Mariano Diaz should have joined West Ham United in the Premier League instead of opting to waste away on the Real Madrid bench, Spanish football expert Terry Gibson tells El Tel and Jon’s La Liga Weekly podcast.
There’s a very good reason why Gibson has no ‘sympathy’ for Real Madrid’s £20 million forgotten man.
After all, it’s not as if Mariano hasn’t had plenty of chances to leave the Santiago Bernabeu over the last couple of years.
The former Espanyol youngster has been the subject of interest from Everton, Crystal Palace, Newcastle and West Ham in the recent past but has consistently turned down offers in a rather hare-brained attempt to breathe fresh life into his Los Blancos career.
Given that he’s started fewer than ten La Liga games since 2018, we’ll let you decide how that’s gone for him.
“I don’t have any sympathy for Mariano Diaz,” says Gibson, a former Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur forward.
“I’ve spoken to clubs in England that were interested. My opinion is, he’s a really good striker. He’s energetic, enthusiastic, he’s got an eye for goal. But is he Real Madrid level? No. But he still believes he is that level.
“I know he’s turned clubs down in the Premier League because he will only go to Liverpool, Man City, Man United, Chelsea. The four teams we expect to be in the Champions League. That criteria rules him out of really good teams in the Premier League that would have bought him for the right price.”
A wasted opportunity?
When pressed further on the type of club who wanted to bring Mariano to England, Gibson suggests that the striker had plenty of suitors amongst the division’s B-list sides.
The Evertons, Newcastles and West Hams of the world, for instance.
“He had no interest (in joining him), Gibson adds. “He dismissed it immediately, completely out of hand. He’d only go to one of those four (Champions League clubs) and, in my opinion, he wasn’t going to make them any better.
“For him, it was Champions League teams in the Premier League or he was going to stay at Real Madrid.
“West Ham (would have been perfect). He would play and probably earn the same money. They (West Ham) could match the money he earns at Real Madrid.”
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At the age of 28, Mariano has only once played more than 15 league games in a season at senior level. And that came during a short-lived spell at Lyon in which he scored 21 goals in all competitions.
Very much an outlier on an otherwise barren CV.
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