Real Madrid can justly claim to be one of the two best academies in Spain with Barcelona’s La Masia, yet Los Blancos appear to see far fewer of their products from La Fabrica at the Santiago Bernabeu. It has led to a change of thinking.
Managed by Raul Gonzalez, Real Madrid Castilla sit a point off Cordoba at the top of their division and have an impressive group of youngsters coming through. In particular Sergio Arribas has impressed, while Carlos Dotor, Alvaro Rodriguez and Rafa Marin are all seen as having the potential to make it in La Liga.
However the same was said of central midfielder Antonio Blanco and Juanmi Latasa when they came through. The former is likely to leave Cadiz after just 159 minutes with the Yellow Subamarine on loan, while Latasa’s loan to Getafe has seen just 57 minutes of action.
As such Los Blancos have decided to stop doing loan deals for their young talents. The cases of Blanco and Latasa are just the latest in a series that have not worked out for Real Madrid.
Instead, they will pursue a policy of sales with buyback clauses. Most famously, this worked with Dani Carvajal, who had a season with Bayer Leverkusen before returning to win the right-back spot.
This season they have watched on as Miguel Gutierrez, Takefusa Kubo and Fran Garcia have all excelled once Real Madrid sold 50% of their rights for around €5m in the first two cases. Real Madrid intend to make this their de facto policy going forward, as per Relevo.
Other clubs may well be less tempted to be patient with players if they know that their chances of retaining that player are virtually non-existent. Kubo and Gutierrez have excelled this season at Real Sociedad and Girona – it appears to be working out well for them.
Very good!