Day of Rest: 12 Oct. 2026

Welcome to The Daily Merengue — a place where you can feel free to discuss all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name!

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Writer’s Prelude. We’ll keep today short. Expect longer regular DT programming from me starting tomorrow.

A Day of Rest

A Bit Late? Today Fabrizio reports (and to be honest this report feels pretty made up or just to ensure relevancy during a slow club news period) that Real Madrid will focus on signing a midfielder in likely the summer of 2027. Of course, I welcome this news but it’s certainly two years too late. I’m not in the business of saying that we need a Toni Kroos replacement — mainly because I don’t believe in the concept of replacing all-time players such as Toni Kroos. Nevertheless, we certainly needed to restructure our midfield. It’s been supremely obvious for years that our next gen of midfielders were duplicative in their skillsets, so let’s pray that this rumor is real and that Flo and co have finally learned their lesson.

Separately, and maybe a longer conversation for a different day, rather than trying to spend 70M+ on a midfielder, maybe just maybe we should’ve tried to bring back Chema or looked a bit harder at Castilla the past two years. I understand that Real Madrid doesn’t give one the luxury of developing but when the current crop of midfielders aren’t working and there isn’t an appetite to spend heavily in the position — surely giving a youth player a chance is the next option. But who knows maybe Thiago Pitarch will take a leap this season.

JJ Gabriel. So I am only posting this news because others have reported it. I don’t actually take Jfelixdiaz news seriously being that even when his reporting is somewhat accurate there’s often a lot of “extra gloss” that isn’t actually true. Anyway, I truly don’t get this transfer for either party. Well, I kind of get it for Real being that we likely can develop him a bit and then sell him in 2-3 years for a high fee but I really don’t get this from the JJ Gabriel camp. If he truly wants to get first team minutes quickly or simply develop as a player, I’m not entirely sure why you’d come to Real Madrid. Personally, I don’t think there’s any good footballing reason at the moment for any young professional to come to Madrid especially if the player was signed for less than 75M. I mean just look at Endrick (which is entirely another conversation on why he’s STILL at Madrid). I understand that Vini / Rodrygo / maybe Fede can be considered success stories but that was also an era of clear transition at the club. Their competition was primarily 27+ not 23. But anyway, I’ve liked the few highlights of the kid that I’ve seen so if this is the decision that JJ wants to take than so be it.

Conversations to look towards. Below are some rapid fire thoughts from the game and past few years as a Madrid fan that I hope to develop and tackle this week but here’s a sneak peek. 1) Jude Bellingham actually unbalances our midfield especially with the double pivot. We love Jude’s hustle mentality and willingness to press but he often presses alone and mindlessly, leaving massive gaps for Tchouameni or Fede to cover. 2) Fede Valverde isn’t a midfielder he’s a RM at best but truly a RB or more defensive-minded RW. He realistically needs to be moved. 3) It’ll be interesting to see how long Vini is suspended and whether this period of rest will help recover him or just make things worse. 4) Kylian Mbappe is a great player but likely isn’t clinical enough to be our only 9 option, we may want to consider him at LW while Vini is suspended. 5) Mourinho’s man management is superb but I’m unclear of whether he has the nuance to tactically cover our personnel gaps. TBH we’re likely beyond tactics to make this midfield work. Only hard decisions.

Cheers,

J