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.

I chose Brahim as the OT thumbnail since he’s been buzzing this week in Milan.

RIGHT BACK RADAR

As Carvajal’s injury woes continue to plague him day and night, whilst Odriozola continues to get loaned out. The Hakimi deal continues to look like a terrible move dispute the financial gain. Granted we were in a pandemic & we needed money and had to make some sales. We were in a tough spot and hakimi’s transfer fee helped us at that point. But according to the streets, we’re now on the move for yet another right back. The names being thrown around range from Youcef Atal (25, OGC Nice) to Joao Cancelo (27, Man City). Whether or not our club will actually sign another Right back or is even interested in looking for one, remains to be seen. A permanent away deal for Odri has to be in the works because another loan deal isn’t helping anybody.

KROOSIN THROUGH THE PAIN

Our very own Toni Kroos has revealed that he played through the pain for six months last season. A very dangerous thing to do as the damaging repercussions could be lasting. Unfortunately, for his pain, we still ended up with nothing.

TOP EPL CLUBS?

How many top English clubs are there today? by my count, 3 (Manchester City, Manchester United & Chelsea). This could change at the end of the season but i don’t rate tottenham or arsenal. Tottenham may never recover from what Levy did to them towards the end of last season and IMO, Arsenal still need another 2 years of consistent football to be considered a top team under Arteta. So in terms of outside competition in the EPL, we only have those 3 aforementioned clubs to worry about.

LA LIGA IS DANGEROUSLY PREPARED FOR ATLETICO TO WIN IT

I’ll leave you with this mans face.

CAMAVINGA

Only drawback from the camavinga transfer is that Barnett will be around much longer than we’d like, gareth bale wont be the end of him. But if he can keep giving us top prospects like Cama, won’t be hard to overlook his many instigations with Bale.

ICYMI:

Could Hazard do well in a central role? Brahim only thinking of Milan.