Real Madrid surprised a lot of people in the summer transfer window when they decided to walk away from club legend Luka Modric, who ended up ascending to become known as the greatest ever midfielder in the club's history - and that is no short feat.
And even though he is 40 years old, Lukita has officially made Real Madrid regret their decision. Whereas he is still one of the best midfielders in Europe and carrying a below par unit for AC Milan, Real have missed him badly and can only grimace at Xabi Alonso's decision to push the club to let Modric go in order to get younger.
Well, Real Madrid are younger but noticeably worse, with players like Eduardo Camavinga failing to step up without him. And since Modric left a year after Toni Kroos retired, Real Madrid are devoid of the right amount of control, progression, technical quality, and, most importantly, leadership in the squad.
Dani Carvajal is another Real Madrid icon
On the leadership issue, Real Madrid do not want to make the same mistake twice by doing what they did to Luka Modric to another legend of the club. In his big Real Madrid update on his YouTube channel, transfer insider Fabrizio Romano reports that there are people within the Valdebebas who view Dani Carvajal's leadership as crucial to the team. Therefore, they do not want the Spanish right back to leave the club this summer because losing his leadership will be like losing Modric's leadership last year, which they see as a major error.
Carvajal is the backup to Trent Alexander-Arnold and has genuinely looked finished at the highest level of football. And on the subject of leadership, his tackle on Victor Valdepenas, who was coming up to take his place in the squad, rubbed a lot of people in the dressing room the wrong way.
That said, Carvajal is a fighter, and nobody can question both what he has done for the club and how much he loves Real Madrid. He is Madridismo through and through and is a serial Champions League winner, which is an aspect of identity Real are slowly losing as players like Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos, Toni Kroos, Lucas Vazquez, Nacho Fernandez, Karim Benzema, and Casemiro leave over the years.
So you can see why, even though he's not very good at this stage of his illustrious career, Real Madrid want to think twice before they let Carva go elsewhere.
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