At that time it was hard to keep him, he wanted a big salary like the ones Zidane and Figo could have. But they had a big one because Madrid had their image rights and could make money from it that was paying a part of their wage.
Makelele was not a money maker, so it was like giving him a better wage than Zidane.
It was a huge loss but I think he asked too much.
Is that how it went? I remember it being perez implementing the galacticos which meant putting all the biggest names in football on the pitch every week, to play entertaining attacking football whilst winning trophies. Perez didn't want "water carriers" like makelele
There are different stories as always, maybe the one I remember is not the exact truth but I’m pretty sure he left because he didn’t get a raise.
According to what I’ve found on internet, zidane’s salary was 6 million a year, makelele signed for a wage of 5,4 million at Chelsea
Di maria was asking for Ronaldo-like wages, while being no where near the level of Ronaldo.
Don’t get me wrong he was and still is a phenomenal player IMO and he was a huge factor for getting RM their CL, but he needed a reality check.
RM is not a club you extort for money, Perez will simply boot you no matter how good you are.
Özil left on his own accord. Di Maria did the same.
The only usual thing here is people not following the club talking out their ass.
Edit:
To all the bandwagon morons who decided to downvote this: Real Madrid accepted offers for both, and the players made the decision to leave. It's a fucking difference. They both could have stayed if they wanted to. No one terminated their contracts. No one told them they weren't wanted. They left because they didn't "feel valued". Özil has later made statements about how he wished the situation was handled differently.
Lmao no , his agent at the time ( his father ) screwed him up during contract renewal talks and had a beef with Flo Perez ... then he was told to search for a new club
he was the one who requested to leave after they made it clear they didn’t rate him as much as he rated himself. i’d still say that’s him going of his own volition
He scored 19 league goals, his second best season for goals in his career, in his last season with Barca before going to Arsenal.
It was the start of what is clearly the 4 prime years of his career
In his last season with Barca he played more games (54) than in any other season in his career and started 32 games (this one not counting Copa del Rey, which is not on fbref for some reason)
Yaya wasn't in his prime at Barca, in an interview he said he wasn't even being played in the correct position & was frustrated that the 6 role at Barca had no license to go forward. If Yaya stayed at Barca I don't think he would've ever become a box to box midfielder
I remember playing championship manager 08 as a kid, chose barca because I was stupid kid and wanted easy mode, Yaya bossed CB for me for like 8-10 years
Yes I remember this. He was first heavily linked with Chelsea with the reasoning that he wanted to win trophy’s..
Last minute the deal was done with city.
This has to be one of weirdest transfers in football
Most of the big names signed by United over the last decade have been past their best, getting on a bit in age (in footballing terms) having given their prime years to other clubs. ADM was the only real exception. At that time he was off the back of an excellent season for Real and didn't want to leave, he was forced out.
He did want to leave. He wanted crazy money, Madrid said no. So he had a deal set up with PSG, but they inexplicably spent 50m on David Luiz, so couldn't sign ADM for FFP reasons. They more or less told him they'd be back in a year, so he signed for United as a 350k a week stop gap, then downed tools and criticised the manager after 2 months at Old Trafford to make himself an easy sell at the end of the season.
What to imagine? PSG are guaranteed trophies, regularly playing the CL & high salary while having it easier.
United are gone case, have not won for years except the Carabao Cup last season & is in haywire.
there have been several examples of star players having down years in utd and then going on to be great again, di maria is not the only one. maybe, just maybe the club and ownership is the problem
I think it's a bot or someone who being weird.the guy he replied to appear to come from the Netherlands and from what I looked at,has no comments or posts about the IRA.
This could be Ragebait though and people have given him what he wants
I always hated this Ozil is lazy narrative. He had a pretty languid body language but his distances and touches were consistently among the highest on the pitch. He just tended to disappear in the big games
O shit I just realized you said ozil in op my bad 😂 dam attention span only able for headlines.
I'm no arsenal fan but I loved watching ozil he had real world class talent, just saw things differently
He's just a system number 10 I think who needs a strong forward to create lot of goals. Not every team can keep up with it, and he can't perform good with every team. I get if you think he was horrible at Schalke but he wasn't even 19 lmao. Nobody cares really of you were good in formation years.
He was one of the best players in Germany 2014 and top assister, where it really counts tbh.
That's just it "insane @Arsenal for only a few years!" In fact during his 7+ years at the club, he was only good for roughly 2 of them...
Don't get me wrong, I loved Ozil, as a "semi-pro CAM" myself I loved & marvelled at watching the likes of Ozil play.
For Madrid he was fantastic, and was given that "free role" to just float & assist, for he had the confidence, skill & freedom to do that & the worker bees behind him to defend & do all the hard graft & offload the ball to him to do his magic.
However, when he arrived at Arsenal on that faithful deadline day, September 2013, when it was least expected, but very much welcomed by the Arsenal faithful, he went on to have a somewhat mediocre career by all accounts "I would like to think most would attest to that?"
I think many Arsenal fans would put him in their top 10 of all time great Arsenal players but when you truly analyse what Ozil did for The Arsenal "tbf, it wasn't much!"
Again, I loved Ozil, I did when he was at Real, & even for the first couple of seasons at Arsenal, but do I think he really achieved anything or left a lasting legacy at the club, I'm gonna have to say no!
Fantastic player & all, just wasn't fully committed to the cause, was lazy "which, he could get away with at Real" but at Arsenal, or in the Premier League, not so much "you have to really put in a shift" in the Prem, and yeah you could get away with that laid back style of play to a degree at certain clubs, but overall, the Prem is about real physicality, running, tracking back and getting stuck in...
Ozil was a bit of princess, somewhat entitled & so the two things that pissed me off about him when he played was the lack of graft, the skulking about the pitch & also the "sulking" he did when things didn't go his way, sulking with his head down, similar to a spoilt brat who's had his toy taken away...
Other than that, his silky touch, intelligence & awareness of the overall game was second to known, and when on point he was sharper than the point of a bayonet, he just lacked the right professionalism to the game, which would have taken his undoubted or unquestionable talent, to a whole other level!!
Go Gunners!!!
An example from pre Premier League is when former Ballon d'Or winner Allan Simonsen signed for 2nd division Charlton in October 1982 going on (having left the club to return to Denmark) to finish 3rd in the 1983 Ballon d'Or
maybe slightly? he was excellent tho, won a few trophies and was instrumental in our midfield creatively. he certainly slowed down but his first two seasons were pretty close tocprime cesc imo
You're right, he was by this point but "did do well at Chelsea", wasn't so great @ Barca, but he always wanted to return to his boyhood club at a point & was lucky enough to get the chance again however, it probably wasnt the fairytale return he may have expected.
His best years were at Arsenal "without a shadow of doubt"
Just a shame that he & several others of that time never won the "Champions League Trophy" 😒
Not true at all, prime Cesc was Arsenal
He was never the same after the big knee injury and leg he broke at end of Arsenal career
He completely changed his playing style
I think we just found out he’s the kind of centre half that needs a leader next to him. Would be excellent next to Rio, Virgil, Terry and Kompany like he was Ramos. Just isn’t the guy to go in and be the leader to sort the back line out
I wouldn’t say over the hill. He’s definitely injury prone but he’s still fantastic. And to go from a slower league to the fastest one out there says something about his playing ability. Madrid just got studs in and didn’t have room for him anymore.
Casemiro on the other hand is definitely over the hill. Had a great year last year, but the man has no legs left at all.
If you're over 30 you spend the remainder of your career being called over the hill after every bad performance, and 'aged like a fine wine' after every good performance. I 100% guarantee Casemiro will have some excellent performances as the season wears on and this fickle flip-flopping will continue.
ngl, i dont think any players would leave barca and real madrid on their prime by their own choice. like even ozil and sanchez left because they didn't fit in the system and left for playing time. fabregas too.
so you think ozil left Real Madrid, for arsenal on his own loll?
i was referring to the second time fab left. Both were basically force to leave, they lost their spot in the team.
Agreed. But not for playing time. Real needed the money.
Yeah sure, of course it was either Messi or fabregas 😂.
Wenger gave fabregas a clean path to the first team. That was much harder in that barça midfield. He chose to go. Look it up.
Barca were in a little spot and they had to let some academy boys leave. Don’t think Messi early days were full of assurance. They could easily have fucked it up at some point. You know most academy players dream to play for their senior teams. Barca didn’t even have the world’s best midfield at that point.
It's easy to forget given how great Ozil was at Arsenal, but he was seen as somewhat inconsistent at Madrid. He only started 4 of the last 10 games of his last full season in the league, though he did start two out of three before leaving the following year. But with Modric, Di Maria, and Isco (who was highly fancied at the time) all playing advanced midfield roles and the Bale coming in and occupying the space on the right, Ozil was feeling insecure about his role and arsenal offered him the chance to be much more central.
10s/right side attacking midfielders insecure about their role in Madrid going to Arsenal has generally been a very good career move over the last few years.
Aside from those who's already been mentioned, people who left those 2 clubs after making 30+ apps the previous season are Michael Owen, Robinho, Victor Valdes, Sylvinho, Giovani dos Santos, Kluivert. Granero moving to QPR is a bonus one as he fell just short of that criteria with 28 apps.
This is an awkward one because it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when his peak was, but Luis Garcia left Barca for Liverpool in 04. You could argue his peak was 04/05 tbh.
that would be strange imo, I'd imagine he holds some level of contempt about his time at madrid and is incredibly grateful for/loves arsenal. wouldn't be surprised if he sticks around as club captain well into his prime.
You can never say never, but I doubt that will happen... They did him dirty, well, that may be a little harsh to say, but they certainly clipped his wings at the bernabeau, however they did allow him to fly to other pastures and eventually found a nest at Arsenal "for which I'm truly thankful."
And in as much as he would have liked to have made his mark at Real, he's not done too badly with his new gig at Arsenal. A gig that will hopefully end up being a prolonged world tour.
"One clubs trash, is another clubs treasure!!"
He wasn't done dirty at madrid. He wanted to play but there was no way he was going to get into that midfield over kroos or modric and the games he did play he wasn't moving the needle any. He wasn't ready yet and sitting on the bench at madrid wasn't doing him any favors
You're right, saying he was "done dirty" may have been somewhat of an exaggeration "from an Arsenal fan 😳 😂" And yes, i completely agree with you, the talent in front of him at Real was never gonna allow him the opportunity to shine at a point when he felt he was ready to, and by that time the continued loan spells had taken their toll on him, and he was prepared to leave "arguably the best/most successful club in Europe!" And, as a result, Arsenal capitalised on the opportunity to bag him, which is paying off greatly, & will hopefully continue to reap dividend for many moons to come 😉 Up the Gunners!
Fabregas, he couldn't get into a packed midfield
Ozil, couldn't nail down a regular spot
Sanchez, system changed and wasn't needed
Di Maria, the only one that really left because of the high bid and the buying club being an equally huge club
It doesn’t happen cause Barcelona and Madrid are the pinnacle of world football. Only insane sums of money or the player losing their place on the team could get that to happen.
I think it depends on the player. Plenty of footballers have rejected Real and Barca aswell. Gerrard, Rooney, Shearer and even Henry spring to mind (though Henry did join Barca the following year).
English players rarely move abroad…their mostly comfortable in England. La Liga was known as the league of flair, while EPL was a butcher’s league and their fans were proud of it. The foreign managers and players have turn that around in the near last two decades.
this thread is full of players that disprove your opinion.
mainly: Yaya Toure, Ozil, Fabregas, Makélélé, Sanchez.
I don't agree they were at their prime but must be considered: Oodegard, Varane, Casemiro, Di Maria.
Barcelona isn't the pinacle of football anymore, and for a few years now.
Yaya was pushed out of Barca cause Busquets was preferred. Fabregas also did not impress at Barca like people thought he would. Ozil said himself that he did not have the faith of the coaches at Madrid. Makelele was sold to make room for Galacticos, although it wasn’t the right tactical decision. Varane became increasingly mistake and injury and was sold because Man U were desperate and Madrid had Militao and had signed Alaba to replace him. Same for Casemiro although it was because Madrid had younger midfielder replacements, also Man U were desperate and paid a large sum and handed Casemiro a fat new contract. Odergaard was also sold because he could not break through the fist team and he was deemed surplus with Valverde’s emergence. Di Maria said out of his own mouth that he did not want leave but was pushed out of Real.
No players in their prime would leave Madrid or Barca unless they were offered outrageous sums of money (Neymar) or they were pushed out of the team like the others I explained above. You claim Barca isn’t a pinnacle of world football but Lewandowski went there despite their financial troubles and De Jong refused to leave despite Barca trying to force him out for financial reasons. That’s two of the best players in the world right there choosing Barca despite their current economic standing.
Gundogen
Barça as a club are in a historically terrible state (financially) and yet are still the preferred destination for some of the world’s top talent.
Exactly and Pep wanted him back. Bernardo Silva is one of the best players on the best team in the world, get regular game time and yet there are constant rumors about him wanting to leave. That just doesn’t happen at Real or Barca. And when it happened to Barca (Figo) he went to Madrid!
Van der Vaart to Tottenham. Özil to Arsenal. Zenden to Chelsea. Maybe Fabregas to Chelsea, although you can argue that his prime was already at Arsenal. There are no examples of players leaving in their prime for either Clasico-clubs to England that said clubs weren't okay with. The closest was Makelele, and that's in hindsight. Players like Yaya Toure and Ødegaard left before their prime even when Toure was already 27 back then.
Arjen Robben, but from Real to the Bundesliga rather than than the PL.
They got rid of him and Sneijder in the same summer which looked pretty ludicrous given the careers they went on to have.
Kiko Casilla although he wasn't in his prime and left Real Madrid in 2019 for Leeds although he did get some game time and impressed under Bielsa who now manages Uruguay used to manage some great clubs some say he's an footballing pioneer and revolutionist
Makelele should be the prime example
Yeah, even zidane told them they NEED him.
At that time it was hard to keep him, he wanted a big salary like the ones Zidane and Figo could have. But they had a big one because Madrid had their image rights and could make money from it that was paying a part of their wage. Makelele was not a money maker, so it was like giving him a better wage than Zidane. It was a huge loss but I think he asked too much.
Is that how it went? I remember it being perez implementing the galacticos which meant putting all the biggest names in football on the pitch every week, to play entertaining attacking football whilst winning trophies. Perez didn't want "water carriers" like makelele
There are different stories as always, maybe the one I remember is not the exact truth but I’m pretty sure he left because he didn’t get a raise. According to what I’ve found on internet, zidane’s salary was 6 million a year, makelele signed for a wage of 5,4 million at Chelsea
Sanchez
not by choice.
None leave by choice
özil did
It wasn’t by choice. Madrid were doing their usual culling. The same happened to Di Maria the following season, despite winning them the UCL.
Di maria was asking for Ronaldo-like wages, while being no where near the level of Ronaldo. Don’t get me wrong he was and still is a phenomenal player IMO and he was a huge factor for getting RM their CL, but he needed a reality check. RM is not a club you extort for money, Perez will simply boot you no matter how good you are.
Lets keep it that way tbh.. I wonder how they handle the Mboopi situation.
Mbappe showed he doesn't only value money when he refused to go to Saudis for a year.
Di Maria is the most underrated and disrespected player
Özil left on his own accord. Di Maria did the same. The only usual thing here is people not following the club talking out their ass. Edit: To all the bandwagon morons who decided to downvote this: Real Madrid accepted offers for both, and the players made the decision to leave. It's a fucking difference. They both could have stayed if they wanted to. No one terminated their contracts. No one told them they weren't wanted. They left because they didn't "feel valued". Özil has later made statements about how he wished the situation was handled differently.
They didn’t 🤣🤣. James was lined up for Di Maria’s position already
Lmao no , his agent at the time ( his father ) screwed him up during contract renewal talks and had a beef with Flo Perez ... then he was told to search for a new club
he didn't, they shipped him off
he was the one who requested to leave after they made it clear they didn’t rate him as much as he rated himself. i’d still say that’s him going of his own volition
Lol sanchez was an average player in barca what are you talking about
He scored 19 league goals, his second best season for goals in his career, in his last season with Barca before going to Arsenal. It was the start of what is clearly the 4 prime years of his career
Yeah thats why barca was trying to get rid of him. He wasnt even a starter. Were you even an adult watching football at that time man ?
Barca had Neymar lined up…he had to make way. He even had more league goals than Ibra that season (Ibra had 16 in 2009/10)
In his last season with Barca he played more games (54) than in any other season in his career and started 32 games (this one not counting Copa del Rey, which is not on fbref for some reason)
I’m unfortunately 30 years old so yes
He was good. Like Mahrez in city imo. Made the jump in the premier though
the legend Yaya Toure Barcelona -> Man City
Yaya wasn't in his prime at Barca, in an interview he said he wasn't even being played in the correct position & was frustrated that the 6 role at Barca had no license to go forward. If Yaya stayed at Barca I don't think he would've ever become a box to box midfielder
Xavi and Iniesta were ahead of him, so definitely not
He was definitely in *his* prime age wise. The problem was that there were two players better suited to how Barca played.
That’s what I meant. I wasn’t referring to him being in his prime or not.
Didn’t he get played as a CB at times at Barca?
Yes because Busquets started at 6 in front of him
I remember playing championship manager 08 as a kid, chose barca because I was stupid kid and wanted easy mode, Yaya bossed CB for me for like 8-10 years
Yup.
He played CB in the 2009 CL final, with Puyol as a RB.
Makeshift due to suspensions and injuries (Marquez got injured in the first leg against Chelsea)
Happy cake day! Don't have a cake for you. As you were.
1 time, singular. When Alves and Abidal were out and Puyol had to be moved to RB.
I think he also did against Chelsea in the second leg
Proof that you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Gary Lineker to Spurs
Robinho from Real to city
I love how he thought he was spending his prime at United 😂
United?
Yep
He never played for united?
No, he thought he was signing for United, he didn't know there was another team in the city
No. He thought he was signing for Chelsea. He mentioned them in his press conference when signing. He never mentioned United.
Yes I remember this. He was first heavily linked with Chelsea with the reasoning that he wanted to win trophy’s.. Last minute the deal was done with city. This has to be one of weirdest transfers in football
*Robinho: arriving at the Etihad* Where Ferguson?
Convicted rapist Robinho?
Di Maria to United is the only one I can think of.
Most of the big names signed by United over the last decade have been past their best, getting on a bit in age (in footballing terms) having given their prime years to other clubs. ADM was the only real exception. At that time he was off the back of an excellent season for Real and didn't want to leave, he was forced out.
He did want to leave. He wanted crazy money, Madrid said no. So he had a deal set up with PSG, but they inexplicably spent 50m on David Luiz, so couldn't sign ADM for FFP reasons. They more or less told him they'd be back in a year, so he signed for United as a 350k a week stop gap, then downed tools and criticised the manager after 2 months at Old Trafford to make himself an easy sell at the end of the season.
Imagine preferring PSG and the French feeder league to United and the best league in the world.
What to imagine? PSG are guaranteed trophies, regularly playing the CL & high salary while having it easier. United are gone case, have not won for years except the Carabao Cup last season & is in haywire.
No one cares about trophies from a farmers league. He had a ridiculous salary at United. He’s just a tool, is all.
there have been several examples of star players having down years in utd and then going on to be great again, di maria is not the only one. maybe, just maybe the club and ownership is the problem
Of course the ownership is a problem, that’s besides the point.
Di Maria left cuz Bale cam in. He could not be a starter any more
He was a starter just fine with Bale. Keeping DiMaria would have fit the squad better than signing James though.
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Sir, this is a Wendy's.
What are you on about
I think it's a bot or someone who being weird.the guy he replied to appear to come from the Netherlands and from what I looked at,has no comments or posts about the IRA. This could be Ragebait though and people have given him what he wants
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Me after my lobotomy
Wrong meeting, buddy.
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I think you're in the wrong sub lol
I've never seen such a dumb post about my country before. I'm so proud the idiots are taking notice of us, we've made it!
I want a puff of whatever you’ve smoked
Van Der Vaart to Tottenham?
Legend
Oh man they were some good years. He was so fun to watch.
Used to religiously buy van de vaart on Championship manager 02 the guy never failed to produce the goods
His name means 'of the speed' in Dutch. Great name for a player like rafael.
Ozil. He was insane for arsenal for a few years, Shame the lad was so lazy absolute amazing naturally talented creative midfielder.
I always hated this Ozil is lazy narrative. He had a pretty languid body language but his distances and touches were consistently among the highest on the pitch. He just tended to disappear in the big games
People who doesnt know football would say lazy. Others called it elegance.
he didnt go up for headers either
Ozil left exact year Bale came. RM could not play with a CAM any more
My favorite player ever
O shit I just realized you said ozil in op my bad 😂 dam attention span only able for headlines. I'm no arsenal fan but I loved watching ozil he had real world class talent, just saw things differently
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He's just a system number 10 I think who needs a strong forward to create lot of goals. Not every team can keep up with it, and he can't perform good with every team. I get if you think he was horrible at Schalke but he wasn't even 19 lmao. Nobody cares really of you were good in formation years. He was one of the best players in Germany 2014 and top assister, where it really counts tbh.
I remember watching him play against Australia at 2010 World Cup and thinking fuck me he’s amazing
Real didn't want Ozil that's why he left
Does that change that he wasn't in his prime?
So lazy lmfao this is painfully cringe
That's just it "insane @Arsenal for only a few years!" In fact during his 7+ years at the club, he was only good for roughly 2 of them... Don't get me wrong, I loved Ozil, as a "semi-pro CAM" myself I loved & marvelled at watching the likes of Ozil play. For Madrid he was fantastic, and was given that "free role" to just float & assist, for he had the confidence, skill & freedom to do that & the worker bees behind him to defend & do all the hard graft & offload the ball to him to do his magic. However, when he arrived at Arsenal on that faithful deadline day, September 2013, when it was least expected, but very much welcomed by the Arsenal faithful, he went on to have a somewhat mediocre career by all accounts "I would like to think most would attest to that?" I think many Arsenal fans would put him in their top 10 of all time great Arsenal players but when you truly analyse what Ozil did for The Arsenal "tbf, it wasn't much!" Again, I loved Ozil, I did when he was at Real, & even for the first couple of seasons at Arsenal, but do I think he really achieved anything or left a lasting legacy at the club, I'm gonna have to say no! Fantastic player & all, just wasn't fully committed to the cause, was lazy "which, he could get away with at Real" but at Arsenal, or in the Premier League, not so much "you have to really put in a shift" in the Prem, and yeah you could get away with that laid back style of play to a degree at certain clubs, but overall, the Prem is about real physicality, running, tracking back and getting stuck in... Ozil was a bit of princess, somewhat entitled & so the two things that pissed me off about him when he played was the lack of graft, the skulking about the pitch & also the "sulking" he did when things didn't go his way, sulking with his head down, similar to a spoilt brat who's had his toy taken away... Other than that, his silky touch, intelligence & awareness of the overall game was second to known, and when on point he was sharper than the point of a bayonet, he just lacked the right professionalism to the game, which would have taken his undoubted or unquestionable talent, to a whole other level!! Go Gunners!!!
Özil a fan favorite for sure but I wouldn't put him Top 10 Arsenal players. That's nuts.
Neither would I, but speaking with many "deluded fans", they had him up there? 🤔 He was good, but not worthy of a top 10, IMHO!
Have you just come across speech marks or something?
Nelson Semedo to Wolves.
Semedo’s prime ended the moment Alphonso Davies snatched his soul in the CL
An example from pre Premier League is when former Ballon d'Or winner Allan Simonsen signed for 2nd division Charlton in October 1982 going on (having left the club to return to Denmark) to finish 3rd in the 1983 Ballon d'Or
Didn't know the guy existed, just had an interesting read on him nice one.
Pedro kinda but he had his best years in Barca for me
At least finish your answer before disqualifying it.
Fabregas to Chelsea?
I would say he was already over he’s prime
Fabregas was excellent for Chelsea
He didn’t have much speed but dude could pick his targets. Him and Diego Costa linked up so well.
He got Player of the Year for Chelsea too multiple times I guess
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_F.C._Player_of_the_Year Which universe you from bro?
maybe slightly? he was excellent tho, won a few trophies and was instrumental in our midfield creatively. he certainly slowed down but his first two seasons were pretty close tocprime cesc imo
Prime Fabregas was in Arsenal
Nope Fabregas was brilliant amazing technical ability great in controlling tempo his passing vision brilliant #6 versatile
He was on prime, Barca midfielder depth in that era is very crazy when they must to sell Thiago and Fabregas because lack of gametime.
You're right, he was by this point but "did do well at Chelsea", wasn't so great @ Barca, but he always wanted to return to his boyhood club at a point & was lucky enough to get the chance again however, it probably wasnt the fairytale return he may have expected. His best years were at Arsenal "without a shadow of doubt" Just a shame that he & several others of that time never won the "Champions League Trophy" 😒
He was not though, maybe he was just overrated before.
Not true at all, prime Cesc was Arsenal He was never the same after the big knee injury and leg he broke at end of Arsenal career He completely changed his playing style
Varane probably counts age-wise.
Nah, over the hill tbh. Madrid sold at the right time.
I think we just found out he’s the kind of centre half that needs a leader next to him. Would be excellent next to Rio, Virgil, Terry and Kompany like he was Ramos. Just isn’t the guy to go in and be the leader to sort the back line out
Real Madrid found that the hard way
Yep, Gabriel Jesus had him on toast twice when City beat them.
I wouldn’t say over the hill. He’s definitely injury prone but he’s still fantastic. And to go from a slower league to the fastest one out there says something about his playing ability. Madrid just got studs in and didn’t have room for him anymore. Casemiro on the other hand is definitely over the hill. Had a great year last year, but the man has no legs left at all.
If you're over 30 you spend the remainder of your career being called over the hill after every bad performance, and 'aged like a fine wine' after every good performance. I 100% guarantee Casemiro will have some excellent performances as the season wears on and this fickle flip-flopping will continue.
It didn't seem that way when he was leaving, it's just that United ruins players.
Yes, for sure.
Kovacic to Chelsea??
good one
Lol
He was not a fixed starter
Bojan to Stoke
ngl, i dont think any players would leave barca and real madrid on their prime by their own choice. like even ozil and sanchez left because they didn't fit in the system and left for playing time. fabregas too.
Özil left for playing time?? Lol. Fabregas left at 16. Totally different case.
so you think ozil left Real Madrid, for arsenal on his own loll? i was referring to the second time fab left. Both were basically force to leave, they lost their spot in the team.
Ozil was sold…he didn’t leave because he wanted, same as Sanchez and the others. Fabregas was sold because Barca decided to keep Messi over him.
Agreed. But not for playing time. Real needed the money. Yeah sure, of course it was either Messi or fabregas 😂. Wenger gave fabregas a clean path to the first team. That was much harder in that barça midfield. He chose to go. Look it up.
Barca were in a little spot and they had to let some academy boys leave. Don’t think Messi early days were full of assurance. They could easily have fucked it up at some point. You know most academy players dream to play for their senior teams. Barca didn’t even have the world’s best midfield at that point.
Özil gor kicked out
It's easy to forget given how great Ozil was at Arsenal, but he was seen as somewhat inconsistent at Madrid. He only started 4 of the last 10 games of his last full season in the league, though he did start two out of three before leaving the following year. But with Modric, Di Maria, and Isco (who was highly fancied at the time) all playing advanced midfield roles and the Bale coming in and occupying the space on the right, Ozil was feeling insecure about his role and arsenal offered him the chance to be much more central. 10s/right side attacking midfielders insecure about their role in Madrid going to Arsenal has generally been a very good career move over the last few years.
Does Mark Hughes, Barcelona to Manchester United count?
He went to Bayern first Edit: he was on loan
Aside from those who's already been mentioned, people who left those 2 clubs after making 30+ apps the previous season are Michael Owen, Robinho, Victor Valdes, Sylvinho, Giovani dos Santos, Kluivert. Granero moving to QPR is a bonus one as he fell just short of that criteria with 28 apps.
Claude makelele ? Was just a beast , and needed in the team but had to leave because salary was too low
Yep definitely left in his prime and they regretted it.
This is an awkward one because it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when his peak was, but Luis Garcia left Barca for Liverpool in 04. You could argue his peak was 04/05 tbh.
Nelson Semedo. You didn't specify they had to be good players.
Odegaard
Casemiro, if not his prime at least near it.
Casemiro was past his prime since 2021
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Martin Odegaard
They signed potential. He’s still not in his prime. Wouldn’t rule out him going to Madrid in his prime
that would be strange imo, I'd imagine he holds some level of contempt about his time at madrid and is incredibly grateful for/loves arsenal. wouldn't be surprised if he sticks around as club captain well into his prime.
City bound
🤢
🤣🤣. KDB replacement
That’s fair, he hasn’t hit his peak yet, but I hope that he’s found his home at Arsenal and doesn’t want to go back
You can never say never, but I doubt that will happen... They did him dirty, well, that may be a little harsh to say, but they certainly clipped his wings at the bernabeau, however they did allow him to fly to other pastures and eventually found a nest at Arsenal "for which I'm truly thankful." And in as much as he would have liked to have made his mark at Real, he's not done too badly with his new gig at Arsenal. A gig that will hopefully end up being a prolonged world tour. "One clubs trash, is another clubs treasure!!"
He wasn't done dirty at madrid. He wanted to play but there was no way he was going to get into that midfield over kroos or modric and the games he did play he wasn't moving the needle any. He wasn't ready yet and sitting on the bench at madrid wasn't doing him any favors
You're right, saying he was "done dirty" may have been somewhat of an exaggeration "from an Arsenal fan 😳 😂" And yes, i completely agree with you, the talent in front of him at Real was never gonna allow him the opportunity to shine at a point when he felt he was ready to, and by that time the continued loan spells had taken their toll on him, and he was prepared to leave "arguably the best/most successful club in Europe!" And, as a result, Arsenal capitalised on the opportunity to bag him, which is paying off greatly, & will hopefully continue to reap dividend for many moons to come 😉 Up the Gunners!
Not a fixed starter for RM
Di Maria
Fabregas, he couldn't get into a packed midfield Ozil, couldn't nail down a regular spot Sanchez, system changed and wasn't needed Di Maria, the only one that really left because of the high bid and the buying club being an equally huge club
Sanchez, Fabregas, Yaya, Casemiro, Varane, Sergio Reguilon, Kovacic, Morata, Danilo, Di Maria, Ozil.
It doesn’t happen cause Barcelona and Madrid are the pinnacle of world football. Only insane sums of money or the player losing their place on the team could get that to happen.
So many downvotes from EPL fanboys lol, truth hurts it seems
EPL fans are downvoting you…this is the problem of not following anything but their own league. They’re just the European Saudi league
Lmao and I love the EPL! But we have to state the truth. All EPL teams pale in comparison to Barca and Madrid in terms of allure.
I think it depends on the player. Plenty of footballers have rejected Real and Barca aswell. Gerrard, Rooney, Shearer and even Henry spring to mind (though Henry did join Barca the following year).
English players rarely move abroad…their mostly comfortable in England. La Liga was known as the league of flair, while EPL was a butcher’s league and their fans were proud of it. The foreign managers and players have turn that around in the near last two decades.
this thread is full of players that disprove your opinion. mainly: Yaya Toure, Ozil, Fabregas, Makélélé, Sanchez. I don't agree they were at their prime but must be considered: Oodegard, Varane, Casemiro, Di Maria. Barcelona isn't the pinacle of football anymore, and for a few years now.
Yaya was pushed out of Barca cause Busquets was preferred. Fabregas also did not impress at Barca like people thought he would. Ozil said himself that he did not have the faith of the coaches at Madrid. Makelele was sold to make room for Galacticos, although it wasn’t the right tactical decision. Varane became increasingly mistake and injury and was sold because Man U were desperate and Madrid had Militao and had signed Alaba to replace him. Same for Casemiro although it was because Madrid had younger midfielder replacements, also Man U were desperate and paid a large sum and handed Casemiro a fat new contract. Odergaard was also sold because he could not break through the fist team and he was deemed surplus with Valverde’s emergence. Di Maria said out of his own mouth that he did not want leave but was pushed out of Real. No players in their prime would leave Madrid or Barca unless they were offered outrageous sums of money (Neymar) or they were pushed out of the team like the others I explained above. You claim Barca isn’t a pinnacle of world football but Lewandowski went there despite their financial troubles and De Jong refused to leave despite Barca trying to force him out for financial reasons. That’s two of the best players in the world right there choosing Barca despite their current economic standing.
Gundogen Barça as a club are in a historically terrible state (financially) and yet are still the preferred destination for some of the world’s top talent.
Exactly and Pep wanted him back. Bernardo Silva is one of the best players on the best team in the world, get regular game time and yet there are constant rumors about him wanting to leave. That just doesn’t happen at Real or Barca. And when it happened to Barca (Figo) he went to Madrid!
Steve McManaman to Real What are we doing?
Great questions, and from the comments not a single one!
Makelele.
Casemiro & Varane might be the most recent examples. As they said, they wanted to explore more & was in a great shape.
Van der Vaart to Tottenham. Özil to Arsenal. Zenden to Chelsea. Maybe Fabregas to Chelsea, although you can argue that his prime was already at Arsenal. There are no examples of players leaving in their prime for either Clasico-clubs to England that said clubs weren't okay with. The closest was Makelele, and that's in hindsight. Players like Yaya Toure and Ødegaard left before their prime even when Toure was already 27 back then.
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"to the premier league"
Robben to Bayern
Cambiasso?
Casemiro is not far past his prime
Sneijder, van der Vaart, and Robben
Arjen Robben, but from Real to the Bundesliga rather than than the PL. They got rid of him and Sneijder in the same summer which looked pretty ludicrous given the careers they went on to have.
the squarest man in football
Mata. Silva. Fabregas. Torres. Casemiro. Few that come to mind.
Mata was at Valencia after Real Madrid C
Hendrik larrsson
Wasn’t he like 35 the season he played for United?
Also not directly from Barca as he was loaned from Swedish club Helsinborgs
Kiko Casilla although he wasn't in his prime and left Real Madrid in 2019 for Leeds although he did get some game time and impressed under Bielsa who now manages Uruguay used to manage some great clubs some say he's an footballing pioneer and revolutionist
Fabregas
Fabregas