Real Madrid will be sending 24 year-old midfielder Mateo Kovačić on loan to Chelsea for the upcoming season. In return, Real Madrid permanently receive Belgian goalkeeper and World Cup Golden Glove winner Thibaut Courtois for €38.8 million, ESPN reports.
In the long run, this will be a solid move for Kovačić, who has been begging for first-team football at Real Madrid. Kante and new signing Jorginho should join him in the Chelsea midfield with Eden Hazard now expected to stay at Stamford Bridge.
Agreed. He needs some games up top and we need to show confidence in him at that position. I think it would be a big boost to his own confidence.
True, Mandžo and Rebić were awesome this World Cup.
But you still have to respect the fact that an invisible Kramarić (who only played three games) still managed to score a goal, despite not being a front man.
He also played injured in this World Cup as well (along with Lovren and Rebić).
Healthy Kramarić who plays up top can score goals. We just need to stop with the experimentation with him on the wing or in midfield.
I hope you’re right.
I’m still not totally sold on Kramaric.
I’ve always been on team Mandza over Kramaric.
I was never one of those insisting that Mario needed to step aside for Kramaric.
Mandza and even Rebic have a greater effect on the team with their strength and power and work ethic.
Give me those attributes over Kramaric’s skill yet sometimes invisible effort any day.
@Poglavnik
Oh Come on.
You don’t consider Kramaric a good option to replace Mandzo?
I’ll admit that Kramaric wasn’t great in this World Cup (actually he was pretty invisible), but at the same time, he wasn’t playing in the striker position.
However, when he scored against Russia, he was actually in the striker position for that short moment with Mandzo running up the wing, and Krama calling for a header pass, which they did and scored.
This is where Krama needs to play in order to be successful.
Mandzo was amazing this World Cup, largely due to that tireless high press of his. But we also have guys like Rebic and Perisic who do that (assuming we ever start Krama up top).
As Mandzo starts to fade, it’s best we incorporate Krama in some games. However, Krama and Mandzo are not good while playing together. Krama needs to play up top, or off the bench and Mandzo’s direct sub.
The “Krama in the starting lineup behind Mandzo” during the World Cup failed miserably and was not a “more offensive” lineup at all. All it did was force Modric and Rakitic to play more defensively as they didn’t have Brozo providing cover.
Krama is good. One of our best technical players who is a clinical finisher when played up top (his two goals in Ukraine proved that when he shfited up top during that game).
He has a good career ahead of him and is more than good enough to replace Mandzo.
Kovacic is not yet proven wait at the end of the EPL season.
How long is moderation for my previous post.?
I’m hanging up my cleats guys.
I will not believe Modric is hanging up the cleats for the NT until I hear it from him. Everything at this point would be speculation.
Can’t see how he wouldn’t stick around for one more tournament.
Has Rakitic officially called it a career with the NT? Again, heard some talk of it but I don’t recall hearing him say it or seeing it from a reputable news source.
@tomas. That scumbag pulisic who owns a croatia passport cannot playfor us. He is capped by America. No can do. If you do a profile on pulisic you will see it says he had a chance to play for croatia. Had is the operative word. He cannot change his mind now.
@Maminjo
We have good options to replace Mandzukic?!
Please fill us in.
@Soul Champ
Do you ever go to Smithfields Hall on 25th st ?
We’ll plan something for a UEFA Nations match.
@ IVO
Always time to hang with my Croatian loving homies.
Thanks for the link!
Luka said he would be around for the Euro already.
Luka ain’t retiring, yet
They should at least try to stick around and ride some of the momentum into the Nations League.
Would be nice to be the first winner of the Nations League.
The hns has released a statement
Where is the news on Modric and Mandzo coming from?
Modric ain’t leaving.
We need Subašić to retire, as we have a good backup.
Ćorluka and even Mandžo can retire, as we have good options there… But I really wouldn’t want Modrić to retire.
Actually, news is now coming out that modric and mandzukic are following corluka
A bummer, but Not unexpected. They’ve cemented their legacies and can now open up spots for the young guys
Zee, i believe they changed the eligibility rules since rakitic days
Hi Maminjo,
I have a great idea:
Shut the f_ck up!
Thank-you,
Kruno
great letter by Vedran
https://www.total-croatia-news.com/sport/30320-vedran-corluka-retires-from-croatia-national-team
Just messing with you
Maminjo,
Source?
Soul Champ we gotta hang out!
Salute Corluka!!
Modrić and Rakitić also retired.
They just released their statements as well.
Ćorluka retires from Repka.
http://hns-cff.hr/news/18554/zbogom-najdrazem-dresu/
All of “Bosna” is really Croatian.
All these confused “Muslims” over the centuries has created a made up country.
Funny when folks tell me that they speak “bosanski?”
Serbs running there asses off from Turks to Croatia were another displaced denomination, that got rebalanced in two days in 1995.
Croatia should look more like a thick rectangle then a large C.
Now modern geopolitics would view this Croatia as illegitimate due to the juxtaposition of a failed “greater Serbian” campaign.
Point is “Bosanci” speak Hrvatski, not “bosanski.”
@ Dalić
Your UNL roster you name on the 20th will dictate whether or not you ever manager a decent club in Europe.
Choose all the young studs and follow the Bilić blue print over the next two years.
You will have form relationships with the best pipeline of talent on European soil.
@Maminjo-Dalic blew it on a personal level. He had a chance to go into a no lose situation:
Take a big $ contract, if you win, your legend grows.
If you lose, you bring big $ to your family, & you will likely be able to get your NT job back in Croatia.
Then again, if he succeeds in the Nations League, he might get a bigger contract elsewhere.
@ Zlatan Hrvat
Please keep the same alias as we witness the most accomplished Kovačić explode on the EPL scene.
Actually his physical tools are ideal for the EPL .
Sarri needs Kovačić to make his attacking style click on all cylinders.
Superstar potential is on the table for this season.
@CroatianPerson85
Prosinecki is quietly putting together a decent coaching career.
He’s coached some very poor teams, and put together some shockingly good results. I really like what he did with Azerbaijan. 10 points in 10 games with wins over Norway and a draw in Czech is very impressive for such a low ranked team. They played every game close too. No real terrible losses.
Prosinecki has proven he can get some decent results with shit teams.
But he still has to prove he can get great results with good teams.
He will get that chance now, as Bosna is a pretty good team. If he takes them to the Euros and makes some noise, then yea, he’s definitely Croatia National Team coach material.
This is what we should have always been doing. Hire Croatian coaches AFTER they’ve gone through a few rounds of coaching with other teams (not before).
We gave the reigns to Bilic, Stimac and Kovac without seeing what they can do.
Bilic was okay, Stimac was a disaster, and Kovac was pretty poor as well. However, now it looks like Kovac has a good handle and might actually be a decent coach. He should have been hired AFTER he had a few coaching runs first. Bilic, on the other hand, has had an up-and-down club coaching career (with a similar up-and-down coaching career with Cro). Stimac has no coaching career, and his results with Cro predicted that (as he has the worst record ever for a Croatian coach).
Look at Igor Tudor.
I always thought he had some coaching talent. He had some solid results with all of his club teams…but after going through a few iterations with these coaching opportunities, you can see that he just isn’t emotionally stable enough to handle pressure. He likely cannot handle internal politics, and he always self destructs. Just recently, he lasted four games with Udinese (with a decent record) before blowing up and ending that opportunity. He did the same at Hajduk and in Turkey.
Now we know (for sure) that he wouldn’t be a good hire for us.
So long as we stay away from the ROOKIE hires, we should be okay. I don’t wanna see names like Srna, Olic, or Vukojevic being considered until the get at least 5-10 years of successful coaching experience first.
@Bobby
Good to see Pasalic doing well. He always seems to do well on his loan spells. Always managed to win a starting spot.
However, I don’t see this kid EVER cracking our starting lineup with some of the talent we have.
My guess is that he will always be a depth player, just like Badelj.
@Poglavnik
Nobody is saying that Livno isn’t Croatian. It’s just not Hercegovina. It’s Bosna.
@Calgary
Was I wrong to be scared about Lovren prior to the tournament? Most sane people were.
I just state my opinion based on the information in front of me, and Lovren’s career at Liverpool and the Cro national team has been very shaky at best.
The guy has been torn apart by Liverpool fans, football pundits, and his own coach for all the mistakes he has been making. Of course I’m going to be scared to death (like most people) about him starting at the World Cup, especially with several humiliating moments occurring just this season alone.
However, something happened to him where he went on this great run of form in the Champions League and it carried over into the World Cup too, where he made very few errors and had a great tournament.
I hope this is a turning point in his volatile career and he continues to play like this for us. He was unreliable for us in the past, and now he can be one of our greatest strengths.
@Poglavnik
Livno is in Bosnia not Hercegovina.
Anybody have the correct valid code to enter the fantasy league? I’m getting an invalid message with 2503785-569929.
Mario Pasalic scored 5 minutes after coming on as a sub for Atalanta in his first game and the assisted on the last goal in their 4-1 Europa League win.
Well congratulations to Marko peeass a on his new journey to Fiorentina. I wish he could pee on my assa when hes done with me. I sure would love to taste his cock in my mouth….maybe one day.
and the croatian soccer gay parade continues
Has anyone seen evidence of a Pavard handball?
@tomas. For example Rakitic played for all switzerland teams under 21 but never capped by the senior team which allowed him to play for us. Same thing.
Maminjo please shut up. You are always talking nonsense like you know it all. Pre World Cup you were relentless in your criticism on Lovren. You did not want him to start and that he would cost us the tourney. Well guess what he was solid for
us.
Stop sounding like Ziva.
Thoughts on Prosinecki if he would agree to coach at one point or another?
@Goku – I think his biggest club achievement is taking Al Ain from 355th in the World club rankings to 122nd in 2 years or something like that but I agree with Maminjo. I think it was a one off. Hey we finished 2nd so I am obviously happy. You can get the right coach, motivation, luck, rhythm, good play, team chemistry etc and go far in a tournament but I do think 9 times out of 10 it doesn’t happen.
How much difference would it make where this hypothetical higher caliber foreign coach is from? Italian? German? Does it matter? I think it does.
That’s all fine and dandy, but it is still far below the experience level required.
He got the job via connections, just like all our previous coaches. The proof being the fact that none of us knew who he was prior to being appointed as coach.
He was granted a great opportunity, especially since he was out of work and unlikely to get a gig outside of some Arab or other Asian league.
He received exposure to the World, and gets to live and coach in Croatia and being close to family…and continues to get even more exposure (pretty much guaranteeing him a good selection of European offers once he is done with us).
We took a chance with him and it worked out. 9 out of 10 times you do this, it won’t work out.
Next time we hire a coach, we need to hire experienced ones (no more rookie former player coaches and low experience ones).
We have the money and the quality team to attract solid coaches now. Teams like Azerbaijan and Iran have to pay a premium for good coaches. We don’t.
Also some earlier success in his career was a supercup win in Albania (2008) and leading Varteks Varazdin to a 2nd place finish in the HNL (2006)
I think Dalic had alot more experience and success than the kovac, stimac, and cacic albeit it be in Asia. He won the league cup in saudi arabia and was runner up in the league. Then in the UAE he won the league, cup, supercup and made the Champions league finals of Asia where they got runner up.
^ ^
You sure he’s not a Hercegovac?
I have no idea.
Just know that Livno is pretty darn Croatian.
@BZ
Don’t worry. Dalic is not underpaid.
The HNS increased their coaches salary quite a bit over the past three years, so he is in the middle of the pack when it comes to World Cup coaching salaries.
– Dalic knows that he was given an opportunity that he did not deserve with his mediocre resume. He got the job through connections, just like Cacic, Kovac, Stimac, etc.
– Dalic was signed to a multi-year contract prior to the World Cup (which would have been paid in full even if he failed miserably)
– He was out of a job, and was put into a no-pressure situation with low expectations (but with great reward if they succeeded in qualifying). Anyone in his position takes this opportunity.
Dalic was just chirping after the World Cup because he is a Bosanac and that is what they do.
He was also bitter that there were some people in the HNS who wanted to possibly buy out Dalic from his contract early and make an offer to get a top rated coach for our World Cup run (and I don’t blame them either, since there were some pretty good coaches available and we played very poorly in our pre-World Cup friendlies).
Dalic did very well at the World Cup, but his current “opportunities” are still limited to being a coach for third rate National Teams due to his coaching experience still being pretty weak. The only teams that were interested were Egypt, Japan, Uzbekistan and Iran. Sure, he could make a few hundred thousand more with these teams…but does he really wanna step back in his career like this and eliminate whatever exposure he will be giving himself in the Nations League and upcoming Euro 2020?
No chance.
The HNS took a chance on him, and it worked out.
It could have very easily been a complete disappointment (especially if we lost to Denmark in that shootout, which could have easily happened).
Both the HNS and Dalic benefitted from this. He recognizes that, and this is why he is staying.
You don’t chew out your teammates or bark at your captain while everyone is watching.
And you don’t refuse to play because you’re not starting.
Things Lovren has hopefully learned by now..
@Njofra – because someone posted a link to an article randomly. I wanted to see if there was footage on YouTube and there is. It’s media hype really, teammates argue all the time. No biggie but I was kind of wondering the same thing.
Zee, what does him not being capped yet have to do with it?
That was like 5 years ago. Why are we discussing this?
Modric should’ve checked him on the field there.
Lovren’s an ass!
Can’t stand the guy.
Can’t wait for someone to take his spot.
Tomas he is not capped by any senior team.
In terms of olmo, tell me if I’m mistaken but isn’t it really hard for him to switch national teams?
Don’t the rules state he must live in the new country for five years after turning 18? Doesn’t seem realistic to me
There’s your Lovren vs Strinic clip.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2scGXl5rikk
Great news for Benkovic and Kovacic…. Dinamo loans out Adrian Semper to Italy’s ChievoVerona.
I really like this Benkovic kid.
Can’t wait to watch him in the Prem!
Great news about Dalic!
Dalic screwed the pooch. He needed to cash in on the World Cup, but probably didn’t get the offers he boasted about.
Now we are going to have an underpaid bitter coach. Might hurt our team continuity.
I feel bad for him. Let’s win the Nations League for his underpaid ass.
https://www.croatiaweek.com/croatian-fa-fines-lovren-and-strinic-e20000/
Benković and Ćaleta-Car are looking really good as our future CB pairing. They have all the ideal physical tools to be great.
One of Čolina or Sosa at LB, and one of Jedvaj or Tudor at RB and we can field a very impressive backline at the next two (or even three) World Cups.
Good news is that we will still have Vrsaljko, Lovren and Vida for the next World Cup as well (in case we still need them).
https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/zlatko-dalic-stay-coach-croatias-national-team/
Filip Benkovic left Dinamo for Leicester for about 15 mil this week as well
Kovacic is not yet proven.
CAREFREE WHERE EVER WE MAY BE…..WE ARE THE FAMOUSE CFC!
Kovacic is average to overrated and to inconsistent we will see how he plays in the EPL hopefully he proves me wrong.