Open Thread: December 4, 2021

The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, YoSnail, Ezek Ix or NeRObutBlanco.

Matchday at Anoeta!!

An extremely tough away fixture awaits Los Blancos as they take on Real Sociedad at Anoeta tonight. Oyarzabal and co are currently third in the La Liga standings and in their last two meetings with the Basque side, Real Madrid have drawn both times. There is no such thing as an easy match against La Real. Aritz Elustondo (suspended), David Silva and Mikel Merino (injured) are all out for the game but there is still enough fire power to trouble Madrid’s shaky backline.

Potential Sociedad XI: Remiro; Gorosabel, Zubeldia, Le Normand, Rico; Portu, Zubimendi, Guevara, Januzaj; Isak, Oyarzabal.

Meanwhile Carlo made an interesting comment regarding Casemiro in which he stated “I don’t care if Casemiro is on 4 yellow cards, he will play tomorrow. If he picks a yellow - he’ll miss the game against Atletico. So be it.”

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao write to fellow LaLiga clubs.

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao have written to fellow LaLiga clubs proposing a €2 billion investment plan, which they claim is a superior alternative to the league’s own deal with CVC Capital Partners.

The CVC deal — which has the support of the other 39 clubs in Spain’s first and second divisions — was initially approved in August despite the opposition of Madrid, Barca and Athletic, with a final vote due on Dec. 10.

The new proposal would involve JP Morgan, Bank of America and HSBC jointly lending clubs €2bn at a cost of between 2.5 and 3% interest over 25 years. That compares to a 50-year period for LaLiga’s CVC agreement, which would see the investment fund receive 11% of the league’s income from TV rights. You can read the full letter on the club’s website.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas responded with a letter to clubs on Friday describing the proposal as “an attempt to break the consensus and generate uncertainty, with the only objective of safeguarding the selfish interests of a few against the common benefit of the majority.”

Air Lunin!!

Check out these saves from training.

Mbappe’s comic book throws out more hints.

Real Madrid POTM twice in a row.

Vini Junior has been named Real Madrid’s player of the month twice in a row now and he’s also been nominated for the La Liga player of the month. Congratulations to him.