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Its bollocks. Palace reps already asked SKY to take it down. 
 
We have asked Sky to take this down as it is a total fabrication from start to finish. We have not made a bid formal or informal.
Ah, okay. Sky normally seem to make sure there's some sort of truth in the rumour before reporting it.
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Real Madrid’s strange summer: 16 departures and no new signings

https://theathletic.com/2071254/2020/09/21/real-madrid-summer-transfers/

GettyImages-1227657329-1-scaled-e1600700886976-1024x679.jpg

It is a strange summer at Real Madrid when the biggest celebration in a transfer window is a world-famous galactico leaving the club.

But then 2020 is an unusual year all round, and it was not a complete surprise the departure of four-time Champions League winner Gareth Bale was celebrated by some of the Welshman’s most vocal critics in the Spanish capital.

His sale is a sign of how well Madrid president Florentino Perez and his close circle have managed expectations around their transfer business this summer. Bale’s move to Tottenham is being sold as part of Madrid’s intelligent management of the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of an “operacion salida”, which has seen 16 players leave Madrid this summer without any new signings being made.

The idea being sold is the board have bolstered the club’s financial position without weakening Zinedine Zidane’s team.

Left-back Sergio Reguilon also moved to Tottenham for a fee that could rise to £32 million. The homegrown defender joined James Rodriguez, Achraf Hakimi, Oscar Rodriguez, Javi Sanchez, Jorge de Frutos, Dani Gomez, Miguel Baeza and Alberto Soro in leaving Madrid on permanent deals in this window. This has raised more than €100 million in funds needed to plug gaps in Madrid’s accounts caused by all match day and much commercial revenue drying up due to the pandemic.

The details of the deals suggest they are not as financially lucrative as Madrid would like their fans to think. Rodriguez’s former club Banfield revealed that Spanish press reports of a €25 million fee were wrong and Everton paid no transfer fee for the Colombian. However his exit means his hefty salary no longer needs to be paid. The Athletic also believes Madrid will continue paying more than half of Bale’s €15 million net salary a year — but the saving will still be significant.

Madrid have also been busy loaning out players surplus to requirements, including Dani Ceballos, Takefusa Kubo, Jesus Vallejo, Brahim Diaz, Fran Garcia and Reinier. This means about €50 million off Madrid’s total wage bill but reduces the squad depth available to Zidane.

There is also uncertainty over the futures of Borja Mayoral, Mariano Diaz, Luka Jovic and Lucas Vazquez ahead of the transfer window closing but, even if all were to leave, it is unlikely Madrid will bring in a senior player.

“There will not be any big signings,” Perez said during the celebrations of the team’s La Liga title win in mid-July. “The situation is very bad. It is difficult to ask the players to take salary cuts, and then sign players like that.”


In Spain and elsewhere, the biggest losses from the COVID-19 crisis have been at the biggest clubs, where match day and commercial revenues make up the largest share of their total revenues.

Before the virus hit, Madrid’s revenue forecast for the 2019-20 season was €822.1 million with an anticipated pre-tax profit of €41.4 million. Those revenues are now expected to be around €650million due to games being played behind closed doors and other losses related to the pandemic — including €11 million from refunding 25 per cent of season ticket costs to club socios. However, emergency financial management during the crisis means there will be a “net surplus” of €320,000.

Madrid were better prepared financially than other European clubs when the pandemic hit, according to Marc Menchen, director of Spanish sports business community 2Playbook.

“Real Madrid have always managed their finances quite a lot better than Barcelona,” Menchen tells The Athletic. “Madrid were planning to make a profit of €40 million this year. So when you need to make cuts, you know you have that cushion there. Barca would have had problems, even in a normal situation, and then COVID came. Madrid have been able to balance their accounts, they even managed to make a small surplus. Borussia Dortmund, Lyon, Juventus and Manchester United are all announcing losses. Madrid have done relatively very well, considering everything.”

How have they managed this?

Firstly, a 10 per cent salary cut saved the club about €40 million. The lucrative new deal with kit supplier Adidas last year — under which revenues jumped by about €60 million — has also helped.

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Martin Odegaard started for Real Madrid on Sunday night (Photo: Diego Souto/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)

This summer’s sales of players will be booked in the 2020-21 accounts but selling players for a sizable fee has been a common theme in recent years. Last year’s revenues from player sales was €135 million, including Mateo Kovacic to Chelsea (€45 million) and Marcos Llorente to Atletico Madrid (€30 million). In previous summers, Madrid have sold Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria, Pepe and Alvaro Morata (twice) and have regularly made a profit in transfer windows (except 2019 when €350 million was spent on Eden Hazard, Jovic, Eder Militao, Ferland Mendy, Rodrygo and Reinier).

“For a number of years now, Madrid have been selling very well,” Menchen says. “They have been moving on players who were not so important for the team, apart from Cristiano Ronaldo, for pretty impressive sums. They knew that the issue of the stadium was coming and wanted to be ready so it did not swallow them.”

The big Bernabeu modernisation has been uppermost in the thoughts of the club’s hierarchy ever since Perez first promised a “translucent roof” on the stadium back in 2004. After regular planning and finance setbacks, a €575 million loan was finally agreed in late 2018 to get the construction work under way and, under its terms, significant repayments do not have to be made until the project is completed and (in theory) the new plush VIP areas are paying for themselves. “Madrid do not have to start to make repayments for three years, just the interest payments on the mortgage,” Menchen says.

This intelligent spending has been a feature of Perez’s second term as president (since 2009) and goes against the image from his first term (2000 to 2006) when money was lavishly spent on shiny galacticos. The plan for a surplus in this year’s accounts was nothing new. In 2018-19 accounts showed a €53.5 million pre-tax profit and the “cash balance” figure was €156 million.

It was also leaked last night that Madrid’s players had declined to accept their bonuses for winning last season’s La Liga and Supercopa trophies — €1 million a head — which served as another reminder of how tight finances are.

“Madrid have had a pretty stable management team over the last 20 years. They are people who know very well how the business works,” Menchen says. “And then Florentino is always right on top of the numbers. He obsesses quite a lot over what goes on, financially. So Madrid have done things very well, they have always been saving for a rainy day.”


With no new signings, the only “new” faces in Zidane’s squad for 2020-21 are players returning from loan spells.

The most exciting for fans is Martin Odegaard, who was so impressive at Real Sociedad last year, while the other returnees are not expected to feature much outside of the Copa del Rey early rounds. Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, 21, will act as back-up to first choice Thibaut Courtois, after gaining some useful experience in a Segunda Division relegation battle with Real Oviedo last season. Alvaro Odriozola was less busy during his loan spell at Bayern Munich, although the 24-year-old right-back did pick up a Champions League winner’s medal after his 179 minutes of action for the German club.

Madrid hope other high-profile youngsters signed for big money over the last couple of seasons will make a more regular impact this year. These include Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Fede Valverde.

Jovic, Mendy and Militao will also be expected to play their part.

Meanwhile mainstays of the Madrid team, including Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema and Toni Kroos are all a year older. Benzema was the team’s most important player as Madrid raced past Barcelona to seal the title post lockdown in June and July, while Ramos scored six goals in his last 10 games of the domestic campaign. They cannot really be expected to do any better this year.

Hazard was sat at home as the Belgian has not been able to get match fit due to long-running ankle problems.

The line-up for Sunday’s first game of the season, a 0-0 draw at Real Sociedad, was therefore very similar to that which ground its way to last year’s title. Odegaard did start, but created little against his old team, and was withdrawn early as he is not yet fully fit. Benzema was flanked by Vinicius and Rodrygo in attack, but between them they created few opportunities as the home side, missing 10 first-teamers, defended quite comfortably.

Zidane’s substitutions were puzzling, especially as his team needed a goal. The Frenchman left strikers Jovic and Mayoral on the bench all game, and gave senior debuts to 20-year-old Marvin Park — once on the books of Tranmere Rovers — and 18-year-old Sergio Arribas.

In Merseyside, recently departed Rodriguez had a memorable home debut as Everton scored five times at Goodison Park.

After the game, Madrid director Emilio Butragueno played down the idea of any signings being made before the window closes on October 5.

“We think we have a very complete squad, which gives us confidence for all we have in front of us,” said Butragueno on Spanish TV. “We have a squad which is an absolute guarantee.”


Explicit in Madrid’s successful promotion of their summer 2020 transfer policy has been the message that in a year’s time things will be very different — as they hope to bring in Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe.

A lot has been made of the fact that by next summer Mbappe will only have a year left on his contract, and how the supposed friendly relationship between Perez and PSG chief Nasser Al-Khelaifi will make a deal relatively straightforward.

The image of Mbappe leading an exciting new team for 2021-22, as fans throng back to a dazzling reopened Bernabeu, is an attractive one. It is also mostly a pipedream at this stage — given nobody can confidently predict what will happen with the pandemic and as Madrid’s finances are dependent on match day, merchandising and other income returning to pre-COVID levels.

Perez and his advisers at the Bernabeu have handled the financial part of the COVID-19 crisis very well, especially compared to the ongoing soap opera at the Nou Camp. However the reality is the competitive level of their team will drop this season. Moving on players like Bale and Rodriguez is understandable, but not replacing them looks problematic. There is also no guarantee that in 12 months’ time things will be any different.

“Madrid would not have been able to go crazy with signings this summer, even in a normal situation,” says Menchen. “With the salary cuts to their players and the sale of squad members, they have fixed their accounts for this year. It is going to be a transitional year.

“But we will have to wait and see what their financial situation is like next summer. Nothing is certain yet.”

 

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