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Some might say sunshine follows thunder
Heading into the second round of the FFO pre season auction Real Madrid manager Steven K. Talbot seemingly had much to prove. A potential world record £606 million pound bid on the hugely talented Jude Bellingham had fallen flat on it's face. A huge gamble in essence backfiring in spectacular style. Lots of mud on face and embarrassment for Talbot ensues in the press in the following days.
Going into round 2 Real Madrid was not the only big balance, in fact there were three with PSG and Southampton not far behind. The pressure was on to find a good player, at a good price, and avoid losing in the process.
The quality remaining in round two wasn't superb with no major targets slipping through the cracks from round one, but two players did stand out for Talbot. The first being the young 22 year old Dutch defender Michael van de Ven (MVD) and the other being the Slovak defensive midfielder Stanislav Lobotka.
M_van_de_Ven 22 ned 1 20 16 12 28 1 667 471 725
S_Lobotka 27 slo 1 17 22 4 32 1 355 526 789
MVD had been derided by some observers as being not good enough for a club of the stature of Real Madrid, with many experts predicting the Los Blancos to splash out on the apparent 3rd highest ranked passer in FFO, Lobotka.
Steven K. however dances to the beat of his own drummer. He is a unique and decisive manager. In a big curveball maneuver he decided to bid on the services of young MVD instead.
With Guimares already being at La Real, a sensible choice was made to attempt to pick up a young defender who fit's the Madrid mould and style of play. What was surprising, was Talbot's relatively low, bold but astute bid of just £120 million pound. This offer beat the bid from Crystal Palace of £118.5 million pound by the slender margin of just £1.5 million. Talbot had it was rumoured predicted the Palace bid in his war room scenarios almost to the pound. Talbot had by the skin of his teeth secured an expertly chosen price point for his purchase, but at the same time seen the classy Lobotka picked up very cheaply by Liverpool much to their delight.
Fans were shocked that Madrid had let the "3rd highest passer in the game" trickle through their fingers like water. Talbot had managed to somehow pull another blunder, many onlookers believed.
Talbot: "You can't fit square holes into round pegs, or whatever the saying is", fumbled Talbot as he spoke to some of the friendlier members of the press after the event with a cocktail glass in hand.
He continued, a little more composed this time, swirling his what appears to be rather large Whiskey Sour drink.
Talbot: "Lobotka, is a good player, and congrats to Liverpool he will do well there I'm sure - but we do have a better player than him already in Guimares. Between the two I pick Guimares. For me that is no decision. The natural choice was therefore MVD. The real decision was how much to bid. I must admit I did agonise over this a little and ran simulations using my auction war machine. In the end after some study, a good price point was discovered by me that gave us the most bang for our buck versus probability of success ratio, or B4B:S, for short. The war machine spat out the figure, and that's well, that's what we bid."
The five team league winner took a sip of his drink half listening as the reporter mentioned something about MVD not being a good player.
"Some might say that sunshine follows thunder... no, haha, but that is very apt. Some might say that MVD is a little weaker than you would expect at a top club. I mean, certainly in comparison to his new teammates at Real's he is, at first glance. MVD is the 5th of 5 defenders when you compare him to the fab four of "Mr. USA", "the Maestro", "Grandmaster" and "Mr Clean". But you know what? That's ok. With seasonal aging in place now, I do think a few managers do not fully take that into account in their thinking. MVD will be better than some of those better players that he is being compared with now, when he is at their age. If you know what I mean? Let's also be honest. A weaker 5th defender also did not hurt Man City all these years."
A smirk flashes across the face of the "Rutheless One" as he seems to contemplate expanding further.
"There is also another strategic element that benefits us from having an ever so slightly not as strong 5th defender, that I, yeah I won't get deep into right now because quite frankly you and others who listen to this later would not understand. I don't want to waste my time any more than I am currently already doing to be honest. To cut a long story short, I am happy with my purchase, and the amount we spent on the auction. I feel like we have landed nicely on our feet and turned a negative into a positive."
Talbot was asked if the club would be entering the pre-season tournament announced earlier today by G.M Jon Banks.
"No. Screw that. We will not be attending that tournament. We have some serious training and preparations to complete. Real Madrid will not be distracted by meaningless friendly games versus random no name teams. We are, and need to be anything but, friendly. So no, we will not. We will leave it to the other lesser entities to, well, (cocks head) have fun, I guess."
Talbot flashes his traditional shit eating grin that only his mother loved occasionally, and off he swaggers into the night, socialising at the after party, swirling the ice about in his drink as he goes in the confident manner that we would expect.
Article 1: Talbot's Swagger: Real Madrid's Season 3 Comeback (643 words)
Article 2: Hey Jude, Don't Leave Madrid Blue (705 words)
Article 3: Some might say sunshine follows thunder (1,004 words)
Heading into the second round of the FFO pre season auction Real Madrid manager Steven K. Talbot seemingly had much to prove. A potential world record £606 million pound bid on the hugely talented Jude Bellingham had fallen flat on it's face. A huge gamble in essence backfiring in spectacular style. Lots of mud on face and embarrassment for Talbot ensues in the press in the following days.
Going into round 2 Real Madrid was not the only big balance, in fact there were three with PSG and Southampton not far behind. The pressure was on to find a good player, at a good price, and avoid losing in the process.
The quality remaining in round two wasn't superb with no major targets slipping through the cracks from round one, but two players did stand out for Talbot. The first being the young 22 year old Dutch defender Michael van de Ven (MVD) and the other being the Slovak defensive midfielder Stanislav Lobotka.
M_van_de_Ven 22 ned 1 20 16 12 28 1 667 471 725
S_Lobotka 27 slo 1 17 22 4 32 1 355 526 789
MVD had been derided by some observers as being not good enough for a club of the stature of Real Madrid, with many experts predicting the Los Blancos to splash out on the apparent 3rd highest ranked passer in FFO, Lobotka.
Steven K. however dances to the beat of his own drummer. He is a unique and decisive manager. In a big curveball maneuver he decided to bid on the services of young MVD instead.
With Guimares already being at La Real, a sensible choice was made to attempt to pick up a young defender who fit's the Madrid mould and style of play. What was surprising, was Talbot's relatively low, bold but astute bid of just £120 million pound. This offer beat the bid from Crystal Palace of £118.5 million pound by the slender margin of just £1.5 million. Talbot had it was rumoured predicted the Palace bid in his war room scenarios almost to the pound. Talbot had by the skin of his teeth secured an expertly chosen price point for his purchase, but at the same time seen the classy Lobotka picked up very cheaply by Liverpool much to their delight.
Fans were shocked that Madrid had let the "3rd highest passer in the game" trickle through their fingers like water. Talbot had managed to somehow pull another blunder, many onlookers believed.
Talbot: "You can't fit square holes into round pegs, or whatever the saying is", fumbled Talbot as he spoke to some of the friendlier members of the press after the event with a cocktail glass in hand.
He continued, a little more composed this time, swirling his what appears to be rather large Whiskey Sour drink.
Talbot: "Lobotka, is a good player, and congrats to Liverpool he will do well there I'm sure - but we do have a better player than him already in Guimares. Between the two I pick Guimares. For me that is no decision. The natural choice was therefore MVD. The real decision was how much to bid. I must admit I did agonise over this a little and ran simulations using my auction war machine. In the end after some study, a good price point was discovered by me that gave us the most bang for our buck versus probability of success ratio, or B4B:S, for short. The war machine spat out the figure, and that's well, that's what we bid."
The five team league winner took a sip of his drink half listening as the reporter mentioned something about MVD not being a good player.
"Some might say that sunshine follows thunder... no, haha, but that is very apt. Some might say that MVD is a little weaker than you would expect at a top club. I mean, certainly in comparison to his new teammates at Real's he is, at first glance. MVD is the 5th of 5 defenders when you compare him to the fab four of "Mr. USA", "the Maestro", "Grandmaster" and "Mr Clean". But you know what? That's ok. With seasonal aging in place now, I do think a few managers do not fully take that into account in their thinking. MVD will be better than some of those better players that he is being compared with now, when he is at their age. If you know what I mean? Let's also be honest. A weaker 5th defender also did not hurt Man City all these years."
A smirk flashes across the face of the "Rutheless One" as he seems to contemplate expanding further.
"There is also another strategic element that benefits us from having an ever so slightly not as strong 5th defender, that I, yeah I won't get deep into right now because quite frankly you and others who listen to this later would not understand. I don't want to waste my time any more than I am currently already doing to be honest. To cut a long story short, I am happy with my purchase, and the amount we spent on the auction. I feel like we have landed nicely on our feet and turned a negative into a positive."
Talbot was asked if the club would be entering the pre-season tournament announced earlier today by G.M Jon Banks.
"No. Screw that. We will not be attending that tournament. We have some serious training and preparations to complete. Real Madrid will not be distracted by meaningless friendly games versus random no name teams. We are, and need to be anything but, friendly. So no, we will not. We will leave it to the other lesser entities to, well, (cocks head) have fun, I guess."
Talbot flashes his traditional shit eating grin that only his mother loved occasionally, and off he swaggers into the night, socialising at the after party, swirling the ice about in his drink as he goes in the confident manner that we would expect.
Article 1: Talbot's Swagger: Real Madrid's Season 3 Comeback (643 words)
Article 2: Hey Jude, Don't Leave Madrid Blue (705 words)
Article 3: Some might say sunshine follows thunder (1,004 words)