Real Madrid have been strongly linked with both Danilo and Luciano Vietto in recent weeks, but it is questionable whether the club is the ideal home for these kind of talented young players.
The link to Vietto was confirmed by his agent, Jorge Cysterpiller, on Tuesday. “There is a lot of competition for him,” he said, as per AS . “He could sign for Liverpool…as well as Real Madrid and two Bundesliga clubs.”
With a release clause reported to be just €10 million, it is little surprise that there is plenty of interest in the 21-year-old.
Villarreal paid just €5.5 million to sign him from Racing Club of Argentina last summer and he has undoubtedly been one of the signings of the season.
It was clear from his time in Argentina that he was a player with a lot of talent and potential but the speed with which he has slotted seamlessly into Spanish football has nevertheless been little short of remarkable.
“He’s a young guy who really wants to do well,” Villarreal coach Marcelino said earlier this season, as per Ben Hayward of Goal.com. “We knew he was a player who could give us a lot and we thought he would adapt, but we are surprised at just how quickly he has adapted.”
Vietto has been a central figure in the Villarreal side who have impressed in all competitions this season. Following on from Nihat, Giuseppe Rossi and Nilmar in the lineage of small, sharp and technically gifted forwards at El Madrigal, his scoring rate and overall contribution have been excellent.
And it is not like he is in the midst of an unsustainable hot streak.
With 11 goals in 1,395 minutes of league action, as per WhoScored.com, the young Argentinian has scored at a rate of 0.71 goals per 90 minutes. This is just marginally higher than the number of goals he would be expected to score from the positions from which he took his shots, as per the two expected goals models:
While Vietto has burst onto the European scene this season, Madrid’s other rumoured target, Danilo, is more of a known quantity, with a price tag to match.
Per Manu Sainz of AS , talks between Madrid and Porto have recently intensified over a potential €30 million deal for the Brazilian full-back. Barcelona and Manchester United have also been linked.
The 23-year-old has enjoyed three impressive years at FC Porto following his move from Santos in January 2012 and has become a regular for Brazil at international level in the wake of last summer’s World Cup. He is an ideal modern full-back: tall, strong and quick.
But while both Vietto and Danilo are clearly highly talented young players, Carlo Ancelotti’s reluctance to rotate during the current campaign will surely act as a deterrent to any players of their stature who are offered the opportunity to move to the Bernabeu.
Ancelotti recently added Isco to his list of indisputable starters—a list he has previously confirmed to contain Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, and to which the likes of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Sergio Ramos can safely be added.
And what chance would Vietto have of getting regular minutes ahead of the first-choice front three?
Per Soccerway , Javier Hernandez has played just 559 minutes of football in all competitions since joining on loan from Manchester United last summer. Alvaro Morata has been sold to Juventus , while, as per El Confidencial (h/t AS ), his fellow youth-team product Jese Rodriguez is likely to be loaned out next season due to a lack of first-team opportunities in Madrid.
Danilo’s case would be more promising, with Dani Carvajal his only genuine competition at right-back. However, there seems little reason for Ancelotti to drop Carvajal—an academy product, and a consistent and competitive performer—in favour of the Brazilian.
Why risk sitting on the bench, as Fabio Coentrao has done behind Marcelo for much of the last two seasons? Especially when Carvajal is himself a year younger than Danilo and unlikely to be moved on.
Asier Illaramendi provides an obvious case study in how a career can be stalled by a move to Madrid. He received decent minutes last season but has largely been limited to substitute appearances this time around. It is difficult not to think that he would have been better off staying at Real Sociedad.
Even Isco, the example potential recruits would hope to emulate, may not have received such extensive playing time this season were it not for the injuries sustained by first Bale—which saw him start and impress as part of a midfield four in the 3-1 victory at home to Barcelona in October—and then Modric.
The truth is that Vietto’s development as a footballer would be much better served by spending a couple more years at Villarreal, while Danilo, too, should pause for thought before accepting a move to Madrid. What seems like the opportunity of a lifetime isn’t always so.
from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1DNxZwp
via IFTTT March 04, 2015 at 04:41AM
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