Open Thread : 1st February 2022

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, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Ezek Ix or NeRObutBlanco.

Training at full steam for Bilbao.

Militão returned to the fray for a session that saw Carlo Ancelotti’s men continue their preparations for Thursday’s Copa del Rey quarter-final meeting with Athletic at San Mamés. Marco Asensio and Dani Carvajal completed part of the session with the group, whilst Karim Benzema and Mariano completed individual work both indoors and out on the grass. Meanwhile, Ferland Mendy trained indoors.

An Agreement and ................ a denial!!

The interwebs were full of activity last night when German media outlet, Bild proclaimed that Kylian Mbappé has agreed to join Real Madrid on a free transfer in the summer and that the France international will earn a salary of 50 million euros (pretax) a year at the Bernabéu.

Later this news seems to have been denied though we can expect this back and forth to go on until the player’s future is sorted. Pedrerol also denied Bild’s report possibly because he believes he’s God’s chosen one to break the news, not Bild.

What do we do at left back?

As reported by Lucas, Ferland Mendy has picked up a muscle injury in training and will miss Thursday’s match against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey Quarterfinals. This is a big blow as Marcelo is suspended for the fixture and Miguel has barely featured to be thrown into a game like this. Most likely Nacho will fill it though it might be a better idea to have Nacho play in the center and Alaba on the left. What do you guys think.

Here’s a crazy idea too.

ICYMI: Managing Madrid Podcast: Gento and the YeYes win the 6th European Cup title.

In this podcast Kiyan Sobhani and Matt Wiltse re-watch and dissect the 1966 European Cup final. Give it a listen.