Ancelotti looks for the great leap of Real Madrid

In the season of the public's return to the stadiums, Real Madrid will be the last team to meet its fans again. He has the Santiago Bernabéu upside down, in the process of metamorphosis, so he asked to play the first three league games as a visitor: this Saturday in Vitoria against Alavés (22.00, Movistar LaLiga), and later in Valencia against Levante and in Sevilla against Betis. Until the weekend of September 11 and 12, after the first national team stoppage, he has not scheduled a match at home, against Celta, in a stadium that this Friday gathered excavators where there should be grass, and in which it was demolished Tower B for access to the stands.

The rubble falls next to the tower that will replace it, already raised. The progress of the works has a certain parallelism with the rebuilding of the team. The future is built around still useful remnants of the past, rather than from a complete demolition. Both projects are halfway through, and Carlo Ancelotti, who is beginning his second stage on the white bench, is aware of the provisional nature in which he moves, according to sources close to the coach. For two reasons: until the market closes on August 31, after the first three days, he will not know which footballers are still with him; and because it is difficult to foresee if this will be the course in which the sowing of young talents acquired by the club in recent years will finally bear fruit. Or even which ones will be transferred or transferred.

Lots of competition for Odegaard

At the moment he has more players than he can register to play in the League, so to play against Alavés Ancelotti has left Odegaard and Vallejo out.

"It is something temporary, until September 2 can change," clarified the coach, who has stopped in the situation of the Norwegian.

“I have spoken with Odegaard and I have told him that in the middle there is a lot of competition.

Nothing more".

The club, which remains interested in making money this summer, is considering his transfer to Arsenal, in the same way that a possible departure for Jovic, in which Milan and Inter have been interested, is being studied.

It is difficult to determine also what the former talent will bring, between Modric's perpetual commitment and the uncertainty around Hazard and Bale, the two most expensive hires in the club's history. However, a source who knows Ancelotti assures that the Italian "is satisfied", while he focuses on the positive: "I really like this squad, it is a good mix of veterans and youngsters," he said this Friday.

And that the summer, by the standards of Madrid, especially under the presidency of Florentino Pérez, has returned to be rickety. The illusion of Mbappé is practically forgotten for this period of transfers, and the official website of the club has published more communications of threats of demand and demands for rectification than of arrival of footballers. This Friday, in the hours after the approval of LaLiga's agreement with the CVC fund, peace of mind had finally arrived at the offices. The pact left out their rights, with what they considered that they had avoided half a century of partial loss of control over them, and perhaps even the legal procedures with which they threatened.

These weeks Madrid has also published more stories of farewells than arrivals.

They left, for example, the captain, Sergio Ramos, and his partner for years in the center of defense, Raphael Varane.

In his position, the only arrival, that of David Alaba, 28, free from Bayern Munich.

Madrid broke away from its historic central starting duo and has remained in that position with the Austrian, Nacho (31 years old, very solid last year), Militão (23 years old, and a resounding step forward last season) and Vallejo (24 years old, again in the shadow of doubt after the Games).

In addition to the performance of the new defense, it remains to be seen how the leadership void left by the captain after his departure will be filled.

Hazard's moment

The open fronts also extend outside the field, in particular to the area of ​​physical care, under suspicion throughout the past course due to the accumulation of injuries. There is a new physical trainer (Pintus has returned to replace Dupont), and various changes in the medical area and among the recuperators. With that objective of general care, but with a special patient in his priorities. “Eden Hazard wants this to be the season that marks the before and after. He has a personalized, hard plan, of maximum demand; not only from Pintus, but it is the one that he has imposed on himself, ”says Valdebebas sources.

According to Ancelotti, he is on the right track: “He is ready to play”, unlike the beginning of his first two seasons, which he faced injured. Ancelotti is left with the unknown of to what extent the level of the old Hazard can return the Belgian after two years playing little and far from his best physical form.

At this moment, the Italian coach sees a good contribution from Bale more within reach. "Carlo is convinced that he can get good performance," says a source close to the coach. On the side of the Welshman, they now see a situation more conducive to that than under the mandate of Zidane, with whom he felt mistreated: “Gareth is fine. He likes Carlo. But we will have to see how it goes ”, they affirm. Ancelotti did not want to take anything for granted this Friday either: “The judge is the field. If he does well, he will play. If not, another will play, "he said. "What surprised me the most in the preseason is that there are a lot of young players with a lot of talent."

Although one of the manager's concerns remains an old one, the lack of a goal in the last three years: “We are working as a group to try to play a more offensive football that can create more opportunities.

And also on the individual, so that Vinicius, Rodrygo, Jovic and the media give us more opportunities to score goals ”.

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