OPEN THREAD — Vague Promises: 9 Jun. 2026

· Yahoo Sports

MUNICH, GERMANY - MAY 16: Michael Olise of FC Bayern Muenchen poses for a picture with the trophy for the Player of the Season after the Bundesliga match between FC Bayern München and 1. FC Köln at Allianz Arena on May 16, 2026 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Kevin Voigt/GettyImages) | Getty Images

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!

Shoutout to the Mods who do a fantastic job, Valyrian Steel, Ezek XI, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and Juninho.

Visit betsport.cv for more information.

The Final Collection of Letters

“I hope one day these words find you.” — [censored]

Writer’s Prelude. It’s funny, I planned for this letter to actually be dominated by a Jose Mourinho DT but alas it looks like the Pope prayed away that opportunity at the Bernabeu. I somewhat suspect an early morning announcement of Mourinho and some of our other signings, but maybe not with this 150M Galactico looming. It’s been a wild news cycle for Madridistas for the past 2 weeks, maybe next week we’ll finally be able to take a breather and reset with the WC. Anyway…the show must go on.

To Whomever Will Understand,

Vague Promises. Warning (or blessing) — I think this DT will be particularly short because I’m not entirely sure that I have too too much to say. Nevertheless, today is the day. Today, June 9th 2026, Florentino Perez is supposed to fulfill his election promise of placing a 150M bid for a Galactico player that all Madrid fans would want. This player is allegedly not from the Premier League. He’s on the caliber of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka as stars. He’s deserving of the Real Madrid badge and breaking our transfer record last held by one of the most successful Galacticos — Eden Hazard!!! Let me hold just for the applause and for this to sink in.

Now truly, before I actually entertain this narrative let me be very clear. I do not believe that Florentino Perez actually has a solidified plan regarding who this 150M player is. I could write paragraphs on why I think this was an election promise because Enrique Riquelme proved to be a bit more difficult to defeat than planned. I could write about how a promise like this actually makes negotiating with clubs and players that much harder because you’re relinquishing some leverage in hopes that you satisfy your electoral promises. I could write paragraphs on how in the past 2-3 years, it’s rarely looked like Florentino Perez and co have had serious sporting plans. I could write paragraphs extending that 2-3 years period to even longer lol. In fact, I’ve done this before in a prior DT. So I’m not going to belabor the point. I just have an inkling whether it’s from the sporadic nature of sources, reporters, or how the name changes every 24 hours that instead of an individual 150M player — Florentino Perez presented an idea. He will attempt to sign a Galactic player in the upcoming days. The names seem to change as quickly as it leaks that the respective club would reject the 150M bid. But anyway let’s play along regarding some of the recent popular names and their fits.

Olise. I’m going to be pretty quick with Olise because imo he is the only player on this list which is actually deserving of 150M. Michael Olise imo is arguably the best RW player on the planet and potentially the most decisive winger in the past year. Elegant on the ball, an Arjen Robben esque ability to shoot, a formidable workrate paired with genuine creativity has propelled this budding talent into a bonafide star. We all watched him dance around not only Carreras but Nuno Mendes in the CL. We’ve all witnessed how he’s accumulated 53 G/A in 52 games for Bayern. If you watched yesterday’s France match against North Ireland, you will have witnessed the potential star of the French national team this WC.

Olise’s Fit. Now more interestingly, let’s just quickly talk about his fit. Olise slides into our 433 and 4213 shape pretty seamlessly. Although I still have love for Rodrygo, Olise is a better and more natural RW who can seize that role for the club’s future. He can win 1v1 duels with relative ease. He can cross and create from the wing without much additional assistance. His football IQ is high enough to play timely passes and hold up play when needed. And equally important, he tracks back. On a wing that may feature Trent, this is pretty much a requirement for our team.

Besides price (which is the same con for all of these players), I’d argue that Olise’s greatest issue may be how ball dominant he is as a player. Potentially due to just his role on Bayern, Olise isn’t often the player who finishes a play instead he creates it. He asks for the ball at his feet so he can create a chance or continue a passage of play. He chooses to seize a 1v1 opportunity to either crate for himself or others. He isn’t let’s say a Benzema. In many ways, he’s a better version of a Rodrygo or a Vini who quite frankly passes at a higher frequency and from multiple angles. This to some extent could pose a problem due to the fact that Vini / Mbappe are equally ball dominant figures at Real Madrid. IMHO there is still high potential for our front line to stall simply because this trio doesn’t exactly make selfless runs. It isn’t in their game. There’s a good argument that our forward line needs a player who can better serve as a link…

Julian Alvarez. That perfect segue leads us to Julian Alvarez. And I’m going to go even shorter in this section because I spent too much time on Olise. Julian Alvarez (who price has been crying for all season and who I championed while he was at City) is in many ways the ST Real Madrid has been missing since Karim Benzema. I know I know I know, everyone here is now begging for a Joselu-type striker (reminder — legitimately only TR and I supported Joselu while he was a ST at Real Madrid. MM was crying for Harry Kane etc). However, in many ways Alvarez actually fits the prototype of what we likely need from a ST. He is a player who will make a selfless run to open space for others drop towards the mid to pick up the ball to play a pass towards the channels, generously pass in the box to others with a better scoring position, defend…lol, remain central as a front line pivot to encourage link up play, and when needed — score. He isn’t particularly ball dominant from my opinion and is fluid enough to interchange positions with the wings when needed. He also has a delightful touch and technique which tbh is the biggest slight of our current other 9 option Gonzalo Garcia. I’m willing to bet that Julian Alvarez would be a successful player at Real Madrid for a long time to come.

Forced Sales. Alvarez though would come with a few questions regarding fit. As primarily a CF, Julian’s arrival would then question the proper positional placement of Kylian Mbappe and then indirectly Vinicius Jr. I personally think Julian and Kylian could form a Benzema and CR7 type partnership, but this would require the board to aggressively sell Vini this summer. Trust me, Vini is not a player that we can simply bench for the rest of the season and I think it’s far too late to attempt to play him at RW. Note: I’m not entertaining that Kylian Mbappe could leave this summer because its a truly unrealistic agenda. Some of you are probably going to say “but Juni — Kylian can’t be a successful LW,” and I’m here to tell you “Ok — sure but he doesn’t need to be a LW with Julian….like duh.” There’s a position called LF which is arguably what CR7 played during a fair share of his career at Real Madrid. Our team doesn’t require a touchline traditional LW especially if a player like Alvaro Carreras can later be trusted to provide width. Instead, we would likely need Julian to link play between the duo and enable Mbappe to make off the cuff runs against flat-footed CBs or marauding fullbacks. Some of you may lean towards us instead trying to play a frontline of Vini-Alvarez-Mbappe — please don’t do that. You’d leave both of our flanks to absolute chaos and in a position to die.

Anyway, I’d actually welcome Julian Alvarez to the squad. At 150M (meh) but that’s the cost of doing business with Atleti. If it is accompanied by some larger sales, I could eat the cost.

Joao Neves + Vitinha. I’m grouping this duo together because although there are some strong suspicions that the player in question is Joao Neves, I just am skeptical that PSG would be willing to break up their best trio prior to a potential CL 3-peat. I think we all know the strengths and weaknesses of this Portuguese duo so let’s just jump into their fit with our current players. Honestly, I think both of these midfielders would be amazing for Real Madrid and our club’s future…but would be pretty poor fits for the 26/27 season. Starting with Vitinha, I actually think besides Rodri that Vitinha would be the best midfielder to actually fix our glaring build-up issues in the midfield. The Portuguese star just understands football. In many ways, h has a Pedri-esque football IQ where he quickly scans the field, chooses the pace of build-up, knows the precise moment to carry the ball forward, and the precise moment to slow things down as he searches for an alternative solution. Vitinha is a scintillating player. However, I’m a bit worried about Vitinha’s fit with Jose Mourinho. If Mourinho employs what we believe to be a 4231 that first focuses on defensive fortitude, how does Vitinha a truly creative possession focused player thrive? Are we playing Vitinha now in the pivot with Tchou / Fede? Is Vitinha being deployed as a 10? If so, where is Jude or Arda? It just doesn’t make sense and I’m not entirely sure that we’d see a successful Vitinha until after Mourinho era (similar to Luka Modric) and who really knows what will happen then.

I have a similar reservation with Joao Neves. I LOVE JOAO NEVES. I’d actually rather have him at Madrid than Vitinha but I’m worried about his fit for at least the immediate season without some major sales. In many ways imo, Joao Neves is a box to box midfielder who is technically superior to Fede Valverde and Jude but lacking the shooting prowess. He is smart and fluid enough to help our build-up issues and control play to an extent but he is not the player that shoulders all of that build-up responsibility.He also can’t be the player that shoulders the kamikaze nature that is playing as a lone CDM. You could maybe successfully play Joao Neves in a double pivot next to Tchou / Fede but I think we’d face many of the similar problems we faced this year in terms of control and build-up. Defensively, it’d be an upgraded partnership but against La Liga low blocks we’ll find ourselves stuck.

If these two are future post-Mourinho purchases than so be it, but it may behoove Perez to buy players that actually fit into Mourinho’s current scheme for the time being. If Mourinho fails, especially early on, we may find ourselves facing elections again next summer.

Cheers,

J

View Link

Read full story at source