1. Brian, totally agree about the Spanish contingent. We need to remember that UEFA put in the homegrown factor for the Champions League. However, the way Humpty and Dumpty (love it!) conduct their business, I’d hardly be surprised if, for example, Valencia slapped a price tag on David Silva or Villa that is near to that for CRon!

2. Cesar, I would not in a million years classify Roberto Carlos as a great crosser of the ball. He was average at best. His cannon of a left foot was wildly inaccurate – didn’t it seem like only 10% of his free kicks even hit the target? He was small but ridiculously fast, and his defensive positioning was pretty good when he wasn’t caught upfield. Drenthe needs to learn to become merely an average crosser (because he’s about 1 in 7-8 right now) and pick his spots when to attack. Unfortunately easier said than done.

3. Clichy is about equal to Evra on skill level, but he has a major advantage in age. Unfortunately, I don’t see Wenger ever selling him, unless he forces his way out.

4. The talk about a crowded midfield assumes that there’s an ideal XI for every match, but let’s face it, between La Liga and Champions League, and maybe the Copa, that’s a lot of matches, and we certainly can’t rely on everyone to stay healthy. IMHO, we’d only play one DM, but one with distributional skills. I haven’t seen Lass pass the ball enough to tell if that’s him, but it’s def not Mahamadou and I don’t think Gago is the defensive steel this team requires. Playing Capello’s double pivot usually means unbalancing the attack by taking away a winger, because you can’t distribute from so far back and we have to play 2 strikers because Raul has to be on the pitch. Otherwise, we could go with a single striker, who has to be a frontman capable of holding up the ball, or playing the wingers further up the pitch for support in a 4-3-3. Either way, I don’t see how Higuain gets to start, because he’s not a central attacking midfielder, he’s not the frontman, and he’s only average on the wing.

5. I’m not sure playing Sneijder withdrawn in the midfield is such a bad idea. Think about another short-ish central midfielder with a high work rate and a booming shot – Paul Scholes! Ok, they’re not the same, but at least Wesley knows how to tackle.

6. Finally, I would give anything to see Ribery at Madrid over CRon. I think CRon is a great player (you don’t score 42 goals by chance), but he’s a little prima donna twat, and I hate the way he kinda hunches over when he’s waiting to take a free kick. Just ugly body language. As opposed to straight up ugly like Ribery.

What you said would be great, if only drenthe would understand the value and advantage of being a top notch LB, they don’t come easily (Roberto Carlos and Maldini are the last great ones), so if Juande convinces him, I agree he has all the tools to be roberto carlos 2.0, he has the pace, power, great shot, and he only needs to work on his crossings, and learn fron the expreinced defenders we have about positioning and anticipation, I think he’d be great as a left back

I found myself rooting for Chelsea for the first time in my life this last weekend, and it was entirely because of the nonsense that Ferguson’s been spewing lately. He pisses me off.

But we must focus on this year, even though we have lost three of our best players, we have a competitive squad still and the Gago-Lass pairing seems to work well in away games, but I would like to see Guti at home frequently, or in away games playing instead of Sneijder, who is not as much of a creator in a double pivot system as Guti could be.

and while everyone is talking about ribery , why not go for david silva. that guy is good too. personally ,i would prefer ribery or silva to bringing in a player who would think himself bigger than the club and the team.

and next year is ruud’s last year. i don’t think he is going to sign for another club. with his history of injuries, i would think that he won’t play beyond the ripe old age of 34 and some. highly unlikely. same unlikeliness for a benzema move as well. think he is gonna stay in aulas’ clutches until 2010.

and we need a lb desperately. i would love fabio da silva. completely unprobable and will cause whiskey-nose to explode. lol. more than cr7 being sold , i can bet.

2. The striker situation is confusing. I’ve been saying for a while that Benzema should be our #1 target, and that he could be the face of a new improved Madrid. I think that it would create a lot of competition for the forward positions, but if the pool was Raul, Higuain, Huntelaar and Benzema, I could see a lot of combinations working well, even Higs and Benzema. But Benzema, Huntelaar and Ruud all on one squad would just be too much – one of them would have to go. And though I like Ruud better, far better, than Huntelaar, considering his age he might be a good option to try to bring in some transfer money. I guess I’d accept that.

3. I consider Marcelo, Saviola and Van der Vaart (VdV conditionally – see my above comment) all viable transfer fodder. I’d prefer a loan for Garcia, and I wouldn’t mind Drenthe to stick around – I still think he’ll improve, and we need to keep depth in mind. I’d love for Chema Anton to get a chance, but since he hasn’t, I wonder what Juande is seeing. Palanca stays, if Calderon has any brain cells left.

4. A dual Diarra midfield – it could win games, but I don’t like it, primarily because it lacks a creative midfielder, something I consider vital to the Spanish game. You might argue that neither Gago nor Lass are very creative, but their combined creative talents and vision make up for it. So it’s a question of style for me.

6. I really think Cannavaro should stay. I have a lot of faith in Garay, but Cannavaro is to important to let go, due to his experience, organizing skills, and confidence. And again, depth should always be considered, and I like a pool of Canna, Pepe, Garay, Metzelder and Ramos (if needed) to choose from in the center back position.

6. Is everyone giving up on Guti? I’m certainly not.

Awesome comments/discussion from everyone. Hala Madrid!