“Fitting in at the best club in the world is complicated. Between injuries, and Covid-19, I had unfair pressure on me. It was an unhappy experience.”
Those were the words of Luka Jovic, currently at Fiorentina, about his time at Real Madrid. As Los Blancos stutter and stumble with an out of form Karim Benzema leading the line ineffectively, the 25-year-old Serbian was supposed to be there to cover for in case of injury, replace, and play alongside the 35-year-old Frenchman.
Clearly things did not work out for the Serbian, but neither have they for Los Blancos this season. It has become abundantly clear that Mariano Diaz will play little more in the Real Madrid shirt and that Los Blancos need another forward.
According to MD, various sources in Portugal say that Benfica forward Goncalo Ramos is on the radar of the scouting department in Madrid. They have just seen him put away another double in the Champions League against Club Brugge, taking his season tally to 23 goals in all competitions, coming in a very impressive the 34 appearances. Ramos has 9 assists to boot.
The 21-year-old demonstrated just how good he can be at the World Cup, scoring a hat-trick against Switzerland when trusted ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo. Sizable and strong, but agile, technical but intelligent, Ramos looks like the epitome of a modern number nine.
His ability to run in behind and come short gives managers a variety of options with him in the side. If anything, his adaptability, capable of playing in a two or as the main striker himself is another of his great attributes. Many forwards these days struggle to interpret both roles with such ease, and in Real Madrid’s case, it is abundantly clear that if they could have signed this Ramos instead of Jovic, then they would be much better off currently.
Jovic has a number of abilities, but is an out-and-out poacher, designed to play chiefly in the box. While Ramos does not have anywhere near the associative play of Benzema, he is a middle ground between the two.
Now likely to cost an eye-waatering fee to extract him from Lisbon, those scouts are likely looking at Ramos for the long-term rather than a summer move, such are Real Madrid’s priorities in the market.
Instead, they will likely attempt to develop Alvaro Rodriguez next season, who has made an impact as an aggressive number nine (who can play out wide). That is a far cheaper, and on early evidence, a very good plan. However in a different time, Ramos would have been the ideal complement to see out Benzema’s latter years, in this footballing hypothetical.
He didnt work out because he never got a fair crack at the lineup.
Zinedine Zidane, also known for getting rid of Achraf in favor of Marcelo, ran an old boys club instead of managing players. Yes, developing talents is hard, it takes dedication, work and almost parental guidance and its much easier just to throw in old guard instead of developing said young player.
Problem with old guard is that they have a finite shelf life. If you havent prepared for the inevitable generation shift you will one day stand there with an undeveloped raw talent player and a failed investment.
Lets just calculate how much money ZZ lost us in Hazard, Jovic, Bale, Achraf.
And people comically want him to come back. Why? So he can bench Endrick in a couple years and play Benzema on crutches?