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 you would absolutely treat to sushi: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, YoSnail, Ezek Ix or yours truly.

So here’s one question for today:

Am I the only one who thought of the Rocky series’ training theme when first looking at the above picture??

Hazard Training alone

Which is totally fine (for the time being), as he is being brought up to speed, so that he can join the rest of the gang in preseason training. In case you don’t recall, the Belgian superstar suffered - *sigh* - yet another injury during the Euros. Real Madrid fans everywhere, will be hoping to see the attacker regain some fitness and confidence, as well as maintain those (!) during the season.

So now our No 1 target tried to play down the RMA talk

Young superstar and Los Blancos undisputed heavyweight champion of... transfer targets, took part in an interview, along with Neymar Jr. What he said was... interesting, but certainly not what Real Madrid fans would want to hear. Apparently, his biggest dream is to win the UCL with PSG.

My biggest dream would be to win the Champions League with PSG, it would be fantastic

However much the above quote means, it seems that the youngster understands that the move to the Spanish capital is a long way from happening - for now.

Allegri confirms turning down Real Madrid job offer

The then-but-also-current Juventus boss has gone public about turning down an offer to coach Real Madrid. One thing’s for sure. He’s a quality coach and Juventus had done well in his previous spell. Let’s see how it plays out this time. It’s a cool coincidence that we also brought a former boss back - Don Carlo. Perhaps a duel with a Ronaldo-led Juventus is already written in the stars.

Have a nice - no, a great day everyone. May the madridismo be with you.