End of cycle

You have to go back eleven years to find a season in which Real Madrid did not open their windows to deposit a first-team football title. That was a season of cycle transition. The whites closed a discreet six-year term (two Leagues and a national Super Cup) at the same time that they began to assemble the wickers (Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema closed their first season as Madridistas) of what was to come. A decade of success crowned with four Champions and three Leagues, among other titles. Madrid's silver age and the second longest period of uninterrupted success in the club's history. The disappointment of the League, and perhaps even with it, and regardless of the decision that Zidane makes about its continuity and whether he pilots the new project, leads Real Madrid to a change of cycle in which the team can be undercapitalized by losing its coach and three of its four captains (Ramos, Marcelo and Varane, in addition to Benzema) …

The first doubt that is to be cleared, and it is not a minor matter, is the continuity of Zidane himself. The French coach has avoided commenting on his future in recent weeks. And his statements admit interpretations both ways, on whether he stays or goes. After the last game against Villarreal he did not clear many doubts either: “Soon we will see what will happen. Not only with me, with all that Madrid is going to be next season”. A few words that lead one to think that his decision may depend on the sports project that the club 'sells' him. The other time he resigned, he justified that scared that the team needed changes … Changes that, if at that time, after three consecutive Champions League, could be shocking, now, after seeing a team that has reached the end of the season In reserve, they seem more than reasonable.

If Zidane conquered the League of 2017 with unit B, this has persecuted it with a team on the canvas. The theoretical starting eleven has hardly found spare parts in Lucas Vázquez, Valverde and the Militao-Nacho couple that has emerged late in defense. Benzema has never had two clear companions consolidated in the attack either.To such an extent that the French striker has ended up as the only player in the squad to have scored ten goals in all competitions (30 in total), something that had not happened in Madrid for half a century. The injuries have made Hazard disappear again, young people like Vinicius and Rodrygo still need more experience and others in full football maturity, like Asensio, have been far from the level they treasure and are expected of them, not to mention the almost irrelevance of Isco or Mariano.

Together with Benzema (33 years old) the team has had as capital pieces several footballers already in their thirties or at the gates of it: Modric, fireproof at 35; Ramos, just turned 35, essential in the first half of the season; Kroos and Nacho, fundamental in the second part of the season, are 31; Casemiro, Lucas and Courtois, 29 … Madrid need to rejuvenate the dressing room. But there is the paradox that, with one of the youngest squads in the white dressing room in years, Zidane has lined up, on matchday 16 in Elche, the starting eleven with the oldest average age in the history of Madrid in the League: 30 years and 175 days.

That day he played from the beginning Marcelo, one of the players whose immediate future seems far from Real Madrid. Mendy has won the pulse and Miguel Gutiérrez has emerged with force until displacing the Brazilian from the eleven in the absence of the French. Of those who end their contract at the end of June, Modric has approved the renewal; Lucas Vázquez's seems on track and Ramos's, the axis of the debate until the doubts with Zidane appeared, is a mystery.

If he stays, the captain will have to accept a pay cut. That, the economic one, will be another factor to take into consideration. With the white beads still shivering from the ravages of the pandemic, Madrid needs resources to renew its squad, an operation that the long-awaited and multimillionaire signing of Mbappé can be part of. The club must lighten its salary mass and enter money from sales.

One that can bring good returns to the club is that of Varane. The 28-year-old Frenchman ends his contract in June 2022 and his intention is to try his luck in another league. If Madrid wants to take advantage of his departure, he is obliged to transfer him this summer. The central, world champion, is one of the players with the largest cache of the white squad: 70 million euros of market value, according to the specialized website Transfermarkt. Only less than Courtois (€ 75 M) and the same as Casemiro and Valverde. Less money can come in for players like Isco or Mariano, who have been devalued in recent months, but whose salary would mean a good saving for the club, which would also study offers for other players, if any, including Asensio's.

Not to mention the hot potatoes the club has. Hazard's departure can be considered if a satisfactory offer arrives and in a few weeks they return on loan like Bale and Jovic, who have not recovered their poster. The future of the Welshman will fill pages again for the third consecutive summer. Winner of four Champions, his future is one of the paradigmatic cases of the change of cycle that, without delay, Real Madrid faces.