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| Gareth Bale |
Twelve
months on from winning their 10th Champions League, Real Madrid are two games
from finishing the season empty-handed. What happens next? This is the question
everyone in the Spanish capital is asking and here, Sportsmail offers the
most probable answers.
The
problems
Not
since Alfredo Di Stefano in the summer of 1983 has a Madrid coach survived
after not winning anything. As many as 14 have been sacked after failing to
deliever a trophy and Carlo Ancelotti is unlikely to be the exception. Madrid
continue to spend more than any other club but the trophies don’t match the
outlay. They have only won the league once since 2008.
The philosophy
The
philosophy continues to be non-negotiable - spend spend spend. They will
continue to throw money at the problem despite having just been turfed out of
the Champions League by one of their own. It was former youth team striker
Alvaro Morata who scored the goal that sent Juventus through to the Champions
League final in Berlin but there will be no u-turn on club policy – big
signings will continue to count more than developing from within. Right now
Madrid’s B-team are stranded in the third tier of Spanish football having
failed to win promotion under Zinedine Zidane so there is little – beyond
Martin Odegaard who will be loaned out – coming through anyway.
The
solutions
The
Manager
Carlo
Ancelotti as much as admitted after Wednesday’s Champions League elimination
that his future is now in the hands of president Florentino Perez, who has
never kept on a coach after he failed to produce a single trophy in a season.
Jurgen Klopp is the most high-profile candidate and is free after walking away
from Dortmund but he doesn’t speak Spanish, is understood to favour the Premier
League and Real’s chief is understood to want a Spanish replacement for
Ancelotti. That could open the way for Rafa Benitez, who is likely to leave
Napoli at the end of the season. But don’t rule out a Spanish coach already
working in La Liga with European experience. Ancelotti will ride off into the
sunset with that Champions League won last year under his arm. There will be no
shortage of suitors.
The outs
Real
Madrid’s bench has been poor this season. Bringing on Javier Hernandez to
salvage a Champions League semi-final is not good enough for a club who spent
fortunes building the best side in Europe last season. Real have a £195m
forward line, many at the club see it as unacceptable that they have a
Manchester United fringe player as their fourth striker.
How
Real Madrid could look next season
Chicharito
will not be retained but he will not be the only one to be shown the door.
Fabio Coentrao has only played 38 per cent of possible games in his four years
at the club and will be sold. Alvaro Arbeloa is likely to follow him. Lucas
Silva has only just been bought in but will now be loaned out.
Asier
Illarramendi could end up back at Real Sociedad after being a £30m flop and
young striker Jese could be farmed out on loan.
The
ins
If
they dodge the bullet of a potential transfer ban from FIFA, Madrid will spend
big again. David de Gea is a priority. Iker Casillas wants to see out the final
two years of his contract but Real want to get some money for him now and bring
in the player who will succeed him at international level.
They
could yet sign left back Jose Gaya from Valencia despite him signing a new
contract two weeks ago and a better fourth striker than Hernandez is also high
on the list of targets.
But
perhaps their most important purchase of the summer will be an aggressive
midfielder whose running will allow the likes of James Rodriguez and Gareth
Bale to play with fewer defensive responsibilities.
Gareth
Bale
Bale
stays. President Perez did not spend £86m of the club’s money to cash-in after
two campaigns. It will not be too long before Cristiano Ronaldo heads off to
the United States to finish his career in the California sunshine and Bale is
still first in line to the throne. He wants to make his third season as
successful as his first and there is some recognition at the Bernabeu that he
needs to be used better – no point in having someone with his explosive pace
and finishing ability and yet load him down with defensive responsibilities on
the right of a 4-4-2. Madrid want to go back to a 4-3-3 next season with a new
signing in midfield to toughen up the team and allow Bale and Ronaldo to run
free and terrorise defences as they were doing last season.
And Ronaldo…?
He
will become the all-time top scorer in the club’s history next season but then
it may well be time to start thinking about his next career move. He has become
more of a centre-forward this year and less of a rampaging deep-lying attacker.
Next season the emphasis will be on him working with Bale instead of against
him. Karim Benzema and Rodriguez will contest the third striking berth and a
heavyweight such as Dortmund’s İlkay Gundogan or PSG’s Marco Verratti will be
brought in to bolster a midfield also containing Luka Modric and Toni Kroos.
Source:dailymailsport
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