Three Ways Zinedine Zidane can spend his £300m warchest

Zinedine Zidane is the Real Madrid manager. Again.

He only left the job 10 months ago, but after Julen Lopetegui and then Santiago Solari bombed in their attempts to replace him, club president Florentino Perez has smashed the panic button to bring his prodigal son back. Perez never wanted Zidane to leave in the first place, and there was always the sense that Zidane was leaving on principle rather than because he was tired of the club.

You see, it was clear to Zidane that Madrid needed a lot of work done to the squad if they were to move forward. After they peaked in 2017, retaining the Champions League by thrashing Juventus 4-1 in Cardiff after winning La Liga (despite all the trophies, this was the club’s third European Double and their first since 1958) he immediately wanted to add Monaco’s rising superstar Kylian Mbappé.

In fact, the club sold Alvaro Morata specifically with the idea that Mbappé would join. Only then he didn’t. In fact no marquee names came in, only some talented youngsters like Dani Ceballos and Theo Hernandez. As a result, Madrid stagnated. They finished 17 points behind league winners Barcelona, and although they won the Champions League again, Zidane walked away. He knew work needed to be done, and it was clear Florentino Perez wasn’t interested in doing major work.

Well, now he is. The horrors of 2018/19 have opened his eyes, and Zidane’s return has come with a rumoured £300m war chest. Obviously players will be sold, but we can’t predict that so just focusing on the £300m, we’ve come up with three ways that Los Blancos could spend it this summer to reshape their squad.

Galacticos 3.0

When you’re Real Madrid, you do things a certain way. That involves going after and getting the biggest and best names available. And if those names aren’t available? You get them anyway. That’s just how Los Blancos get down.

Zidane has been a huge fan of Eden Hazard for many years, and has always liked the idea of bringing the Belgian to the Bernabeu. For the longest time, Cristiano Ronaldo’s presence in Hazard’s position made that a pointless move, but without the Portuguese and with Los Blancos in desperate need of a talismanic dribbler, Hazard fits the bill.

Sure, Vinicius currently plays there but he’s 18 and far from the finished product. He could be moved to the right or loaned out or simply used less frequently. Hazard is world-class, as good a dribbler as anyone around and a wonderful creative force. He’s box office as well, with an undoubted coolness to him. His goalscoring is streaky, but that’s why you also sign Harry Kane to be the side’s primary scoring source.

Los Blancos have often found it hard to power their way to wins through attacking superiority this season, and adding a world-class goalscorer like Harry Kane would definitely change all that. Arguably the best no. 9 on the planet, he would ally with Hazard’s creativity to make Madrid’s attack one of the most fearsome on planet earth.

Each of those players will probably cost just over £100m, which leaves someone to be signed for just under £100m. Now, Zinedine Zidane knows better than most that you can’t have a top-heavy team with midfielders who don’t care about defending without a defensive genius to be a counterweight. Claude Makélélé was his as a player, he used a combination of Casemiro and Luka Modric as a manager… now, why not N’Golo Kanté?

There are rumours that the Frenchman is one of the names Zidane has deemed essential to his new project and it makes sense. Having Kanté around would allow Madrid to play Isco in a midfield trio without suffering too much defensively. This means they get to keep their width as well as great central creativity. Kanté would also help protect a Madrid defence that is very vulnerable to counter-attacks. Can you say first name on the team-sheet?

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Full Rebuild

But what if Madrid think more smartly than the usual? Sure everyone is expecting big splurges on big names, but what if Los Blancos looked at their squad and realised what they actually needed was several great younger players to synergise with build an almost entirely new side.

You start off at the back, with Brazilian Eder Militao introduced as a viable third option to rotate with the brilliant Raphael Varane and the increasingly erratic Sergio Ramos. Hell, if Zidane wants to he can even jettison Ramos, whose ego could be an issue. Militao is good enough to start and would help stabilise Los Blancos.

Marcelo is a player that Zidane loves, and allegedly he’s insisted that the Brazilian stay rather than be allowed to join Juventus as was rumoured to be happening under Santiago Solari. But what if Zidane let go of sentiment and decided to find a young attacking full-back to be the starter ahead of Sergio Reguilon? Real Betis’ Junior Firpo has been a sensation this season and is a noted Madridista.

With Luka Modric and Toni Kroos both on the wane (for very different reasons) Los Blancos will need one midfielder at least. And if we’re being more realistic in purchases then Lyon’s Tanguy Ndombele has the kind of all-action skill-set that would make him an ideal replacement for Pogba (whom Perez and Zidane badly wanted, but whose window has probably closed now).

Then to attack. Vinicius is young but has shown tremendous aptitude on that left-flank and with Rodrygo also joining this summer, Madrid have two tenacious and talented teens out there to give minutes to. So focusing on the right (Gareth Bale is surely gone) who could Madrid sign? Well, being realistic (thus ruling out Mohamed Salah) there’s Nicolas Pepe, Lille’s goalscoring wing-forward. The Frenchman has 17 goals this season and at just 23 could bring exactly the kind of spark of danger Los Blancos would love.

But he’s still no goalscorer, so why not Luka Jovic? The 21-year-old Serbian striker is incredible. He scored consistently as a substitute last season and has scaled that up into performing as a starter. He has 15 non-penalty Bundesliga goals this season, more than anyone else. He’s a highlight reel of unorthodox and spectacular finishes, which is exactly what Madrid need to keep their threat high. Los Blacos lost out of Luis Suárez to Barcelona, well the Blaugrana are also chasing Jovic so signing him would have an added benefit of hurting their rivals.

The Nuclear Option

Sometimes transfers aren’t about being logical, sometimes transfers are about watching the world burn. PSG did this in 2017 when they signed Neymar and Kylian Mbappé. Each of them for a colossal transfer fee, bigger than any other in history. Now, it could be Real Madrid’s turn.

At the head of Zinedine Zidane’s transfer wishlist this summer is PSG’s Kylian Mbappé. Now, the problem is if you sign Mbappé he would cost so much money (if PSG were to even consider selling at all) that you would evaporate every penny of the £300m transfer warchest.

Mbappé is just 20-years-old and clearly destined to be one of the world’s best (if he’s not already) and moreover he’s French, so the idea that a French club who has no need to sell him would do so is dubious. It’s likely they’d just give him a pay rise and keep it moving.

But what if they didn’t? What if Madrid insisted, what if they got the player to insist? It would be bad PR to be seen holding a player against their will (especially as Qatar have allegedly done that to the migrant workers building their 2022 World Cup stadia) so, for a world-record £300m, they could agree to a deal.

Of course Los Blancos would be left still needing new players in key positions, but they’d have their most coveted prize, the brightest young prospect in world football. A relentless goalscorer capable of almost single-handedly making the Madrid attack terrifying again. Who would want to contend with his pace and penetrative power? And moreover the world would once again be on fire with a transfer market distorted out of all sense and logic by the nuclear option of Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid.

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