Grapevine 5/25
By: Corey | May 26th, 2009I have not done a grapevine post in almost a year, and I feel a bit ashamed to say that. What would a Real Madrid blog be without wild speculation and outlandish claims??? Luckily for me, the gossip was so juicy and the “exclusives” so flimsy that I had little trouble finding some really odd and outrageous transfer talk to discuss today. Enjoy the feast below and listen to a nice summer song while you do.
Woooohhh Amber Is The Color of Her Energy
- First up is the inevitable talk of Florentino Perez concluding deals because no one is fit to stand against him in the election. Which means that Zinedine Zidane, who has neither been confirmed or denied as on the ticket with Perez, would be quoted as saying Frank Ribery is the first “galtic-dos” signing of the new regime. And that he personally prefers him to Ronaldo. Read all about it here from goal.com. I want Zidane to be part of the club of course, but he needs to stop yammering on about how great Ribery is. We know, but his signing will be difficult and we really cannot discuss this until we have a president in place.
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- So that means that with Zinedine crushing on Ribery, a German paper would conclude that the likeliest of solutions for Bayern and Real would be a swap plus some cash to sweeten the deal. Why not throw Sneijder in to the deal? Because Bayern really need to replace a fast, dribbling creater with a guy who shoots from 30 yards out whenever he gets the chance and has lead feet when it comes to passing the ball. To each his own I suppose. I would take that swap though….
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Continuing with the Florentino Perez dominated headlines…
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- Ruud is recovering from his surgery and has done most of his physical therapy, so he seems ready to begin training once again. At 33, he is in the twilight of his career, but his finishing and positional sense are unmatched in the modern game. As is his horse face. No matter though, because Galatassaray seems to think Real has no use for him anymore and are looking to swoop in with a bid. We have discussed a congestion upfront and in the midfield this whole year, so this link seems likely. Move out the old and bring in the young, much like the Raul to Man City rumor. But I have a hard time believing any coach would not want Ruud’s experience on the squad for next season. He must not be sold!
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- Florentino, who seems like this mythical legend at this point, has been quoted as saying he does not want Guti at the club any longer. The reasons for this are not apparent, but besides Juande and Guti not getting along (surprised?) there is no merit to this. Second captain behind Raul and he is going to be thrown out of the club? Sensationalist reporting at its best really. Guti retires with us, even if he does not play much for the remainder of his career. Just because he does not get on with the interim coach does not mean he should be discarded so quickly.
The recent exclusion of Guti from the Mallorca match was blown well out of proportion, which is to be expected. Guti has been having niggling pains in his left ankle which has kept him out training every now and then. This Saturday he was unable to attend training because his daughter was to have her first communion, which is a very important event for a Catholic father. Training the day before a match is also pretty light, as to no risk any strains or sprains. Guti would have been able to play on Sunday, but Juande instructed him that if he did not make it to training on Saturday, he would not play on Sunday. Guti accepted, knowing it would not be fair to skip training but still play. Thats that, move on.
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- Marca says that Valencia know Real Madrid are after David Villa. Wow, really? With Valencia failing to beat neighbors Vilarreal this past weekend has all but resigned them to selling their star players because of a lack of Champions League football next year. So Villa is on the auctioning block then. Brilliant deduction. Swear to god I could work for these clowns and get paid, something I dont get with this blog.
- Jorge Valdano has spoken of Perez’s three possible signings today in Marca and AS. Read at your leisure. I wont repeat myself, but like Zidane, its neither here nor there yet.
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So lots of silliness going on with the presidential election and the transfer window fast approaching. Let me know your thoughts on all of this fluff.
Category: Team News
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Comments
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Awesomeness Corey. Especially the bit about Sneijder!
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Hy Corey! I, as always, almost fully share all of your opinions! Being the first calling marca´s tipewriters “clowns”… but they are monkeys and get paid with bananas! haha!
Now seriously the only bit i differ with is the Sneijder part because i think he really helped us to win the last Liga. If he has to go let it be because he wants to ,he still has the class and technique to play for us.Posted from
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Nice post corey always good for a laugh…it’s going to be an exciting summer nonetheless.
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what i’d give for xavi/iniesta…if parejo is even half the player they are then he should be given more oppurtunities in the first team, not in the useless end of season second string side games.
also, i have to admit i’m pretty anti-sneijder, and have been that way since the day we signed him. He’s just a dude who can take a few pot shots, and when that part of his game is off as it was this season, he is deadweight. His creativity is very limited, he doesn’t seem to pull his weight dedfensively considering his lack of any contribution in the attacking third. He was never going to be a replacement for zizou (as was heralded) and is not one bit deserving of the #10 shirt. Move him on, and bring in an actual playmaker who can play incisive balls (when sneijder does try them, he normally overhits them) rather than useless horizontal balls that any defensive mid can do.
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Parejo should only be given the chance if he’s good enough – he not. Same goes for all the other youth squad players
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Evo: Have you ever seen Parejo play? Either for Castilla, QPR or Real? He is actually pretty good for his age, and I think he can develop properly if he is used more often, much the same way Sergio Busquets has been used by Guardiola. Sensible use of youth team players will help their development tremendously, and what I mean by that is a game or two and then back to the bench to soak it all in and learn from it. 10 minute cameos and loans to crappy teams dont help much, as we can see with Javi Garcia.
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Evo dont be mean Parejo is a very good player, so much so that di Stefano said he went to watch Real Madrid Castilla just because of him. He was born in Madrid and he won an European sub-19.
I think he has a lot of football in his legs.Posted from
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Well hang on a minute, people on this forum are frequently personally viscious about lots of players Drenthe, Henzie, Raul, Gago, Metzelder, etc.
I say that a youth player isn’t good enough and I get accused of ‘being mean’?Where’s your objectivity? A player is a player, and he’s either good enough for the job of a first team player or he’s not. In my book he doesn’t get special treatment because hes come up through the ranks.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to see more youth team players, make it to the first team, but they have to be up to the job.Who would you rather have Parejo or Van Der Vaart? I’ll take Van Der Vaart please and I’ll thrash any team fielding the likes of Parejo and Garcia everytime.
I have seen Parejo play for Real and QPR, but not Castilla. He looked out of his depth. I won’t deny he will have a career ahead of him, but I’m prepared to bet it won’t be with Real Madrid.
Javi started a game recently and has played in several this season for extended periods of time. In all occasions he has been woeful and a serious liability in some games. I even saw him trample Granero in the Getafe game.
I think Granero and De La Red have a future at the club, right now I’m not convinced by Parejo or Garcia and I think I’m entitled to that opinion.If I change my mind I’ll let you know and I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong.
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hahahaha Evo good call we’re pretty liberal with our insults against Heinze. In perspective, you were being pretty kind haha. I agree with you that De La and Granero could have a long future with the club. I’ll be willing to bet almost every poster on here would share that opinion as well. All we can hope for is De La to be healthy and Granero to bring his outstanding form back to our side of the capital.
Javi Garcia doesn’t look comfortable in any role Madrid gives him, whether that be CB or CM or CDM, and I think he’ll be gone. Too bad because he’s got the size and physical gifts to be a solid player, but he just seems so lost out there. It’s almost like he can’t keep up with the pace of the game. Real will have a tough decision when it comes to retaining his services because he’s still fairly young and does have an upside, we just haven’t seen it on our pitch yet!
As for Parejo, I think it’s hard to pass judgement on him right now as we’ve seen so little of him against top-flight competition. While I considered his stint with QPR a waste of time (why QPR? ship him to Geta or Almeria!), he’s got great potential and plays a position that we sorely lack. I think we’ll give him another year with the Castilla/1st team, but like Evo, I still have my doubts until I see him on the pitch more for the 1st team. Juande obviously saw something in him that he liked, but we’ll see if the new manager and president feel the same.
As for VDV and Sneids, I anticipate that one of these two will be offloaded this summer. It’s not that they don’t have boatloads of individual skill and ability. I think anyone who watched the Euros had to be impressed with Sneids, it just seems like he disappeared this season eh? I mean point out 5 games where Sneids made a huge contribution that changed the course of the match. VDV started the season on fire and was never able to regain confidence afterwards (possibly Schuster related), but there’s no denying his talent and his danger around the opposing net. Both of them are superb with the ball at their feet, but this year it seemed they couldn’t make the right pass with the right touch at the right time. I agree with Evo in that VDV is a better player than Parejo, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with both players. I think both of them still have plenty of years ahead of them, which is good for the club regardless of what decision is made.
Hope everybody is enjoying the summer. I know that I miss our team actually playing meaningful games haha.
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Sniejder vs VDV? I take Sniejder. Last season Sniejder very nearly became an inspiration for the team – my guess is that this guy needs alot of mental bolstering from a coach he understands and trusts.
My guess is that has been missing this season with the off the pitch troubles.I do accept that VDV is quite a different player from Sniejder though – if it were down to me I’d push VDV further towards the opposition goal, he could make a good second striker.
I’m sure one day Parejo will be overtake VDVs abilities, but it’s hard to see how that will happen at Madrid when even VDV can’t get regular games
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