Alea Iacta Est Pt. I: 15 Oct. 2026

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.

Writer’s Prelude. Today we cross the rubicon towards a point of no return.

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Let The Die Be Cast (Part 1)

Cross The Rubicon. Today much like many of my Jose Juninho Editions, I will not hold my tongue regarding this game. I am thankful that we won and grateful for the result but it is time to be unfiltered. It’s time for all of us to be honest about the state of our club and team. I’m not sure how many more opportunities I will have to be stand on the soap box so today I will. Today, I will march across the line.

Vini No Puede Jugar. I’m going to say this as politely as I can so that it can be heard in the back and across all the Player FC coalitions and unions: there are currently zero sporting reasons to justify Vini starting for Real Madrid CF and almost equally so there are barely any sporting reasons to justify Vini playing period. This is not a bad run of form. This is years of sub-par play. And I understand the usual argument that many try to propose that Vini is a star and it only takes him one moment to completely change a game. But let me sincerely ask you, when was the last time that he did…? When was the last time that we recall him effectively and materially rising above all men and divine creatures to completely dominate a game? When was the last time that he consistently performed at even an above average level? Maybe I just have a short memory, but I can’t see it and I don’t remember these moments. I remember moments from now nearly 3-4 years ago but I’m not sure that the past Vini exists. I’m not going to dive into the decreased underlying statistics because we really don’t need to. We all watch the games.

Today, we effectively played with 10 men while Vini was on the pitch and at times as Benzema so famously said “[Vini] was playing against us.” First, and what seems to be the theme of particularly this season, Vini was unable to beat any man off the dribble. In fact, maybe that discourse is actually disingenuous nowadays as imo Vini recognizes this fact. Nowadays, he even his dribbling attempts have decreased. Second, Vini’s passing in key moments was rather poor. I recall two distinct situations where either Kylian or Diomande had acres of space to the right and Vini simply just couldn’t get the ball to where it was needed. He did have a nice quick cutback to Jude but that was really it. And then finally, as always, and even noted in the press conference by Mourinho, Vini was rarely anywhere to be found on the left channel during defensive moments. This constantly left Cucurella in 2v1 or worse dragged Tchouameni to the left channel then exposing Fede Valverde because until the 2nd half Jude also didn’t drop back to the pivots. If Vini isn’t adding anything substantial on the defensive side, and he isn’t materially contributing on the offensive side, what’s the point of him playing? Literally, what is the point?! Serenity or Spuds or anyone who always seems to show up at MM to defend Vini — maybe even the ghost of FederikKnuppout…please tell me what we gain? At least if Endrick starts on the RW with Diomande on the LW, I know that we’re getting high-rate dribbling, speed, and via Diomande a defensive workhorse. Brahim gives us a decent workrate, some successful dribbles, and the ability to drop towards the midfield and help progress play. Espi gives us a much needed anchor at the 9 position. Arda Guler (who now is often a RW) is literally playing in god mode right now. Kylian Mbappe — who mind you was awful today —still gave us a fucking goal. What does Vini offer as of October 2026?

And even worse, with all of this negative play and myriad of excuses for poor form for years (e.g., RFEF sanctions – which we all knew were coming – before the game, Virginia, idk Xabi Alonso) we then have to not only fight past the most careless back heel leading to a Roma goal but Vini’s sheer arrogance to question why he’s being subbed at the 58th minute. I’m sorry but this is unacceptable. This we as a club can no longer tolerate from our Vice Captain. This is not leadership. This is not professionalism. This is not even the bare minimum of what should be required to wear the Real Madrid badge. I’m sorry Vini…I just am. I’m earnestly so sorry that it’s reached this point. I’m sorry and frustrated and maybe annoyed that I’m not even convinced that if we were to bench you that you would completely sabotage our locker room. Fuck, it’s wild that I have to say this and likely also end that statement with “again”. I’m not convinced that if we benched Vini Jr. that it’d help him recuperate his form or that he would take it in stride rather than sabotage our locker room (again).

Now, I understand that there’s a chance he’ll be back. But I’ve also heard this statement since October 28, 2024 which was 716 days ago. I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of the endless rope of faith. Florentino Perez and Real Madrid as an institution have had moments to seize a new destiny. To march cross the rubicon. And it pains me to say that we didn’t and I’m not sure that we will. Even kings die, thrones rust. MM — is this empire finally crumbling into dust?

Cheers,

J

P.S., I actually have a lot more to say about this game but as the stream of conscious finished, this just felt like the right place to stop. I understand that to many of you, I’m probably just coming off as a hater which is fine. I can live with that. I don’t actually think Vini is the primary reason we lost today but rather there were a multitude of issues including him that resurfaced (idk why I said resurfaced they always surface…) So quickly that is Kylian being off form, Fede / Tchou being an eye-bludgeoning pivot, Jude continuing to press individually and not track back into the pivots when Fede + Tchou are stretched, Mourinho’s stubbornness with the 4231 as well as his relentless ambition to fix the untouchables, and just Flo coddling detrimental behavior as well as systematically building a terrible squad. But we can just have those discussions in the comments for now or tomorrow or never. It’s everything that we’ve all already seen just multiplied again and again. The same old story