In: Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Fran Garcia (Rayo Vallecano), Joselu Mato (loan, Espanyol), Arda Guler (Fenerbahce), Kepa Arrizabalaga (loan, Chelsea)
Loan returns: Brahim Diaz (Milan), Reinier Jesus (Girona)
Out: Karim Benzema (Al-Ittihad), Marco Asensio (Paris Saint-Germain), Mariano Diaz and Eden Hazard (free), Juanmi Latasa (loan, Getafe), Jesus Vallejo (loan, Granada), Rafa Marin (loan, Alaves), Antonio Blanco (Alaves)
Summary so far: Karim Benzema departed the club 12 months ahead of expectations, which is obviously a major loss. Simultaneously, it might have been the right time, for Benzema at least. The Frenchman will be 36 this year, and even if he is only 12 months removed from one of the greatest seasons in the history of football, the battles he had with injury deprived him of continuity, fluidity, and playing with the same joy last season. If he didn’t feel he had the strength to compete for an 18th season at the top level, he had more than earned the right to leave those brutal demands behind.
All of that said, Benzema still scored 31 goals last season, and made Real Madrid a vastly better side when he was on the pitch. Curiously, without seeming close to his mercurial best, he was still clinical. As much as those goals will be missed, the entire Real Madrid structure centred around his ability to interpret space in the final third, offer a reference point, a companion for his fellow attackers, and drag defences around, even if the latter he was doing less of.
Eden Hazard, not so much. His nightmarish spell is at an end, and nobody is mourning that loss. Copy and paste for Mariano. Asensio was a useful contributor, despite his critics. Rodrygo Goes’ increased importance should reduce the impact of his loss, as will the return of the growing Brahim Diaz. He is on the face of it a younger, hungrier addition than Asensio, but between him and Benzema, Carlo Ancelotti has lost 37.3% of his La Liga goals from last season.
How exactly Joselu will do, nobody knows, but on the face of it, there is little argument that the veteran striker is a smart addition. Low-cost, high-scoring, there is also not much debate that they have the best back-up striker in the division – more on that later.
Arda Guler looks a prodigiously talented midfielder-cum-forward – his success will be determined further down the line. And yet the interesting part is that Guler has been clear he will not be loaned out, and will be playing this season, all said with a defiant glint in his eye. Carlo Ancelotti himself is prodigiously talented at managing dressing rooms, but with Brahim, Rodrygo, Valverde and now Guler all profiling as options on the right, he really does like a challenge at keeping everyone happy.
Fran Garcia was cheap, and after Atletico Madrid, Los Blancos now have the best left-back options in La Liga. If he doesn’t light a fire under Ferland Mendy, he might well take his place. All in all, his signing was a no-brainer.
And Jude Bellingham. You can pull this transfer apart, turn it upside down and inside out – Bellingham is a brilliant signing. His mature, smooth opening press conference was reassuring for fans that he will deal with the pressure at Real Madrid without too many issues. One of the best midfielders in the world, at just 19, he now has Luka Modric to teach him all his tricks. It has taken him all of a few weeks for Ancelotti, admittedly without a star striker, to build his entire attack around him – and potentially not Vinicius. Bellingham has all of the attributes he needs, and the confidence to show them.
As Real Madrid’s arrivals ground to a halt, they have trimmed the fat a little, with Jesus Vallejo heading on loan to Granada, and Rafa Marin to Alaves. Both will have a chance to prove their value, with Los Blancos likely looking at a sale next summer – as was the csae for Antonio Blanco, whose move to Alaves is permanent.
The late loss of Thibaut Courtois is a huge blow, and while there is no doubt that Kepa Arrizabalaga is a downgrade, in the circumstances he is quite a good signing. Just two days before the season starts, they have a Spanish international coming into the prime of his career for little to no cost – as good as can be hoped.
Key Need: Shall we address the turtle in the room? Kylian Mbappe’s impasse with Paris Saint-Germain promises to keep him at the forefront of the headlines all summer. Logic dictates that he will end up at Real Madrid, but football doesn’t always follow that kind of thing. It appears as if it will be Mbappe or no-one for the centre-forward position as things stand, with Florentino Perez probably willing to play this poker hand until the final day of the window.
If Mbappe does arrive, then this summer would be tremendous for Real Madrid. Nobody needs to explain the qualities he brings, but there is that doubt that comes with the volatile and unpredictable personalities involved in this deal.
Keen La Liga observers will remind that only Robert Lewandowski and Benzema were more clinical than Joselu last season, nevertheless it is hard to picture Ancelotti sticking by him for the biggest fixtures. Realistically he was the perfect back-up for Benzema, but if there is no Mbappe, and no replacement for the veteran Frenchman, then Real Madrid are leaving themselves open to being bottled up this campaign. Even if Rodrygo looks good centrally, he is not comfortable as the reference point yet.
During preseason, Real Madrid created numerous chances but could not finish them. That means nothing, but if there was a nagging doubt about this side, then it certainly didn’t dismiss it.
Beneath the Surface: The potential wide options for Real Madrid in the final third are currently Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior, Brahim, Guler and Fede Valverde. What do all of them have in common? They all come inside. That means that the width needs to come from the full-back position, and Garcia does that well (Mendy less so), meaning the left side should be able to provide some of that, even if neither of them are Alphonso Davies. The right side, less so.
Lucas Vazquez of course is a former winger, but with injuries mixed in, perhaps had his least effective campaign for Real Madrid last season. Dani Carvajal continues his habit of being very good in key moments, but throughout last season it has been notable just how rarely he gets to the byline these days. His favoured form of delivery is now somewhere around the corner of the box, where Los Blancos have other, and better crossers of the ball.
In an ideal world, they would have someone in place to challenge Carvajal, and perhaps even long-term replace him. Nevertheless, bar a shock turn of events, Florentino Perez is set to ignore the wishes of a growing portion of Madridistas.
