REAL MADRID
Four years' worth of saving to remodel the Santiago Bernabéu
Since 2015, Barcelona have spent €437 million more on transfer than Real Madrid and Atlético have spent €100 million more in order to save money for Bernabéu remodelling.
Real Madrid lost 1-4 to Ajax on Tuesday night in what was one of the worst weeks in their history. For the second time in their history, they lost four game in a row at the Bernabéu and the first time they lost two in a row on home turf in the European Cup. Not since March 2006, the last time Florentino Perez left his position as the club's president, have Real Madrid been out of contention this early in the league, the Copa and the Champions League.
It's a sad situation which is a culmination of an end to big signings, which started in 2015, with the intention being to save money for a remodelling of the Santiago Bernabéu. The new stadium will have a hyper-modern metallic skin around it but will not increase the capacity by a single seat.
It was in the summer of 2015 when Perez started the process of selling assets without replacing them, which made the squad a lot weaker. Since then, players like Morata, Pepe, James, Danilo and Kovacic left without being replaced. James was the last big signing at €80 million in 2014 and in the five years since that summer, their greatest outlay was €45 million for Vinicius.
The climax of the squad's devaluation came last summer when Cristiano Ronaldo was sold for €100 million without another striker arriving. They eventually bought Mariano for €22 million from Lyon with Sevilla ready to stump up the cash initially. Real Madrid swooped but he has failed to earn th confidence of either Lopetegui or Solari.
The data is devastating, since 2015, Real Madrid have spent €359.4 million on transfers, €437 less than Barcelona and €100 less than Atlético. In total with spending and income considered, Real Madrid have spent -€49 million.1 with Barcelona sitting at -€406.4 and Atlético have spent -€95 million.
The background to all this is the savings for the Bernabéu's new look, for which Perez got the club's voting members (who, in general, are pro-Florentino Perez due to the voting model used) to approve the possibility of requesting a loan of €575 million.