Real Madrid set their eyes on sales, not signings in upcoming transfer window

The Coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact in the world of football and the situation might not improve in the short term. While some clubs are already making signings for the upcoming 2020-2021 season, Real Madrid have decided not to make any big signings this summer as they try to recover from the lack of ticket sales during the last half of the campaign and potentially also the one that will happen early next season.

Instead, Los Blancos will try to offload some of the big contracts in the current squad, mainly Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez. Here’s the situation for every player on the transfer block.

• Gareth Bale: Getting his contract off the books will be Real Madrid’s top priority this summer. Bale earns around €15 million/year and is one of the highest paid players in the squad only behind Sergio Ramos and Luka Modric. He is no longer a relevant player for Zinedine Zidane and that will not change any time soon, as he even asked the coach not to include him in the squad list for the recent game in Manchester. His transfer is extremely unlikely, as Bale simply doesn’t want to sign a smaller contract than the one he currently has in Madrid. As his agent Jonathan Barnett has said many times, Bale just doesn’t want to leave, even if that means watching every single game on the TV.
• James Rodriguez: Selling James might be easier, as the Colombian midfielder seems to be on Atletico de Madrid’s radar. In fact, he could’ve joined Simeone’s side a year ago but Real Madrid decided not to upgrade their neighbors. James stayed in Madrid and while he got some minutes early this season, he didn’t make the last squad lists and even asked Zidane not to travel with the team. Real Madrid shouldn’t expect to make a lot of money with his transfer though, given that his contract expires in 2021. Still, the club will now accept offers in order to get rid of his contract.
• Sergio Reguilon: Reguilon is an interesting prospect out of Real Madrid’s academy who has performed great for Sevilla during his loan deal this season. Furthermore, Marcelo’s contract expires in 2021 and Reguilon would be a perfect player to compete with Mendy for a spot in the starting XI. That’s mainly why it wouldn’t make sense to sell the young left-back. However, Real Madrid are reportedly interested in selling Reguilon for around €20 million, which should be quite easy to do even in this current context. Sevilla, Chelsea and PSG seem to be keen on securing a deal for the Spanish defender.
• Borja Mayoral: His transfer to Lazio appears to be very close, according to reports from the press. Real Madrid would be getting around €20 million for the striker even though he hasn’t shown his potential for the last two or three seasons, so earning that kind of money for Mayoral would be huge for Real Madrid.
• Mariano: Los Blancos will be hoping to sell the attacker, but that could have also been said a year ago and Mariano simply refused to leave, wanting to compete for a spot in the rotation. Zidane only played him in a handful of games, so perhaps Mariano now changes his mind and decides to leave. It won’t be easy for Real Madrid to earn more than €15 million for him.
• Brahim Diaz: Madrid want to send him on a loan deal but ultimately a permanent transfer with an option to buy him back could also happen if no clubs are willing to take the promising player on loan. Real Madrid know that Brahim has a lot of potential, so they’re not ready to give up on him just yet.

All in all, Madrid should be ready for what will be a busy transfer window for them. Los Blancos will likely have to sell cheap on some players like James or Mariano, while it will be almost impossible to get rid of Bale’s contract. Real Madrid should probably change their mind about Reguilon, who could easily spend another season on loan and then return to the squad in 2021.

Other than that, the writing seems to be on the wall for most of those players. Whether they actually accept their fate or not is an entirely different argument but one Madrid will have to consider, given that they cannot force a player to sign a contract with another club.