Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have been banned from participating in the 2 upcoming transfer windows.
On Thursday afternoon the verdict on Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid’s transfer ban came through and, like many expected, the two club’s lost their protest and will serve a transfer ban for the next two consecutive windows. Though both will appeal further in the hopes that a miracle will strike and they’ll be spared from their punishment, the precedent points the other way and the clubs will likely lose this round of appeals as well.
Though a transfer ban is never a good thing or something to be welcomed, clubs can suffer devastating injuries and see key targets lost to other clubs, this ban does come at a peculiarly strong time for both clubs, perhaps more notably Real Madrid. Much has been made of Real Madrid’s quiet summer in the transfer market. After all, this has been the club to usher in the era of excessive spending on high-profile players which may not actually be wholesale improvements to their new club.
Though this reputation has been somewhat exaggerated the last few seasons, it is still a reputation grounded in some truth so to see the club actually turn a net profit on their transfer expenditure this summer was a bit of a shock.
Of course, that’s not to say that the club didn’t improve by addressing some vital areas. Alvaro Morata returned from Juventus’ finishing school to fill the hole of backup striker while Fabio Coentrao, fresh off a mixed loan spell with Monaco, surprisingly came back to Madrid to spell Marcelo as the club inexplicably had zero backups for both Karim Benzema and Marcelo last season.
Additionally, Marco Asensio’s loan at Espanyol came to an an end and the highly-touted youngster has forced his way into Zidane’s plans for the season, perhaps to the chagrin of crowd favorites James Rodriguez and Isco. However, one area which hasn’t been addressed, though it has been discussed endlessly among supporters, is that of holding midfielder, either as an upgrade to the increasingly rising Casemiro or as a backup. Of course, Toni Kroos has experience in the role and brings a sense of elegance that Casemiro doesn’t, but it could be an area of weakness should one or both go down this season and opponents will surely look to exploit this.
How devastating is this to the team?
All things aside, the ban does come at a “good” time, as previously mentioned, as this Real Madrid side is as deep as it has been in years, perhaps decades even. Virtually every position is two deep with, at worst, above average players and even world class ones at some positions. Though rumors of playing time discontent lingered this summer, every member of the team appears outwardly happy with their role and fully compliant with the roster hierarchy. Zidane has shown to be a master peacemaker so we could very well see an exceptionally star-studded side go the entire season without any sense of discontent.
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Perhaps even more important than the senior side is the academy and group of players on loan. Real Madrid has picked up a (quite unfair) reputation of a club that ignores its academy despite regularly providing a number of home-grown players a role in the first team.
Jesus Vallejo, on loan at Eintrach Frankfurt, is seen as a generational player while Diego Llorente, Malaga, Marcos Llorente, Alaves, and Borja Mayoral, Wolfsburg, are seen as two potential stars of the national team for years to come. This isn’t even bringing up the likes of Martin Odegaard, Sergio Diaz, Aleix Febas and Mariano, all players tipped to rise to the first team at some point.
While a ban is certainly an unwelcome hurdle to overcome, it’s by no means a death knell to a club and there’s no better example of this than Madrid’s rival Barcelona. The Catalan powerhouse loaded up on world class talent and weathered the storm through the sheer battery of its opposition.
Real Madrid
This is something that Real Madrid can more than match as this Madrid side is even deeper than the great Barcelona one of 2014-2015. The average age of this roster isn’t even 26 years old and, should the loanees return next season, it could see an even further injection of youth.
Missing out on targets in the transfer market is a possibility but the team is still allowed to buy players and register them on January 2018, so don’t expect Florentino Perez to stand still next summer.
The language in the registration part of the law is something to keep an eye on, though, as Madrid will need to loanee rule cleared up before they make their decisions next summer.If players are registered under their parent club even when on loan then Zidane should expect reinforcements in a year but if players are registered under the loanee club then he could find his ranks unchanged.
However, it’s widely expected that both clubs will be allowed to utilize players returning from loan so, as the saying goes, the rich will only get richer. Despite all the roster analysis and legal posts to come, the most important thing to remember out of all this commotion is how the youngsters at these clubs change hands so easily as if they were nothing but currency.
At the end of the day, these children are still human beings with their futures up in the air and club’s trafficking them in the hopes of finding those two or three gems in a hundred is something that needs to be more closely regulated and supplemented with educational and career choices should their time at the clubs not work out.
Many clubs already do this but as the cases of these three Spanish clubs have shown us, the powers that be are still not doing enough fr these children. Unfortunately, this sport is a business and we’re surely not looking at the only three clubs guilty of maneuvers like this.
A real shame.
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