Oscnar’s Intro:

Oscnar: Teach ‘em

Juninho: I’m tired.

Ezek XI: Tell them the truth

Juninho: They don’t want to listen.

Oscnar + Ezek XI: Teach ‘em!

Juninho: Why?! I’m not their savior and they won’t listen and they won’t read and even if they do they refuse to comprehend. Why, waste. my. time? You both know — you both left! Why? Because none of this makes any difference. None of this matters. Being a beloved mod is meaningless and being a disliked mod is equally so. And you’ve watched me try. I’ve watched you both try. And no matter how hard we all tried they’ll always hate each other more. And earnestly who am I? I’m not any better than them and trust me I often try to remind them that only truth. I constantly try to be their reflection but even that has gone no where. So I’m tired. And I’m frustrated. And I’m annoyed. And I lost my way. And I’m angry — I’m always angry. And I lost my faith. And I lost my friend. And he’s never coming back. Two years and my tears have finally run dry…so why? Why carry on trying to repair this throne of ruins? Why should I keep screaming into an abyss?

Oscnar: Because maybe one day they’ll listen….

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, KungFuZizou, NeRObutBlanco, Felipejack, and Juninho (the “King of Mods”).

Truths About You Vol. 3

Dear MM,

It’s raining where I live, and I guess there’s something about rainy days which brings out the worst version of me. I sometimes think my DT week’s bring the worst version of me too so bear with me as I just write an unplanned letter today. It’s just easier for me as I try to protect my own peace.

Villareal. To begin for all the usual lurkers as I just speed rush thru the necessities, yes Real Madrid play Villareal today. We may expect some rotations and we may not. We may play lethargically and we may not. Who knows? But we’ll continue to cheer for our team like we always do because in the end although we all have various nationalities, religions, races, genders, politics, socio-economic backgrounds, etc etc. there’s one team based in Madrid that unites us all. Real Madrid CF.

Now to the real business at hand…

Xabi Alonso. I’ll be honest, I think I’ve grown tired of this conversation or at least what it’s maybe become. And I acknowledge, my participation and (um what’s the word I’m looking for something close to like “galvanizing”) [insert proper word lmao], towards what this conversation has become here. To clarify (for the lurkers), these convos are becoming increasingly less about this former Real Madrid player’s sudden rise through the managerial ranks and more of a measuring stick to beat your internet opponents.

Xabi Alonso. This is extremely pointless, but I’m just going to do it. Xabi Alonso, so far, is a great manager considering his young career. If anyone, tells you otherwise it is not criticism. It is hate. And I don’t say that lightly because I do believe that it is important to create spaces for honest conversations and debate. It is extremely important to me to allow room for discourse. Some of you may disagree that I provide that (and so be it. I’d actually allow more to fly than Coral permits) but it has always been something I’ve acknowledged as the essence of every DT. But there are opinions and then there facts.

Sorry that was a bit tangential.

Again, in this current football environment Xabi Alonso is a great manager. Bayer Leverkusen were second to bottom in the Bundesliga when Xabi was hired. The team had faced it’s worst start since 1979 and yet by season end they were in sixth place. This red-bearded Basque man then proceeded to drive Leverkusen to a 51 unbeaten streak (the longest unbeaten streak in football history), topple Bayern Munich’s 11-year Bundesliga win streak, and then win its first ever Bundesliga title and second DFB-Pokal (the first major trophies since 1993). This all occurred while having a net transfer spend of -13M during the 23/24 season. We cannot earnestly sit here and say Xabi is not a Top 5 current club manager in the world. Zidane + Klopp aren’t managing. Arteta hasn’t won in 5 years. Arne Slot is only managing Liverpool because Xabi rejected them. Enrique is doing a fantastic job but I’m not sure world football would anoint him over a manager who just concluded an unbeaten season. And everyone else (besides Carlo / Pep) is pretty much not worth mentioning or has come and gone.

Now, Xabi Alonso is a great young manager and that does not come with faults. Yes, he sometimes overthinks his lineups as he did against Bayern in this year’s CL. Yes, he has been shown to at times be tactically conservative this year when he lacks belief in his team. Yes, he lacks managerial experience with elite egos of Real Madrid’s stature. Yes, he is not perfect and just because you’re a great manager doesn’t mean that you’ll win at Real Madrid.

However, nothing guarantees you’ll win at Real Madrid. There have been managers with almost perfect resumes who have failed to win at Real Madrid and there have been managers who quite frankly probably didn’t deserve the job to begin that have won at Real Madrid too (i.e. Zizou). There have been 1st choice managers at Real Madrid that have flopped (eg Julen Lopetegui) and 4th choice managers who have succeeded. That’s fucking life. You don’t always get what you plan but you try to put yourself in positions to succeed.

Now and I hope to somewhat dead whatever this conversation has become as I’d much rather discuss what potential tweaks Xabi could make or areas he may need to improve rather than his qualifications. But at this point, I’ll be somewhat damned if I read again about what to make of Xabi losing 3 games in his tenure (Atalanta final / Bayern in the CL) because if we are grading managers on that granular of a level then quite frankly no one on this planet deserves to be Real Madrid manager. Carlo certainly wasn’t qualified when he came in 2021 after trophyless stints at Napoli and Everton. Zidane wasn’t qualified when he took over after Benitez and neither was Vicente Del Bosque. And yet they succeeded. If Xabi doesn’t win, so be it onto the next. And if he does, great. He’ll be a great manager until his voice also grows stale.

Turning to the Carlo of all of this, which I’m going to spend like 3-4 sentences max on. Yes, I do think Carlo should leave at the end of the season (even if he wins a major trophy) because we’ve been increasingly inconsistent in our actual performances. Yes, I do think the decision has already been made from what I’ve heard as well as what I’ve seen with Carlo more vocal than usual in conferences. No, I don’t know and can’t guarantee that Xabi will perform better than Carlo. All I know is that I’m willing to try and I’m not willing to watch another season where our performances look like this. I’m not simply a trophy hunter and I’m not just checking our scoreline — I actually like to enjoy 90 min games and win. High standards sorry not sorry.

I was sad and now I’m just mad.

All of those who desperately want Ancelotti out: After next ten years without another champions league you will know how good he was.

I read this quote yesterday, and I’m not sure why I didn’t comment but it infuriates me. It actually pisses me the fuck off. And it’s less about this CarloOut v. CarloIn debate which is nauseating at this point (like we get it that you all don’t like each other). It’s about how demeaning this quote is to the players, the board, the staff, even the Real Madrid bus driver.

Carlo Ancelotti is an amazing coach, certainly our most successful coach and arguably the best coach that Real Madrid has ever had. But he didn’t do this alone. He currently has 3 out of the 5 most expensive players in the world. According to Transfermarkt, he has 5 out of the top 20 most expensive players (Camavinga only just misses out at 23). And before someone tells me that “having expensive players doesn’t mean you’ll win trophies,” please go ask Eibar if they think Real Madrid money could help them be competitive. Let me know what they say. Football is a pay-to-play competition and is capitalism to its fullest degree. Real Madrid wouldn’t be Real Madrid if we were broke…Continuing….Carlo’s squad plays in one of the nicest training grounds and I want to say the newest Top 5 European stadium. The Real Madrid institution won 12 CL trophies without him. He isn’t even the first Real Madrid manager to win 3 in this century. Thank you Zidane.

Now before this gets manufactured into “there goes Juni downplaying Carlo.” He’s again a great manager but out of all the people in Real Madrid right now…he’s dispensable. The only person in the building who quite frankly isn’t is Florentino Perez and then maybe Juni Calafat. Everyone else can be replaced because there are other great expensive players. There are other great managers. There are other great groundskeepers (mean no harm ya’ll do a great job…well this year. Last year the grass was poor tbh). Florentino Perez is the only person who I can count on to steer us through a global pandemic and come out without ref scandals or selling our long term income sources. As long as he’s still in charge, we’ll be ok. Also and I keep saying this La Liga is a better determinant of whether your team is good or not than the CL. A CL model is filled with inconsistencies and sometimes just the luck of the draw. BORUSSIA DORTMUND MADE THE CL FINAL LAST YEAR AND TERZIC DOESN’T HAVE A JOB.

This Is Too Long So I’ll End Here. Let’s continue to have honest discussions. And let me throw this in just for balance…some of the Carlo criticism is absolutely hate too. You know who you are. And trust me, I know who you are. But let’s try more often than not to drop the ignore subscriptions, forget what imaginary person across the world we are talking to, and honestly attempt to actually learn from each other. Apologies because I’m rambling, but I think I lost my faith in DTs because they evolved into winner-take-all competitions rather than a transfer of information. It became I must outsmart so-and-so rather than just this is my perspective. We all just have opinions. None of us are actually in any kind of control of what goes on at the club and idk existentially all these debates are kind of meaningless. Idk I like this term — an exchange of perspectives. Idk, life is full of differing perspectives and I’m trying to also become okay with that. I’m not perfect but I’m present.

Cheers,

Juni

For PhillyPhil

This Is A Bad Idea. I know this is a bad idea but I’m doing it anyway because for some reason MMers think I’m like Santa Claus. So here you go.

– Face: A face is a wrestler / actor that you are encouraged to cheer for. Think of them as a hero or protagonist. A kid would want to root for them and hope they win!

– Heel: A heel is the opposite. This would be a wrestler / actor that you are encouraged to boo or hope doesn’t succeed. Think of this person as a villain or antagonist. A kid should root against them (except for Thanos cause he was lowkey right just misguided in execution).

Now vote:

Unwanted Lessons:

TR_Madridsta: Teach…teach ‘em. Teach me.

Juninho: ”Today, I don’t really have much more to teach…I guess don’t lose sight of who you are or some cliche like that.”

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“i am still not your savior.”