Real Madrid: Understanding the real reasons for the lack of transfer activity

How many times have we heard this common refrain from football analysts in reference to LaLiga’s two power clubs? “Real Madrid and Barcelona won’t go after ‘Player X’ this summer, because they don’t have any money.” And the lumping of Real with Barça, with their egregious debt in excess of 1.3 billion euros, is taken at face value.

While it is true – and quite astonishing, given Barcelona have signed multiple free agents this summer – that Real Madrid have made no signings aside from Sergio Ramos ersatz David Alaba in free agency, their transfer inactivity is not down to Los Blancos being broke. The explanation is slightly more complicated than that. But only slightly.

Currently, Real Madrid do not have much space to navigate their 25th registration allotments. The final player to be registered to the first team will be Dani Ceballos, who was on the transfer list but had no suitors willing to pay a fair price for the player. Ceballos had been loaned out to Arsenal for two seasons, and he struggled in his most recent campaign in North London.

Real have faced similar situations with other players they tried to sell. Isco and Luka Jovic also had lukewarm interest on the transfer market, with nobody interested in taking on their wages and paying a legitimate transfer fee. Alvaro Odriozola and Mariano Diaz are clear backups who have generated essentially zero transfer interest. Jesus Vallejo is an even more striking example of an out-of-favor player with no suitors. Gareth Bale and Marcelo are basically immovable.

Real Madrid have made nearly 200 million euros in transfer profit over the past two summer windows

So Los Blancos have eight players they tried to sell but could not. Those are potentially eight slots that could have been opened up for a new, more productive player to help Real Madrid in their years-long transition period after Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure to Juventus.

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All the while, Real Madrid have been keeping a close eye on PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe. As unlikely as it seems that PSG will let the most valuable player in the world (in terms of transfer value) leave this summer, Real are maintaining a spot open for him. They have money allotted to cover his transfer fee and contract, and they must also have physical space for him in the squad.

That restricts how Los Blancos can navigate the summer 2021 transfer market further. They have made about 180 million euros in sales over the past two windows without any purchases. Therefore, their total profit of 180 million euros is the highest in football. Smaller clubs with a less significant transfer margin have made signings, such as Ajax and Porto, whereas Real have done absolutely nothing beyond the Alaba signing.

And that comes down to three things. Firstly, the squad space. Secondly, the desire to spend most of that 180 million euros on Mbappe if possible/necessary. And thirdly, the ambition to have enough money to afford the wages of both Mbappe and Erling Haaland, potentially by signing Mbappe and Haaland in the same window for a combined transfer fee under 100 million euros.

Real Madrid are held back by a handful of players with no transfer value

So Real Madrid are not a club floundering financially. Make no mistake, they have been hit hard by the pandemic, and they do have a renovated Santiago Bernabeu to pay off. But that stadium will help pay for itself, as will the investments in superstars like Mbappe and Haaland.

What is hamstringing Real is a combination of high-wage players who are either past their prime or should have never been signed to contracts in the first place (Vallejo, Mariano come to mind) and a desire to secure the splashiest young forwards in world football.

Fans and analysts need to understand this distinction and the bigger picture of what has made the last two summers so unique for Real Madrid. Florentino Perez is, apparently, ready to see Real suffer under Carlo Ancelotti as they did in 2020-2021 under Zinedine Zidane (yet they were somehow competitive until the very end) in order to gamble on the prospect of them prospering to a whole new level in the future.

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All the while, Real could have made moves to hold them over and bolster the rest of the squad for 2021-2022, but, alas, the 5-10 players they had ambitions of selling this summer had even less value and interest than initially anticipated. And that’s a key part of the story, in terms of both squad and wage space, that must be explained, rather than relying on the crutch or insinuation that Los Blancos are anywhere near the dire straits of their great rivals in LaLiga.

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