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’d totally treat to flaming lamborghinis... Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Juninho or... yours truly.

Will He Won’t He

♫ Wheeeere do we go from heeeeereeee ♫

Look, I know this is out of character, but I wanted to get this off my chest;

So there’s been plenty of talk these past few days regarding a possible Cristiano Ronaldo move in this transfer window. It doesn’t seem easy and reports seem fairly conflicting. The man is a legend; a true great of the game. He may still be a beast, you can see the reasons suitors aren’t exactly getting in line. Cristiano is (way) past his best years. He’s a freak athlete, sure and probably better than anyone will ever be, not just at 37/38, but in better shape than many younger superstars. But, father time catches up to everyone. Even the very best mankind has to offer. These days you know that, if Cristiano is in the team, you have a great striker who can also play some neat one-touch-football and often oversee entire attacking sequences. However, that costs the team some collectiveness on the defensive phases. Expecting Ronaldo to run around and press for 90’ seems unrealistic, no?

One of the teams that are rumored to be interested are Atletico. Yeah yeah I know, “he’s not our player, Nero, why do we care where he’ll go”. Well, put simply, we just do. He’s a legend of the game, yes, but also our legend. I know he’s gonna go after CL football, but it would surely cause me heartache to see the Portuguese in, say, a white shirt with red stripes... He could very well pull a Louis Suarez and get them the freaking League. He chose United when City were clearly the better choice. I’m hoping I won’t have Until now, I’ve had the mindset that we’ve moved on and that’s it, but I won’t lie. It will piss me off to see him in a (direct) rival’s colors and, frankly, I don’t think it’ll happen in the end. What about you? I’d really like to hear your opinions on the matter.

United Interested in... Casemiro?

According to MARCA (also reported by Lucas), United are showing interest in Casemiro. Yeah it’s one of those periods during which, ManUnited are linked to practically everyone who can kick a ball including children, women and the elderly. But this is... interesting. I mean, Casemiro is still one of the leaders of this Real Madrid side and very much in his prime. I get that Tchouameni is now his rotation and all and that he’s supposed to take over but... said “relationship” has barely begun. I don’t recall Case being for sale.

Have a nice day, fellow Madridistas and may the Madridismo be with ya all.