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EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - JULY 19: Rodri #16 of Spain lifts the FIFA World Cup Winner’s Trophy after the team’s victory following the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match between Spain and Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19, 2026 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images) | 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.
CAMPEONES CAMPEONES
Congratulations. First – congratulations to the Spanish National Team on winning the 2026 World Cup and congratulations to all MMers who support Spain. Also congrats to Cucurella our new Real Madrid LB. The national team had an impressive campaig with only conceding one goal the entire tournament and truly banding as a collective to win another international trophy. This young and connected team will continue to grow and be a true power house in sport as long as they can rely on De La Fuente, Yamal, and Cubarsi (mixed with some of the young upcomers like Dean / GG / Nico Williams / Pubill).
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— Selección Española Masculina de Fútbol (@SEFutbol) July 19, 2026
Rodri. I’m just going to be brief – there is legitimately no proper footballing reasons for Real Madrid Club de Futbol to not sign Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante aka Rodri. There really isn’t at this point and if you’re completely against this signing, I’m going to have to see a 500-word essay to prove that you’re not just a hater because of the Balon D’Or controversy.
Rodri is as close to being a slam dunk signing as we can possibly make. Yes, he’s 30. Yes, he’s faced recent injuries. And yes, he may have lost a step or two physically. Nevertheless, everything about his skillset is what our midfield is missing. In my honest opinion, Rodri is the only midfielder that Perez can drop into our squad and immediately fix our issues. And this isn’t just come from WC-hype…I’ve firmly believed this for months now. Our fellow MMer conq has shouted this for months now. Vitinha / Joao Neves would be great additions but they don’t fix our midfield the way that Rodri immediately would. And MM lets be clear a midfield is first and foremost a balance of profiles and then a product of individual talent. Rodri is masterfully adept at evading pressure and controlling the game. He understands build-up tempo. He can pick a cross field pass to our wings with relative ease. He isn’t the most athletic deep lying playmaker but he also understands simple positioning so that he isn’t completely out of place during transition and equally important he picks and chooses when to escape yellows with technical fouls. Rodri paired with Tchouameni and to a lesser extent Fede Valverde, both players who can support him defensively and be the legs that he may need, would do absolute wonders for our team. No longer would we need Arda Guler to drop deep in order to pick up the ball from our CBs. Dean who often was forced to adopt the backline creative impetus of our team would finally have someone in the midfield to actually pair with. And who knows maybe Rodri can teach our young midfielders a thing or two?!
If your only fear is that Rodri is injury prone and on his last legs, that’s an honest fear but in a market where Tonali is going for 100M, Rodri is likely a worthwhile risk. We can look at market values and drop our favorite DLP names but many of them simply are impossibly expensive or frighteningly young. Bouaddi had a good tournament and is now being valued near 100M by Lille. In many ways, he’s more Camavinga than Toni Kroos and likely is far too young and inexperienced to take a commanding role in our midfield. He also just doesn’t actually control play. If you watch closely, that just isn’t his game especially in a progressive sense. Vitinha isn’t leaving PSG any time soon and seemed to struggle outside of Luis Enrique’s PSG system. Joao Neves faces a similar dilemma and again isn’t a controller. Adam Wharton can play a pass or two but won’t lead our midfield that simply isn’t his skillset or his demeanor. Kees Smit – tbh people don’t even mention Kees Smit anymore…
So yes Florentino Perez — put your pride aside and spend 50M on Rodri. Yes it’s a temporary fix, but we’ve gone trophyless for two seasons now. I’m not entirely sure that you’d survive a third.
Cheers,
J
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