A 2021 transfer that Real Madrid must regret not making

Real Madrid’s transfer window in the summer was decent, but it also could’ve been a lot more. Real signed Eduardo Camavinga and David Alaba, both of whom were great signings, especially Alaba who has just been incredible to start the season.

He’s formed a brilliant partnership with Eder Militao and it’s great to have the two after Ramos and Varane’s respective departures. We obviously had the whole Mbappe saga which didn’t pan out the way most of us would’ve wanted, but that’s fine, I think Real will get him next year.

But, there is one player, or one position where Real Madrid would’ve loved some sort of reinforcement. I’ve talked about this before, but I really think they would’ve been good if they had an actual back-up to Dani Carvajal.

Real Madrid should’ve signed a backup for Dani Carvajal last summer

Of course, there is one other position you can look at and say, “Hey, they probably could’ve bought someone to improve depth in the centre-back department”, and it would’ve made sense. But, I guess the club was looking to save the transfer fee, get a free agent next season and spend the saved money elsewhere, which is what they’re doing. But, I really think that the right-back situation required more attention than what it actually received from Real Madrid’s higher-ups.

We’ve known for a while that Dani Carvajal is getting more and more injury prone each passing season. In 2020-21, when he was injured for a while, Zinedine Zidane chose to trust Lucas Vazquez with the role of a right-back and it paid off: The Spanish winger was pretty good there, and he helped Real Madrid get to advanced stages in both the domestic league and the Champions League.

Vazquez got his contract extension based on what he did as a makeshift right-back, and we can only assume that Real’s plans were to keep the Spaniard as the back-up and hope he plays nearly as well as he did last season.

Well, I was of the opinion that while Vazquez was having a good time at right-back in the 2020-21 season, he wouldn’t be able to sustain it for long. He wouldn’t be able to handle the role of being the immediate back-up to a very injury-prone player. I guess he’d get the job done sometimes, which was the case, but I didn’t think he would perform as well this season and I was right. That’s why I wanted Los Blancos to go for a right-back before the end of the summer transfer window.

It doesn’t matter if Real Madrid got a player on loan, or if they actually sign a player on a permanent transfer as long as the player was good and young. I can see why Real didn’t go for anyone on a permanent basis, though. I guess their main target at right-back is Pedro Porro who is on loan at Sporting till June 2022.

But, even then, they still could’ve used a loan signing of some sort because I just don’t see Vazquez being that good again for Real Madrid. His performances have been underwhelming this season. Most of his crosses against Cadiz were really off and his defensive IQ is obviously not very high since he’s not a natural defender.

Just to be clear, I am not blaming Vazquez here. He’s doing what he can and he cannot overperform consistently. It’s unfair to ask him to play that well at right-back because he’s a natural right-winger. It’s not really his fault that he’s not a great defender, because he wasn’t supposed to be one.

I think that’s why Real Madrid should’ve just gone for someone on loan or otherwise, as Pedro Porro certainly isn’t the only option. I doubt they go for someone in the winter because, well, they never go for anyone in the winter. I’m really hoping that they bring someone in – preferably Porro – to fill in for Carvajal whenever he’s injured, next summer.