A preseason in the air

The 2020-21 season has just ended for Real Madrid and the white club is already getting down to work to prepare for 2021-22 … as far as they can, that is not much. There are many unknowns that surround Madrid's preparation for the coming year and until they are resolved, the entity will not be able to clear up unknowns. Lfirst and foremost, that of the bench, although it is not the only one.

Madrid is awaiting Zidane's decision. The Marseille coach has taken a week to rest and reflect on his future. At the press conference after the last League match, he again did not confirm whether he will continue at Madrid or not., despite the fact that he has a contract until June 2022, although at the club they took for granted, both in the offices and in the locker room, that he will not continue. Now, with this pause that he has requested before meeting with Florentino Pérez, all options are open.

Madrid does not even have an official date to return to training. In the white club they estimate that it will be in mid-July, with the week from Monday 12 to Sunday 18 marked in red. But that date largely depends on the coach who is in charge of Madrid at the time, the question may change if it is Zidane or if it is one of the substitutes being considered, such as Allegri or Raúl González Blanco. In any case, the rest of Madridistas who do not attend the Eurocup, the Copa América or the Games is guaranteed: It will be a seven-week break after a demanding and physically tough season.

In any case, the preseason will not be like the old normality: the work base will be Valdebebas with specific trips to the friendlies that are disputed. Vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 are progressing at a good pace in practically the whole world, even better in the more developed countries, but the pandemic situation currently prevents a galactic preseason from before, with a trip to the United States, China or Australia.

Last summer the preseason was so brief that there were barely two friendlies behind closed doors and on which the secrecy was total, against Getafe and Rayo. This summer the level is expected to rise exponentially and there is a triangle with Inter Milan and Bayern, with matches in Madrid, Milan and Munich, agreed since last summer and in which work continues. The tournament, whose profits will go to medical infrastructure in Italy and Spain (Bayern wanted to give up a part for Germany because they understood that the other two countries had been more affected by the first wave; although the situation in the last year has changed a lot ).

Triangular with Inter and Bayern

The problem with this tournament, the reason why it has not yet crystallized in a concrete way, is in the advance of the pandemic and the vaccination campaigns in the three countries, since the idea is that the matches can be played with the public to thus obtain benefits to donate to the causes already mentioned. In any case, the triangle is very interesting for Madrid due to the benefits that the TV rights of two games of that level would bring, against the champions of Italy and Germany. But the evolution of restrictions for health reasons in the countries currently direct the operation, the club is working to make it a reality.

There is no official league calendar at the moment, but the initial proposal, which will probably be ratified at the RFEF Assembly, is to start the weekend of August 14 and 15, so Madrid would have a month of preparation (if not more, depending on whether the technician who takes charge, be it Zidane or another, decides to advance the return to work) before the starting gun of a season in the that Madrid will enter in need of restoring its image after a very tough course in which it showed its face, but in which he finished without titles for the first time since the 2009-10 season.