Watched the cup final. Pretty interesting game as a neutral.

Ronaldo sent off for a dumb kick out, not much contact but didn't look like natural motion, right decision. The amount of play acting is abysmal though.

heeheehee

thank you Lopez for being so much better than Casillas and for gifting Atletico the cup inside the Bernabeu!

Falcao celebrating, not sure if it's because of this or he's found out how much Monaco are paying him next year.

Well, Barca will be dominating La Liga for years, Mourinho going and I honestly can't see Ronaldo staying.

Madrid won't let Ronaldo leave yet. Will give him more money if necessary.

Madrid fans won't exactly miss Mourinho much. He burned all the bridges there, they had to suffer through his jerk personality for 3 years and the title return was pretty minimal.

Well, Casillas practically gifted Barca the title with his early season performances. Jose did what not many others would in that situation, and pick form over a name.


I dunno, he won everything in Spain against the supposed best team every created, that's a fine return. They were all pretty bad in the CL before him, he took them close in every season.

I think Ronaldo/Rooney + money swap will happen. Rooney doesn't like Moyes and wants out. Ronaldo is close with Jose and will leave if he leaves.

He was brought there on the best coach in the world ticket and got everything he wanted. Best team ever is bullshit, of course. Barca was vulnerable, especially in the last two seasons, yet he only won one league and one cup in 3 years. Besides, in CL there was no Barca last two times, yet he couldn't beat the Germans twice. And I'm not even mentioning the off field issues.
For some teams that would be fine but this is Madrid we are talking about. They fired coaches after league wins and CL wins, they didn't pay him that salary for one league title in 3 years.

I just don't see Ronaldo leaving at this time. Real will lose a lot quality wise in that swap, they can't afford to let him go. He was there before Mouringo, he can survive without him.

100% agreed.

Well I don't agree. Reaching 3 straight CL SFs is still an impressive run and as 2nd best in your own country, any league title is a good one. I don't think Barca were at all vulnerable as shown by the success in year 1, but it wasn't until Jose's continued success against them that Barca were seen to have a weakness, one that other clubs have followed up with.

Had this been someone other than Jose, people would be talking of how great a success it was. For that reason there's no point continuing because people are only interested in looking at his "failures".

Then we won't agree as I can't see how his Madrid days can be considered a success. Not a total failure, of course, but definitely not success.

There's a reason people expect more from him than 'Someone other than Jose' as he considers himself the best and people like you consider him the best. So the expectations are set accordingly, especially when he's given all the resources in maybe the biggest club in the world. And no, 2nd best in your own country is not good enough, certainly not for Madrid. when Barca (that begun to decline as any great team begins gradually and naturally after some time) are still taking the majority of the silverware. And 3 straight CL SF is nice, for most clubs and coaches (not Madrid and not Mourinho), but nothing more as he had all the chances to take them to the final in the last two years when Barca was out of his way and teams worse than Madrid made the finals.

And then we also have the ugly departure and how pathetic it was to see him dissing his own players and all the locker room problems they had over there. He became even more unbearable than usual towards the end.


Not really, I would say the same about any coach after 3 years at Madrid. Also, last sentence is not exactly fair as I can easily say that some people are only interested in looking at his "successes". It goes both ways.

+1

As much as I love Casillas, Lopez has been amazing (haven't seen last night game's goals), saved Real in big games countless times. besides, it's not Mourinho's fault Arbeloa broke Casillas' hand...

As for Iker, when you're a club's #1 for many years without any real competition you're bound to lose your best form. he needed this. maybe we'll see the real Casillas again next season.


As for Mourinho, managing Real pretty much damaged his reputation IMO. he was given the best resources to work with and he didn't deliver as much as expected in not one, not two but THREE seasons. he's been a flop all things considered.

Doesn't change the fact that they were 2nd best though. Yet he still managed to win everything there is in the country. I never said his time was a success, but it's certainly not a failure. For me his biggest success was making Barca feel like they could be beaten, his 1st game against them was naïve and played into Barca's hands. After that, he showed teams you don't need to defend, just attack them and it mostly worked well, even with a much inferior squad - other teams followed.

Yes, but still, to win everything there is in the country once - that's only one league, cup and supercup in 3 years (especially when Madrid fans don't really give a **** about the Copa del Rey and surely not about the Supercopa). That's certainly not enough for Madrid and that's certainly not enough to someone like Mourinho. You can't hype him as the awesomest gift to humanity like some do and then lower the expectations to be the second best and say thank you on CL SF. From his 3 years there only one years was a success - the second one, the other two were flops IMO.

Well, I think winning something is always better than not winning something and beating Barca is always a positive. So to beat Barca head-to-head in both Cup Finals and essentially seal the title with a win at the Nou Camp is good rather than bad.

I'm not saying you do, but people often lack a sense of perspective. In his 1st season he picked up 92 points - which would have been enough to win the title in year 2 and 3. Does this mean his 1st season is a failure in the league? Not at all, that's one of the best ever performances by a team in Spain, ever. To consider it a "failure" when he has no control over 36 of Barca's 38 games I can't agree with. If he doesn't reach the 90 point mark - like this season - it can be seen as a failure. But if you reach 90+ points and don't win the title, that's not that you've failed, it's just another team has been exceptional. I mean, if Milan picked up 90 points this season and finished 2nd would we be calling it a bad season? It's a near perfect season, but you just can't control what other teams do outside of 2 games.

It seems Higuain is being made the Madrid scapegoat this season and he's being heavily linked with Juve. That's exactly what we need, Juve getting a 20+ goal a season striker. We may as well give them the title and everyone else plays for 2nd at this point.

I would call it mediocre because the bottom line is that you still lost the title to your sworn enemy and that's hard to swollow no matter what sweet pill it is.

Then we completely disagree on a very basic level. For me, what your competition does is irrelevant since you have no control over it, only what you can control should be judged. To me including Napoli vs Pescara, Juventus vs Udinese, etc. into judgement over your own season makes no sense.

Yes, we completely disagree.

Ronaldo seems to be in the same mood as he was when he was coming to the end of his OT days, you can just tell he's not really enjoying it now. If someone throws the money I think Madrid sell, either that or they let him go for nothing in a few years which would be crazy.

I have to agree with Kurt on this ( ), I don't think Mourinho's time at RM has been a failure apart from maybe this season which was mostly determined by off the field incidents because... well, he's a pr*ck. This season they never really challenged Barcelona for the title and they should have beaten Dortmund. But overall I think he did well considering how strong Barcelona have been (even though they were not obviously going to win everything) and recently RM have been the best team in consecutive matches against them.


We all know he wasn't benched for that but if you wanna go there then how many games did he really cost them? How can you single out Casillas for RM's mediocre performances to start the season? You can't and he was not the (sole) reason why the fell out of the title race and really, he was benched because Mourinho wanted control over the locker room, not for bad performances.

edit: as for CR, if PSG really are willing to give them 100m and if he would not mind going there I think they should take the money.

Funny how you support Mourinho for reaching 3 CLs semi-finals in 3 years and winning only a La Liga at his time in Madrid (Copa del Rey doesn't count for sh*t), yet you are the first one to criticize Ancelotti for winning only one scudetto when he had arguably the best team in Serie A from 2003 to 2007, time in which he also won 2 CLs, made 1 final and a semi-final.

Neither Ancelotti in that period nor Mourinho the past three years had had the best team in the respective leagues.

We had a better team than Juve, albeit they had a super-strong team themselves.

Well it's different because 1. Carlo had the leagues best team and Jose isn't. 2. 1 title in 3 years is far superior to 1 title in 8 years.

I don't "support" Mourinho, I just think labelling his time as a failure and taking into account how Barca did as a reflection is ridiculous. I pretty much agree with dst on the issue and we all know how he feels about RM/Jose.

I can't agree with you guys saying Ancelotti had the the best team in the league for all those years though I do agree that one league title during that time is poor.

1. Don't be so tight about it. Both Ancelotti and Mourinho had two formidable opponents in Juventus and Barcelona.

2. Ancelotti had a great team only for 4 seasons (from 02/03 to 05/06). Ever since Calciopoli our team hit a massive decline which was coupled with Sheva's departure, and only Kaká's miracle season in 06/07 allowed us to win that Champions League.

Yes. And the competition was immense, totally different from today's Serie A or Primera. But nevermind, let's turn back to statistics.

Between the years X-Off mentioned I can't agree. Inter weren't all that amazing most of it, Roma and Lazio's title winning teams had disappeared.

I think you're boss missing the point though. I never called Carlo's time in Milan a failure anyway. I just think 1 league title is a disappointing return with the best squad for half his time. Allegri got slaughtered for not winning with the wst squad last season.

As for the CL. Ancelotti did an very good job in 03. The other 2 finals not so much, current day Europe is far stronger/sere a much weaker IMO.

Naah, I just repeat myself.

Today was officially announced that Mourinho won't coach Madrid anymore and today is also Casillas's birthday. Coincidence?

So Neymar to Barca is pretty much done. Will be interesting to see him in europe cuz hard to say how really good he is from Brazilian league numbers.

Can't say I've really seen him much. Against England he played like he's being controlled by a 12 year old kid on FIFA. He seems very greedy and I'm not sure that will work for Barca. Messi can be a ball hog, but he still makes the right passes. Neymar isn't Messi either.

Still early though to conclude since, despite that hype around him is going on for a long time, he's only 21 y.o. In Brazil he has a free pass to do anything he likes but in europe he will have to adapt to a different style.

They will kick his *** if he plays the same way at Barca (being selfish, holding on to the ball for too long, doing silly and unnecessary tricks that only amuses Brazilians, etc.).

Agree with Kurt the FIFA kids who love their trick sticks love him, he is literally the real version of it.

I think he will adapt well there. They have a squad of Champions, a wealth of experience, tradition and all that .. He has to play their brand offootball or he won't play. He also could be fielded ahead and latchess onto the through balls.

He's a better fit for RM. He would have a bit more freedom there I reckon.

It's a no risk move for Madrid really. So long as they keep their core 5/6 players, almost anyone can play around them and they'll be fine. Fabregas, Sanchez and especially Alba have all been terrible, but it doesn't make a difference to them.

Sanchez has been a huge let down so far, but you must admit that a Neymar-Messi-Sanchez trio looks spectacular on paper.

Well, I'm not convinced in Sanchez. He's had a great season at Udinese and that's about it. Much much more to prove, and every time I see him play for Barcelona I can't help but think he's on a different, lower level. The same comes up when Pedro for example plays, but then again Pedro has this efficient work-rate alla Thomas Müller that makes you think twice.

As for Neymar...I don't know. It's still early. I don't find him great in any way, not even on paper. It's just another flash Brazil-stamp player who has so much to prove.

This is the biggest problem for them, even players like Cesc who did grow up in their system has found it hard to adapt to it now that he's back.

To be successful there he needs to grasp their method of football quick or he'll struggle big time, especially because I don't see him as the strong willed type.


Agreed


Sanchez is wasted at Barca simply because he's a counter attacking player. In the sense his quality shines through when he's given space to run into i.e why he did so well at Udine because their entire system was based around counter attacking. Same as dst pointed out about Neymar, I think he would have been spectacular for Real under Jose. But Barca's pass pass pass system simply does not play to his strengths. He just does not understand their way of playing football. Very few "outsiders" do imo. Which is why newbies tend to struggle with them

Agreed on Neymar. He's such an egotistic pr!ck. The tricks and flicks can be pretty but when he's playing for your team and tries to take everyone on his own I think it can be frustrating. The only good decision he made was to go to Spain. At least it's a much more easy league in terms or defending and physicality when compared to EPL, Serie A or Bundesliga

Gee, let him play a few games first...

Oh you meant Sanchez... my bad!

Neymar is no different from Balo in that sense. They never pass the ball! Only that Balo relies on physical strength, whilst Neymar relies on his skills with the ball.

I can't wait to see Neymar play Madrid. £50 says Pepe kills him in the first 5 minutes and he retires.

I can see that happening.

If Madrid were to sign Bale, where exactly would he play?

They are selling Di Maria it seems, so in his place.