Madrid haven’t had to rebuild their side since the transfer fees went potty. So they are going to have to invest shrewdly, because they don’t have 500m to throw around. I mean, aside from PSG and City, who the feck does? I can easily see them spending 250-300M in one summer, and obviously paying in instalments over the next 4 years. The problem is, in today’s market, it’s not as much as it sounds. Pogba alone would be half the entire budget. The other issue is that they have very few players with a huge resale value that they’d actually want to part with. Benzene and Bale could both be moved on, but it’s extremely difficult on their wages, and no one is paying any significant money for them. They can raise big money for Varane, Asensio, Vinicius, Isco, Casemiro; but why would they want to sell them? Madrid will be back because they are Madrid and have the most pulling power of any club in the world; but the landscape is different to what it used to be. Now Ronaldo has moved on, and the super team has reached the end of the cycle; it’ll be hard for them to dominate again in the way they have.
As for Barca; there is zero possibility of them lining up with Messi, Neymar and Griezmann. Zero. They can’t even come close to affording it. They are borrowing money to pay wages for a start. They can sell coutinho and Dembele, and even if they get 200m for the two combined (they won’t), Neymar will cost 250-350m, plus obscene wages. Then Griezmann another 110m. And they’ve already spent 75m on De Jong, and are looking for a CB. Never happening. Add to that, that PSG will never sell Neymar and lose face. The only way they’ll let him go is if they don’t want him anymore, and they can get a higher profile player in return. And I can’t think of many.
Barca and Real have dominated for so long in the Messi and Ronaldo era; I think it’s good for European football that they’ll come down a peg and compete with the rest of us (well maybe not us) without the super talents in their ranks.
