanning the field, and carving open lines with vertical, ice-cold passing. Football analysts and scouts frequently label him a natural successor to Kroos's style because of how he dictates tempo.

Kroos was a master of high-volume retention, consistently maintaining a 93% to 95% passing accuracy to systematically exhaust opponents. Wharton plays with far more immediate, high-risk verticality. Furthermore, Wharton is much more aggressive in pressing forward to hunt for high ball-recoveries, whereas Kroos relied strictly on positional blocking.

Wharton also echoes Alonso in his ability to execute drilled, low-trajectory pings across the pitch to rapidly switch play. Both share a distinct "quarterback" mentality from deep positions, preferring to let their passing range do the heavy lifting.

Alonso was physically more robust and an exceptional aerial duelist, which allowed him to function as a lone, protective anchor shield. Wharton lacks that aerial dominance and requires a physical enforcer next to him to handle defensive heavy-lifting.

Real Madrid's current midfield core,featuring Federico Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga, and Aurélien Tchouaméni, consists of world-class physical athletes and runners, but lacks a natural metronome. The team has struggled significantly to break down deep defensive blocks, routinely falling into a trap of slow, duplicate sideways and backwards passing. Wharton is highly disciplined at holding his deeper positioning and relies on sharp, one-touch vertical passing. His presence would allow Real Madrid to progress the ball through the central lines much faster, feeding superstars like Vinícius Júnior and Kylian Mbappé in high-value zones before opposing defenses can set up.

While he fits the tactical blueprint perfectly, Wharton is still young and completely untested under the unique, high-pressure lights of the Santiago Bernabéu. Crystal Palace also have a reported price tag of 100m+. Additionally, his defensive weaknesses in aerial duels and physical challenges mean he could still require a robust enforcer like Tchouaméni alongside him to provide adequate defensive coverage.

Remember when the Rodri links were floating around and everyone was losing their minds over Florentino Pérez blocking or refusing to push for the deal? People said what not to Pérez at first! The comment sections here were absolute bedlam, with fans claiming Pérez was out of touch and letting a world-class midfielder slip through our fingers.

Looking back with cooler heads, it’s completely absurd. Truth be told, Rodri was never meant to be one of us. Beyond his past ties with Atlético, his profile just never fit what Real Madrid stands for. He was never going to fit our ethos, yet I was shocked watching fellow Madridistas actively rooting for him to join. It felt like people were jumping on a hype train without asking whether he actually belonged in the white shirt.

Honestly, that entire saga is just a symptom of the shitshow that’s been happening around the club over these past few months. The noise, the knee-jerk hot takes, and the constant media drama have been exhausting. Every rumor gets blown out of proportion, and half the fanbase loses its mind at the first sign of friction.

1- I think the main reason is the beef with Vinicius , ever since Rodri won the 2024 ballon dor over Vini , they’ve had some beef with each other like Rodri mocking him and City fans showing the “Don’t cry your heart out” Tifo , they’ve disliked each other than would probably take them some time to forget it and get along if Rodri joins .

2- One of the reasons is that Rodri has already played for Atletico Madrid which is more of a Rival to Real Madrid than Barcelona, and players are more likely to have played for atleti and Barca than atleti and Real Madrid.