The Spanish club are rejecting offers as they need all the cash they can get ahead of what they expect will be a busy transfer season and only want to sell players.
Real Madrid had 11 players out on loan during the 2018-19 season, of whom 10 should be returning for the start of pre-season training on 7 July (except for those involved in the European Under-21 tournament or the Copa América): De Tomás, Odegaard, Theo, Mayoral, James, Rodrygo, Kovacic, Óscar, Lunin and Lucas Silva. Only Achraf will continue with his loan club, Borussia Dortmund, as his temporary move was for two years, ending in 2020.
It’s a standard situation for Real Madrid, who tend to have a healthy number of players out on loan, but it’s one the club don’t want to repeat next season. Their aim is clear: it’s time to sell, and for as much as possible, to finance the big moves the club are wanting to make in this summer’s transfer market.
Real Madrid want to use buy-back clauses
There are of course players the club believe they may want in the future – the solution for them is to seek to sell them with a repurchase option which can be exercised unilaterally by Real Madrid if the individual develops as hoped. Carvajal and Casemiro both went through this process (Carvajal with Bayer Leverkusen; Casemiro with Porto), returning to take their places in the Madrid first XI. The club are eager to do this with Reguilón, a player who has shown he’s reliable at the top level, but hasn’t managed to convinced Zidane since the Frenchman took over that he’s better than Marcelo on the left hand side.
Real Madrid have been receiving loan requests from other clubs for several weeks now, but the response has always been the same: No. Right now, we’re only selling. Which means for clubs of more modest means are automatically out of the running, because they already struggle to pay the salaries of these players and with a transfer fee on top it’s simply not feasible. Real Madrid will be willing to reconsider the situation in the future, with a possibility of accepting loan deals, but right now they are holding firm and will only consider loan deals later on if, if selling has proved impossible.
Real Madrid: 300 million euros of assets on sale
The seven players most likely to be sold this summer are worth a combined 162 million euros, according to Transfermarkt: Keylor (12), Vallejo (10), Reguilón (15), Marcos Llorente (15), Ceballos (20), Bale (70) and Mariano (20). To that can be added 146 million for the eight loan players returning who the club would like to move on: Theo (15), Kovacic (35), Lucas Silva (2), James (65), Odegaard (8), Óscar (6), De Tomás (10) and Mayoral (5). Rodrygo is in Zidane’s plans for next season and even if there isn’t in the end a place for him he would go on loan, after the 40 million spent on signing him. Lunin too will likely be in the first team squad.
In total Real Madrid have 300 million euros of talent to sell, to bring in money for this summer’s signings and also to reduce the wage bill (on many of the loan deals Real Madrid end up paying some of the salary costs, which isn’t the case with transfers).
Real Madrid have gone several years without a major signing; the last was James in 2014 for 75 million plus add-ons. The club have said they have 190 million in cash on hand. But they need more – other clubs are demanding huge amounts for the players Madrid are keen on. Chelsea, for example, are demanding 100 million euros minimum for Hazard, who only has a year left on his contract. And in the background is the renovation of the stadium, which will see the club’s debt swollen by 800 million euros and take three decades to pay off.