Ivan Rakitić on Real Madrid’s rebuild: “They have done well, step by step. Maybe Barça have gone too fast. Gavi & Pedri will be the future of Barça & Spain. But I think that help from us veterans would’ve been good for them. I’m sure kids like Bellingham & co greatly appreciate having Modric & Kroos

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1. The full quotes in the video from Rakitic’s interview with Marca

   >**Q: What is different about Barcelona and Real Madrid now, how do you judge their struggles?**

   >A: “It’s like when as a young boy you have a girlfriend and you don’t pay her much attention, but you don’t realize it until you lose her. Real Madrid have been able to do everything well, gradually, but Barcelona may have gone too fast. I’m convinced that Gavi and Pedri are going to be the future of the Barcelona and Spanish national teams, but I think that our help, as the old guys, would have been good for them.”

   >”I’m convinced that all those guys like Bellingham are very grateful for the daily learning they have with Toni Kroos and Luka Modric.”

   >**Q: Do you think Real Madrid will dominate for the foreseeable future?**

   >A: “They have done the right things to have a solid team which can dominate for a few years. I speak with the utmost respect because they have been my rival for many, many years, but to see what Florentino Perez is achieving you have to tip your hat to him. They are getting what they want. There is a plan. Presidents don’t always get it right, but he got it right in his decisions, with the players, with the stadium and with everything around him. He has to be congratulated.”

   >**Q: Who will win LaLiga EA Sports?**

   >A: “Real Madrid, there is no doubt.”

   >**Q: What about the Champions League?**

   >A: “I’ve got more doubts about this… Barcelona.”

2. His hairline is the real remuntada, not the 6-1 against PSG

3. Barca was not fast , that baka Barto was fast

4. He ain’t lying.

5. I agree with everything Rakitic said. We may be going a little too fast in this rebuild. Other than Gundo, Lewa, and Ter Stegen, we have really no veterans to guide our younger players. It would have been nice to have Busquets stay for one more year, but that was his choice.

6. Right so who should have been kept for their “experiences”. Every player who left the club left coz they declined. Including Rakitic

   It’s precisely for experience that we got Lewa and Gundo rn.

7. He’s right. The fire sale of experience we had to have has not helped us at all.

8. He is not wrong. This is a by product of having a strong leadership who puts the club above any individual player. They don’t overpay and carefully recycle talent until an heir apparent to a departing/aging club legend is found. Also a great manager is vital, someone who can maximise talent and tinker with playing style fully knowing that superstar level talent can never truly be replicated. You just have to find new ways to win and play good football.

9. “But I think that help from us veterans would’ve been good for them.” yeah, and those “Barto contracts” would be nice too? MAtS, Inigo, Roberto, Gundogan and Lewandowski are really good veterans and mentors for youngsters.

10. Conveniently ignoring the fact that the level of our veterans, including himself, dropped hard compared to Kroos and Modric who have been performing at an elite level. If they fell off Madrid would have shipped them off too, which is the reason Rakitic had to leave.

11. This is why I hoped people like Iniesta and Busquets didn’t leave the club. They could’ve stayed on and been mentors for the next generation.

12. I think the problem started when Rosell became president, and Txiki Begiristain left. Two years later, Pep left.