Zidane tells Marcos Llorente he's staying with Real Madrid
The player made one final attempt to persuade the coach to let him leave on loan. Today, his agent received confirmation that the club will not allow him to leave.
Marcos Llorente will remain at Real Madrid - at least until the January transfer window at the very earliest. That was the outcome of the conversation held today between the player's agent and Uncle Julio Llorente and Real Madrid's technical department. The young midfielder made one final attempt to persuade Zidane to let him accept one of the offers he has received during a phonecall on Thursday but Zizou won't hear any of it and insists that Llorente will be given playing time. Llorente's situation will be reviewed again in January but for the meantime, he's staying put.
Chelsea and Spurs enquire about Marcos Llorente
Marcos Llorente explained to Zidane that after spending last season on loan at Alavés, he considers it to be a step backward to be demoted to the Madrid subs' bench and would prefer to be transferred to a club where he will be getting regular action. The snag was that all of the offers which came in for the player over the summer were from Madrid's direct rivals: Atlético and Sevilla in Spain; and Chelsea and Tottenham in the Champions League. The club, who recently hiked the player's buy-out fee to 300 million euros, told Julio Llorente that there would be no going back on Zidane's decision.
Marcos Llorente was discouraged when he didn't play a single minute of the 2-2 draw with Valencia despite Zidane being without Sergio Ramos, Varane and Vallejo - and with Casemiro chipping in at centre-back. But Zidane prefers to stick with Toni Kroos in Llorente's natural position with Mateo Kovacic also competing for a place.
