Open Thread: March 23, 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.

Arsenal would like to permanently sign Martin Odegaard.

According to Fabrizio Romano, “Arsenal are really happy with Ødegaard and will try to keep him. They will talk with Real Madrid at the end of the season. Zidane’s future will be key to take a final decision about Ødegaard”.

So Madridistas, lets say hypothetically that Zidane will be continuing as manager next season and that Odegaard wants to continue at Arsenal after finding this out, what would you favor? A change in manager that guarantees Odegaard being inserted into the starting lineup or stick it out with Zidane. How much do you believe in the young Norwegian’s potential versus the aura of our legendary coach? Answer this juicy poll question below:

Ramos did not train with Spain today.

El Capitan travelled with the national team but did not train due to the knock he picked up against Atalanta. Not sure why he travelled in the first place since he clearly hasn’t fully recovered from his injury but this situation is a bit worrisome given our medical record this season and the important stretch of games coming up. Per Javier Herráez of Cadena Ser “Sergio Ramos is fine, it was planned that he would not train with his teammates today. His availability vs Greece will depend on how he evolves from the discomfort he’s had”.

One year without Lorenzo Sanz.

On 21 March 2020, the Real Madrid family bode farewell to Lorenzo Sanz, who served as the club’s President between 1995 and 2000. During his spell as President, Sanz guided the team to a total of seven trophies: two European Cups, an Intercontinental Cup, a league title, a Spanish Super Cup, a basketball league title and the basketball European Cup. Real Madrid put out this video tribute for our former President.

Glimpses of our players (and possible future players) on International duty.