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The 2016-2017 Football Thread

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Not disagreeing at all LB - but to single them out is a bit strange since Juve is just as financially doped as is Paris as are basically all the English clubs (and Bayern and and and). There are quite some clubs around with deep pockets - so it takes a bit more than that to win the CL three times in the last four years. If you're criticizing Real for spending truckloads of money you may as well say goodbye to top pro football (which would include Liverpool of course which to my knowledge just spend an absurd amount of money on a defender who just finished his second year in the PL).

But I do disagree with your statement re: Zidane/diplomacy. I guess we can agree on that he is quite likely quite familiar with strategy, tactics involved etc pp. but you make it sound as it would be an easy feat to conduct such a "collection of most expensive talent". I'd argue that such a collection of egos needs primarily a brilliant diplomat to keep them happy and ensure the collective success - would anybody else be able to convince Ronaldo to change his marquee playstyle? To stay at home and rest while the team plays away during the season? To shut James out because it wouldn't work as good? Or Bale? That doesn't need a manager? Of course it does and it also takes a bit more to it to score 4 against Juve that conceded less goals in their whole entire CL campaign before.

Also one should note that Madrid is more than the usual "Galacticos" from a decade ago. Kroos is playing there for three years now and is still the latest addition of all the core players - that says a lot.
 
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sorry LB, seem like my hint at van Dijk costing Liverpool a fortune was a bit premature. Quite sure they'll splash the cash elsewhere though.. ;)
 
twietee said:
Not disagreeing at all LB - but to single them out is a bit strange since Juve is just as financially doped as is Paris as are basically all the English clubs (and Bayern and and and). There are quite some clubs around with deep pockets - so it takes a bit more than that to win the CL three times in the last four years. If you're criticizing Real for spending truckloads of money you may as well say goodbye to top pro football (which would include Liverpool of course which to my knowledge just spend an absurd amount of money on a defender who just finished his second year in the PL).
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Oh, I am by no means singling out Real as the the only financially-doped club...but they (alongside perhaps Chelsea) ARE the most prominent among the very few clubs who essentially invented the concept of financial doping as it is practiced today.

And I stick to my opinion that the fundamental reason that Real are as good as they are is NOT specifically because of their suits or managers or players, but because they spend their way out of problems in ways other clubs can't - and they can do that because (and this same argument applies to Man Utd) they emerged as big spenders at the dawn of the money era in football. They are the apex predators.

So they are not only the moneyed class in a sport where money is everything, but they are, to use the English idiom, "Old Money". They were rich before everyone else, and will thus always be "more equal" than even the other rich clubs (not to mention the thousands of middling clubs thrashing though a futile, mediocre existence).

twietee said:
But I do disagree with your statement re: Zidane/diplomacy. I guess we can agree on that he is quite likely quite familiar with strategy, tactics involved etc pp. but you make it sound as it would be an easy feat to conduct such a "collection of most expensive talent". I'd argue that such a collection of egos needs primarily a brilliant diplomat to keep them happy and ensure the collective success - would anybody else be able to convince Ronaldo to change his marquee playstyle? To stay at home and rest while the team plays away during the season? To shut James out because it wouldn't work as good? Or Bale? That doesn't need a manager? Of course it does and it also takes a bit more to it to score 4 against Juve that conceded less goals in their whole entire CL campaign before.

Also one should note that Madrid is more than the usual "Galacticos" from a decade ago. Kroos is playing there for three years now and is still the latest addition of all the core players - that says a lot.
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I was a bit harsh on Zidane, I admit. But as yet he as proven nothing to me in terms of his suitability as a top manager outside Real. In fact, you can level the exact same criticisms at Zidane that Real supporters have hurled at Pep Guardiola for years - he's at a club where he was a legendary player, he has the total respect of the fans and players, he has the best resources in the world at his disposal - he's never had to prove his skills at the proverbial wet Tuesday night in Stoke (or wherever Tony Pulis currently resides). At a club like Real, these things are more important than understanding the tactical mechanics of winning football matches.

So, while Zidane is probably one of the few people on earth who can effectively man-manage the Real squad, all he has proven is that Real essentially make all their own rules and nothing in the real world of football management seems to apply there.
 
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