Shockingly Unlikely Real Madrid Transfer Rumor: Mario Götze On Florentino's Agenda

Well, its' been a long, long time since we've had one of these segments (long in Real Madrid-media-land that is), and this time it's not about Neymar! So rejoice, and come laugh with me about this ridiculous rumor courtesy of our friendly neighborhood publish-anything-and-pretend-you're-journalists Marca!

According to this SHOCKING NEW REPORT! Marca has uncovered evidence that Real Madrid are interested in acquiring the services of the newest Bundesliga phenom, Mario Götze. The 19 year-old German center midfielder currently plays on Nuri Sahin's ex-team, Borussia Dortmund...and he's really good.

But here's the first of many problems: Real Madrid don't need another center midfielder. Where's he going to play? I know he's an investment for the future, but he's clearly talented enough to start (which he'll know), yet he'll be stuck on the bench behind Özil, Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso...and maybe Nuri Sahin, Sami Khedira et al. (We have a pretty stacked midfield amiright?)

Here's the second problem: Marca doesn't cite anyone. Whenever you have a report from an "unnamed source" in Marca, just throw it out. We can take two things from this report: 1) Real Madrid know who Mario Götze is and 2) They probably have someone who watched him once on TV. And honestly, if that wasn't already the case, then I'd be pretty ashamed of our spies scouts

In better news, Pepe and Fabio Coentrão rejoined the squad today after their injuries. They should be good to go soon-ish, perhaps even for Madrid's return to la Liga action. Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed that we'll see the end of Raphaël Varane's starting gig--how good was this kid?! (I'm sure it's not the last we'll see of him, of course).

Also, in site maintenance news, we haven't had any podcasts because, well, I still don't have internet (this post coming courtesy of the free internet in a plaza in Cádiz). It should be set up within the next couple of days, and then we'll get the WORLD FAMOUS (not really) Managing Madrid Podcast back up and running. Which I'm sure our five listeners (three if you don't count me and my dad) will be happy to hear.