Tag: Real Madrid

Real Madrid’s injury list went from bad to worse this week when news broke that both David Alaba and Thibaut Courtois apparently suffered major injury setbacks. Thankfully, it now seems Alaba will be fit sooner or later. Courtois, though, is likely out for the rest of the season. Alaba tore his ACL in his left knee in Real Madrid’s 4-1 La Liga win versus Villarreal last December. It was always a longshot that he would return to the side this season, but now it seems very possible.  According to Miguel Ángel Díaz of COPE Radio in Madrid, Alaba’s recovery from his ACL injury has not gone well. The Real Madrid left back reportedly flew to Austria this week to receive special treatment from world-renowned doctor Christian Fink on his left knee.  David Alaba is becoming injury-prone Rea...

After much speculation, it’s been confirmed that Real Madrid midfielder Brahim Diaz has decided to play for Morocco after receiving little interest from the Spanish Federation to play for the national team. A lot has been made about his absence and the fact that neither the national team manager nor anyone from the federation had ever spoken to him about the possibility of playing for the national team. While Luis de la Fuente is perfectly within his right to pick whoever he wants, his behavior with Brahim has been different to other players. He publicly stated that he only selects the players and doesn’t speak to them about whether they will be picked or not. Yet it’s also been reported by media outlets close to the federation that he spoke to several players to either inform them of th...

The exact date escapes me, but I recall it being early 2012. Perhaps it was late 2011, I don't know. Anyway, life as a Tottenham supporter was pretty sweet under Harry Redknapp. Despite the success of 2009/10, 2011/12 lives fonder in my memory. Bale, Modric, Van de Vaart, Adebayor, Parker; Redknapp's Spurs at their apex. This was also a time when transfer discourse appeared pre-historic compared to the current information overload. Jim White and his yellow tie was the Fabrizio Romano of that era. His word was gospel. However, that's merely to contextualise the time. Twitter/X hadn't yet emerged as a cesspit of transfer gossip, and Teletext may have still been in fashion - possibly. So, when my dad uttered to me during an innocuous car journey that he'd heard "from a bloke down the pu...

Rating Real Madrid's 2022/23 season a failure would be extremely harsh taking into consideration that the team reached the semifinals of the Champions League, won the Copa del Rey title with comebacks against Villarreal and Atlético de Madrid, and demolished Barcelona at the Camp Nou by a 0-4 scoreline. However, the season can't also be considered a success not because they didn't win the Champions League or La Liga, but because of the manner they lost both competitions.In the Champions League semifinal, they were thrashed 4-0 (5-1 on aggregate) by Manchester City where they were completely outplayed and could have lost by much more if not for Courtois coming up with big saves. Meanwhile, not only did they lose La Liga to Barcelona, but it almost seemed as if they gave up on it midseason a...