Real Madrid may have another sub-standard player who won’t leave
Real Madrid will do their best to sell players in the summer 2022 transfer market who are no longer assets to the team. Eden Hazard and Luka Jovic are two high-wage attackers relegated to the bench, and they are at the top of the list of players Los Blancos would like to sell. Beyond them, if Marco Asensio requests a wage that is too high during contract extension negotiations, he, too, could be shown the exit door.
There are three players who are even further on the depth chart and are simply not of the quality Madrid wants. It is a bit harsh to say that about Dani Ceballos, but he is among them. The other two players are indisputably not good enough – Mariano Diaz and Jesus Vallejo.
Los Merengues have been trying to sell or loan Mariano for years, but he will not take a wage cut to facilitate a move. He wants to stay and fight at the biggest club in the world. Who can blame him?
But Real may be frustrated that he is still on the books, filling a roster spot. Worse yet, they may be headed for the same situation with Vallejo.
Real Madrid have invested long-term contracts in sub-standard players
According to MadridistaReal, the situation with Jesus Vallejo right now is that he does not want to move. He is under contract through 2024/25, which remains a situation in squad planning that infuriates Real Madrid fans.
Because the Mariano and Vallejo situations come down to one thing. Real Madrid invested long-term contracts in two young players who were not good enough. They had promise at one point, but Real doubled down and locked themselves in, which is a risk if a player’s development stagnates or a player just wasn’t good enough in the first place.
While the latter case applies to Mariano, despite scoring more than 20 goals for Lyon in one fluke season, Vallejo looked like a top center back prospect at one point. He was great for Eintracht Frankfurt on loan, earning a big reputation in the Bundesliga. Since then, he has been beyond woeful. A meme. His loans to Granada and Wolves were absolute failures.
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Vallejo may be even harder to move than Mariano, as a result. Whereas Mariano has some big moments and past success, Vallejo has one successful loan spell and a whole lot of highlights for the wrong reasons. If Vallejo puts his foot down, Real Madrid may be stuck with the worst player they have signed to their squad in a long time. Not very Galactic.