REAL MADRID
Florentino protects Benzema with no '9' signed for years
The club paid €30 million to sign Morata and sold him again while Adebayor and Chicharito arrived on loan with the rest of the competition from the youth team.
The market is moving into its last few weeks and Real Madrid are showing little sign of making a statement splash like they might have in the not-so-distant past. After selling Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus, los Blancos need to find the 50 goals that flew to Turin last month.
The options to replace those goals have been reduced to a handful of names in the last few weeks: Harry Kane, Edinson Cavani, Rodrigo and Robert Lewandowski. The one thing all of those players have in common is that they all excel in the penalty area and ensure plenty of goals from the centre forward position.
That position is the one least bothered by Florentino Perez since he arrived back in the director's box at the Santiago Bernabeu. Ever since Karim Benzema was signed by Perez himself, he has hardly considered making a change and got rid of all potential challengers to the French striker's role. It started with Van Nistlerooy to Hamburg that same winter and Gonzalo Higuain to Napoli in 2013-14.
The other players to join were loan deals including Emmaneul Adebayor in 2011, Javier Hernandez in 2014-15, Alvaro Morata, who was bought back and sold immediately. The same was done to Alvaro Negredo, who was bought back for €5 million and sold to Sevilla for €15 million.
Any other pretender to the centre forward position was from the youth system and, for one reason ot another, never made it into the team including Borja Mayoral and Mariano.
This season, the options include Borja Mayoral, who played very few minutes last season and could still leave, Raúl de Tomás, back after spending time on loan with Rayo, and Benzema himself, who looks like he will continue starting up front for Real Madrid.
