Open Thread: 26 May 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, YoSnail, Ezek lx or NeRObutBlanco.

Preparations continue for the Champions League final.

The team trained at Real Madrid City as they completed the third session this week as they continue to fine tune preparations for the Champions League final against Liverpool at the Stade de France.

Real Madrid will fly to Paris later today.

The squad will be based at a luxury hotel in Chantilly, on the outskirts of Paris, rumoured to be the Auberge du Jeu de Palme complex.

Real Madrid will train at their hotel facilities on May 27 before a scheduled light session at the Stade de France the night before the final.

The club has fond memories in this particular stadium having secured La Octava there with a 3-0 win over Valencia.

How much money do Real Madrid have to spend this summer?

According to El Debate journalist Tomas Gonzalez-Martin in an interview with Bernabeu Digital, Real Madrid have 140 million euros set aside to make transfers. A majority of this would have gone for Mbappe’s signing bonus but now it seems like those funds have been allocated towards Tchouameni and other transfers.

In the worst case, Real could sign Tchouameni and still have 60-70 million euros left over in that budget. That is plenty to bring in another forward who can play on the right wing and maybe even one more player at a bargain price. Fran Garcia, you have to figure, remains on the radar as a five million euro addition to compete at left back.

Want Madrid to sign Salah? Think again.