Ranking Real Madrid’s best transfer windows this century
3. 2010 Summer transfer window
Another transfer window took place during the World Cup, this time in 2010. This World Cup introduced the clubs to a lot of stars and budding talents, but there wasn’t much inflation in this window, compared to 2014. Real Madrid took note of the talented players and spent money wisely to bring in those players to the Spanish capital.
It was an emotional time for Spanish fans, particularly with their country winning the World Cup held in South Africa. But Real Madrid experienced sorrow along with happiness, as their club legends Raul and Guti would leave the club for free in that window.
And there was a change in management as well, with Jose Mourinho being appointed as the new manager. A change in manager meant a change in ideology, and a change in the system, which meant that Real Madrid would have new requirements after a record transfer window in the previous year. But the club didn’t fail to live up to the expectations in the market and supported their manager by giving him the players he wanted. The board led by Florentino Perez, whose advisor was Zinedine Zidane, and Jorge Valdano did exceptionally well to satisfy Mourinho and present him with a world-class team that’s ready to compete in all competitions.
The club couldn’t generate much from sales, with most of them being free transfers as the club chose to respect their legends, making a departure easier by terminating their contract. Lesser sales meant the club had to be wise in expenditure, and they executed their plan brilliantly while balancing the books well.
The club bought Angel Di Maria for 33 million, which was comparatively a high amount. But that would prove to be a bargain to some extent, given the Argentine’s insane contribution in the next four seasons. But the best signings were that of Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira for 18 million and 14 million respectively, with both of them doing exceptionally well as regular starters under Jose Mourinho.
The club would invest a relatively lower amount in youngsters Pedro Leon and Sergio Canales, but sadly they couldn’t succeed at the club. But another low-cost investment made on the 32-year-old Ricardo Carvalho worked very well, with him proving to be a great short term fix under Mourinho.
The club got the players they wanted, that too for low amounts. The club got four world-class starters for a combined fee of 73 million, which shows you how well planned the expenditure was. For me, this has easily got to be the 3rd best transfer window, considering the amount of planning and the perfect signings made within a limited budget, and also the revenue these players would generate in the future.