Real Madrid Transfer Rumors and What They Truly Need In The Summer Window
It’s that time of the season that the press will do anything to avoid losing online traffic and sales of newspapers.
Anything goes when it comes to keeping the public entertainment, which means 95%+ of the ‘certain transfers’ are just click baits.
Even the bets on transfers are purely recreational as nothing rational can ‘predict’ any sort of edge over the house like a normal professional bet backed by stats or qualitative analysis normally could.
So what can we do here? Well, we can analyse the facts, stuff that is confirmed by players or clubs, and try to analyse other things like what kind of player and role clubs need.
Let’s try to do just that…
Did Real Madrid Lose La Liga 22/23 due to A Lack of Squad Depth? And what about the UCL?
Well, to a certain degree, I believe that is the case. Mallorca 1 – 0 Real Madrid was a clear case where Ancelotti tried to dose the use of the energy of his players. But the team ended up needing the quality of the old guys, which resulted in Modric and Kroos being subbed in to fight back a losing score. Which wasn’t ideal.
Not only they had to give minutes to players that just had enough of those in the season considering their age, but they failed to fight back a losing score in a game where they were more than expected to win, with big handicaps on Real Madrid in the Asian Handicap markets.
My problem with that is simple: Real Madrid had a void winter in terms of transfers. Only Endrick was announced as a transfer ‘for the future’, a Brazilian youngster from Palmeiras that is 16 and can only move to Madrid when he’s 18, which will only happen on July 21st, 2024.
Could Real Madrid really afford to ‘bet on the future’ as they did on Vini Jr. and Rodrygo?
Did this transfer, which could cost £60m depending on the add-ons, happen at the expense of short-term squad quality? Or did Ancelotti and Florentino really believe that they had what they needed to win La Liga, and perhaps the UCL?
Take Camavinga as another example. He played wonderfully as a left-back, but when Real Madrid was confronted with an opponent like Man City, where zero mistakes were tolerated, Camavinga ended up needing help with the man marking, and as the line of 4 wasn’t ‘just perfect’ which is what is needed to avoid succumbing to the attacking pressure of The Citizens, it didn’t happen.
Maybe if a world-class defender had been signed in January, Alaba could be a left-back at this moment, and maybe Real Madrid would be visiting Istanbul in the big final of the Champions League next June 10th.
Real Madrid just wasn’t allowed to use Modric and Kroos whenever they felt like it, which in my opinion, is a clear sign of problems with the squad depth. Whenever Carletto allowed them to rest, (or almost always), there were issues.
Also, the constant injuries of Ferland Mendy forced him to use Camavinga as a left-back, because neither Rüdiger nor Nacho lived up to the standards needed for a team like Real Madrid.
Lesson Learned? One LB and a CM to Be Signed? Jude Bellingham and Robertson in Madrid?
The freshest rumours of transfer are Bellingham, who would come with a salty price tag, but the potential to be used for numerous seasons like Kroos, and some left-back like Robertson are the latest rumours.
The problem with these potential targets is simple: these issues of Real Madrid were there before the World Cup. Saving some Euros to spend only in January may have come at a major cost: La Liga.
The Champions League takes a level of perfection that is so extreme, that I don’t feel like we can summarize the defensive line issue as what sealed their fate against Man City recently in the semis of the UCL.
Last season, Real Madrid had more luck in an equally tough play-off against Man City.
But beating teams like Mallorca, as well as many other opportunities, simply were points that Real Madrid dropped which couldn’t be dropped.
Barcelona also didn’t present the level of perfection which resulted in neck-to-neck duels for the title of La Liga, decided in El Clasico itself, as we saw recently.
Both the Spanish giants dropped points along the way, but Real Madrid were the reigning champions of both La Liga and the UCL, and probably had more means to spend last January.
According to their next transfers this summer, we’ll see what kind of lesson was learned at Valdebebas and what we can expect for 23/24
