According to reliable journalist Arancha Rodríguez, José Mourinho specifically asked Real Madrid to sign Carlos Espí after Gonzalo García's exit.
Real Madrid were in desperate need of an aerial presence inside the box ever since Joselu left the club in 2024, but particularly since Real Madrid agreed to sell García to Fulham on Thursday.
The club acted really quickly on Mourinho's request to sign a striker, and they ended up getting Espí for €25 million, which was his release clause at Levante.
The player will join training on Friday and will be working under Mourinho very, very soon, which is something that he probably wouldn't have thought about when he woke up on Thursday morning.
Florentino Perez and Real Madrid have a lot of faith and trust in Jose Mourinho
It is worth noting that Real Madrid signed Espí because Mourinho specifically asked for him. He worked with his staff to see what kind of player the club would want and what the team would require, and Espí was a cheap, available, young option who ticked all the boxes.
At his request, the club ended up accepting the proposal and going for the player. The whole transfer saga, if you want to call it that, was closed in a matter of hours, and it was also a really good decision after selling a player like García.
If Real Madrid did not have a presence in the box to start the campaign, they would have been in the same situation they were in during the 2024-25 season, where no matter who they brought on, there was no presence in the box that allowed Real Madrid to win aerial duels inside the opponent's penalty area.
It is also worth noting that all of this shows how much Real Madrid trust José Mourinho. For example, they would not have done even half of this for Alvaro Arbeloa.
Even though they signed some players according to what Xabi Alonso wanted last season, he would never have got that level of trust the way Mourinho has, firstly because of the relationship between Mourinho and Florentino Pérez, but also because of how much Pérez values Mourinho's success over the course of his career.
Real Madrid respect Mourinho deeply, and that is shown by how quickly they act upon certain requests by the manager. You rarely see that happen at a club like Real Madrid.
Even managers like Carlo Ancelotti have not been able to get that sort of response from the management, and it is a clear indication that Mourinho knows the squad desperately needs certain players and has convinced Pérez to make it happen.
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