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The last Champions League title for Real so far: In 2018, captain Sergio Ramos lifted the trophy into the Kiev night sky
Photo:
Michael Regan / Getty Images
Somehow it always goes on, somehow Real Madrid get together a respectable line-up every time. Toni Kroos comes back after an injury today against Chelsea in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League (9 p.m. / Sky), and substitute central defender Nacho could help out on the left back this time because Raphaël Varane is back in the middle. This is how Real maneuvers through the season, and not badly at all: They have been unbeaten for 17 competitive games.
On the other hand, it doesn't go on like this for long, even the tennis audience knows that, since a dialogue between Real fan Rafael Nadal and a referee was filmed by chance at the tournament in Barcelona on Sunday.
Nadal sighs at Real's 0-0 win against Betis Sevilla, the third goalless draw in the last four games.
The official expressed his sympathy and the opinion that a new striker was needed.
"Y más cosas," replies Nadal: and a lot more.
900 million euros in debt
The Super League will not be there for the time being, and therefore, as her ailing visionary Florentino Pérez has explained, nothing with galactic transfers like Kylian Mbappé from Paris Saint-Germain.
Where Real Madrid, which he leads, has already suffered from the costs of its stadium renovation, the pandemic makes any major investment even more impossible.
The Madrilenians last reported a gross debt of 900 million, Pérez predicts 300 million less revenue for this season.
Last summer, for the first time in living memory, they didn't spend a cent on new players.
"Only associations that belong to a state or a multimillionaire will hold out."
Florentino Pérez, President of Real Madrid
Opponents Chelsea, for example, have it easier: with his owner Roman Abramowitsch, who went shopping for 250 million euros in the middle of the pandemic.
The other semi-finalists Manchester City and Paris are also covered by the generous maintenance from Abu Dhabi and Qatar - especially since Uefa boss Aleksander Ceferin confirmed last week that an easing of the financial fair play is imminent.
(Read more about the softening of the financial fair play here)
"That doesn't sound very good," said Pérez, who paints the future in black: "Only clubs that belong to a state or a multimillionaire will hold out."
In normal times, Real and Barcelona, which is also loyal to the super-league, recently posted annual revenues of up to the billion mark.
So they were able to play halfway along the transfer market against new rich competition, as folklore demands.
Thrift is pretty unsexy in the long run for the many sports newspapers and radio debates in the country.
The lowest average goal of the current millennium
But the path that FC Bayern chose with the sale of stake packages to Adidas, Audi and Allianz is not yet an option. As sacred to Chelsea fans as their "cold nights in Stoke" are to those of Real or Barça their statutes as sports clubs that belong solely to the members. Even if there have been no elections at Real for a long time, because the extremely wealthy Pérez anchored a private guarantee in the three-digit million range as a prerequisite for being allowed to run at all.
He has just been reassigned to office for four years and now has to find other ways to avoid being left behind by sheikhs and oligarchs.
Renewal is not only needed in attack, where Real has recorded its lowest average of the current millennium with 1.69 goals per game.
Apart from the impeccable Karim Benzema, no one has scored more than six goals.
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Karim Benzema, the only Real Madrid attacker with more than six goals this season
Photo: JUAN MEDINA / REUTERS
No, Nadal is right: even the midfield, the strongest part of the team, cannot rely on Kroos, 31, Luka Modrić, 35, and Casemiro, 29, always getting fit in time.
And anyway, it's most exciting in defense.
On the one hand, David Alaba should come from FC Bayern - who can conveniently also play in midfield.
On the other hand, the established duo of Sergio Ramos and Varane is about to take off.
Captain Ramos, 35, is currently missing because he was substituted for the last five minutes against Kosovo during his hunt for the international record of the Egyptian Hassan Ahmed (184) and then injured in practice.
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Captain Sergio Ramos, now 35 years old, is likely to leave the club in the summer
Photo: JUANJO MARTIN / EPA
His desire to extend the expiring contract by two years at the previous conditions despite Covid and proud age has not exactly gained argumentative power as a result.
World champion Varane, 28, is in turn tied until 2022, but seems willing to emigrate - and could be monetized as the most valuable field player in the squad.
Creative management is required
Just a few weeks ago, the levy of only one of the two was classified as a similarly death-defying undertaking as a European super league.
But then the substitutes Éder Militão and Nacho defended better than the top dogs in the absence of Ramos and Varane.
In particular, the example of the Militão, which has already been written off as a bad purchase, shows how fast things can go in football - and that Madrid's chance lies in creative squad management.
So to cover as many gaps as possible with underestimated standard resources, to let a few expensive stars go and perhaps to free up resources for the transfer fund after all.
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Eden Hazard came from Chelsea in 2019 for 120 million euros.
The deal is a transfer fiasco so far.
Photo: Oscar J. Barroso / dpa
An interesting line-up is someone who has reported fit for a meeting with his ex-club: Eden Hazard.
The Belgian played for Chelsea for seven years and never missed more than five games in a row.
In the summer of 2019, he came to Madrid for around 120 million euros and has since suffered ten injuries.
So far he is considered a big transfer fiasco at Real.
And the fact that he was signed primarily at the insistence of coach Zinédine Zidane does little to change the impression, reinforced by the Super League episode, that President Pérez has lost his once so sure instinct.
The future at Real Madrid also depends on him finding him again.