Yeah, he's just being his usual self. He enjoys these moments when he can put himself in the spotlight. The same rumours appeared in March, he said the same thing back then and a few days later Lewandowski said he's 100% happy to stay and rumours about an upcoming contract extension replaced the Real rumours.
Probably if we play to his strength. That's not necessary the best way to win the league though. That's why I brought up Gomez. His two best goalscoring seasons of his career came in 10/11 and 11/12 and his goalscoring record was sensational for us over those two seasons, both in the league (54 in 65 games) and in the CL (21 in 22 games). We also didn't win a single trophy in those two seasons.
I think Di Maria was a special case as he didn't want to be here and then perhaps VG never really helped him settle by moving him around all over the pitch.
That is because they are Spain's darling with the Spanish governments helping them out whenever they need it.
Who cares about that. He´s plaiyng for bayern and under contract till 2019. So Bayern has all the power. If Madrid want Lewandowski it will most certainly be nine figures and a world record fee.
You're correct, which is why Hernandez leaving was the right decision. He'll never be good enough to be the main striker for a prolonged period at a side wanting to win titles/Champions Leagues. Not replacing him and going into the season with the attacking options we did was obviously the mistake.
They have a relatively low net spend over the last few years if I'm not mistaken. It certainly helped them big time that English clubs started to pay insane money for the players they wanted to get rid off. Real's netspend over the last 5 years is significantly lower than United's (about half of it if I'm not mistaken, something like 370m Euro for United and 190m for Real). Now netspend is a somewhat flaw way of looking at it of course, but it gives you an indication that Real aren't as crazy as some of their transfers suggest.
Neither was Gomez as limited as many suggest. I actually rate Gomez. He had good link-up and hold-up play for Stuttgart, he's also a physical beast (or was in his prime), excellent on the counter with lots of pace. The problem was his technical ability under pressure and when he had limited space and it's in my opinion the same for Lukaku. He needs space to show that he's actually decent on the ball, space that he simply doesn't get playing for any top team in any league. I agree with your Hernandez comparison. Put Hernandez in this Everton side and he'd score consistently, probably even more than Lukaku because his off the ball movement is vastly superior.
In the end it'll come down to this. He's too valuable to Bayern to sell him for a somewhat reasonable price and not a big enough upgrade on Benzema (neither commercially nor on the pitch) for Madrid to make him another record signing. He'll stay for now. Not fully convinced he'll extend his contract though, but I don't really care. He has always been 100% professional in his career no matter the contract situation.
It's not a good thing for Gotze.
Disagree. Would only have Suarez ahead of Lewa as far as CFs go.
Zlatan to Bayern then
Because he won't spend a chunk of the season on trial for blackmailing a team mate quite possibly followed by a trip to jail... Not passing go but potentially still collecting £200 (grand a week)
I think it's the other way around.
Unless you get their permission
What a ridiculous thing to say, our transfer strategy last summer was nothing short of excellent securing three important players in three days for extremely reasonable fees, plus one of the best young players in the world for a well structured payment scheme that has changed the way clubs look for securing "wonder-kids" (as evidenced by Bayern and Sanches).
We gutted our already inadequate attacking options, cut the wage bill and went into the season with an inferior squad than the season before which had zero chance of winning the league (despite the "best summer ever" shite we had on here which it seems you still believe despite all evidence to the contrary). Our strategy was so "excellent" we spent the entire summer pissing about making offers for muller (confirmed by Munich) then Neymar (confirmed by his dad) and countless other "stars", we failed to replace di Maria, van Persie or Falcao (two of which were brought in the season before in another demonstration of our "excellent" strategy). We also got played by Ramos so we never actually got the CB we needed either.
I'd definitely say Lewandowski is better than Benzema, too
As they've shown with Ballack, for example, they're even willing to let the player run down his contract if all else fails.
Not with three years on his contract. Bayern are literally loaded in money, and they would sell only if Lewandowski really wants to leave, and Real really pays a lot of money. 100m euros, or Benzema + a lot of money might make the trick, but I doubt that Real will go that far.
it is funny but actually could be true