Real Madrid are one of the best-run football clubs financially, if not the best. Whenever you look at the financial troubles of a huge club like FC Barcelona, one can only thank the Real Madrid board for their excellent work that has kept the club financially stable, even after a deadly pandemic. The President of our fan-owned club, Florentino Perez, deserves a lot of credit for the great job he has done in his 18 years of presidency.
But every human has his flaws, and so does Florentino Perez. His weaknesses have always been with regards to the sporting vision of the club, as there is a feeling that the sporting aspect of a transaction has been overshadowed by the marketing aspect. Florentino Perez did buy star players who grew to be legends at Real Madrid. But Papa Perez didn’t always focus on the right profiles needed for the team while buying players, and sometimes he couldn’t sell some players at the right time.
He did pull off some masterstrokes in sales, with the best examples being that of selling Alvaro Morata for 70 million pounds and Danilo Luiz for 30 million euros in recent times. But he hasn’t been able to sell some players at the perfect time and instead saw them continue at the club for too long with the players unable to produce the returns on the field.
Let us have a look at five such players who weren’t sold at the perfect time by Florentino Perez, the decisions being something he might always regret.
One notable exclusion on this list would be the current club captain and legend, Marcelo. Though his presence does block the path for Miguel Gutierrez’s growth, I don’t think Florentino Perez regrets not selling Marcelo sooner, which is something that can be understood from his words on Marcelo. Given the Brazilian’s legendary stature, it would be perfect for him to leave after his contract expires next year, with a farewell held in the Nuevo Santiago Bernabeu.