After the 2022/23 season, Real Madrid had been ripped apart by Champions League rivals Manchester City and humiliated by their biggest rivals, Barcelona, domestically in La Liga, unable to follow up from their incredible 2021/22 season. Superstar striker Karim Benzema was hobbled badly by injuries a season after giving it his all in historic fashion with one of the most convincing Ballon d'Or wins of the modern era.
So Real Madrid needed a new solution, and although they were able to win the 2023/24 Champions League and La Liga behind the power of friendship, the brilliant acquisition of Jude Bellingham, and a fluid front three coached to perfection by Carlo Ancelotti, they probably missed out on at least one more Champions League title because president Florentino Perez did not listen to Carlo's most prescient request.
Ancelotti was asking Real Madrid to make several important signings at that time - none of which were meant. He saw into the future that Real's defense was about to be in shambles, but they signed no one. And he repeatedly asked the club to bring him Tottenham Hotspur icon Harry Kane to the point where it was an open secret that Kane was Ancelotti's No. 1 target to take over as the natural successor for Benzie.
Harry Kane was a missed opportunity
If Benzema was the most well rounded striker of the time - and of his generation - then Kane was the only No. 2 even worth mentioning. And now, three years later, Kane is the consensus best player in the world, shining for one of the Champions League favorites in Bayern Munich, breaking records, and playing at an all around level that would make Benzema swoon.
Time has, once again, proven Carlo Ancelotti so right that his clairvoyance is quite eerie. Had Real Madrid been the ones to sign Kane instead of Bayern Munich, then perhaps they would have been far more successful both last season and this season in the Champions League and La Liga.
But trophy less Real Madrid are instead saddled with a No. 9 who is the antithesis of the 9 Real Madrid needs. Whereas Harry Kane is an expert at being in the right place at the right time, will even make tackles in his own box, and carries and playmakes from deep with the class of a No. 6 without sacrificing anything on the goal front, the highly paid Kylian Mbappe does none of that - and Real Madrid play better football without him. You just wonder if Real Madrid went for Kane instead, would the likes of VInicius Junior be playing much better and, more importantly, would Real have more trophies in their locker to boot.
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