A year Real Madrid fans were furious at President Florentino Pérez for bumbling the David de Gea transfer saga, failing to sign Spanish No.1 because of fax machine issues.
Fast forward 12 months and this summer’s transfer window was surprisingly quiet, especially with the impending transfer ban for both Atletico and Real Madrid.
Real Madrid’s only bought one player this summer, spending €30 million to bring academy graduate Álvaro Morata back to the Spanish capital from Juventus.
That is the lowest spend by the La Liga giants since they bought David Beckham in 2003. That year, Madrid president Florentino Pérez spent 25 million euros on taking the then England captain to the Bernabéu, with no other transfer fees forked out.
The focus this summer appeared to be to bring in some younger academy players and more importantly, keep the players that they have. That James Rodríguez, Isco and Morata are still Real players is a testament to Zidane, who was able to persuade them to stay at the Bernabéu and be squad players instead of going elsewhere and being a starter.
The club’s most extravagant spending spree came seven years ago, when they shelled out close to €259 million on no fewer than nine players ahead of the 2009/10 campaign.
Among the stand-out names signed that summer, as Pérez made his return as Real chief, were Cristiano Ronaldo (96 million), Kaká (65), Karim Benzema (35) and Xabi Alonso (30).
What did you think of Real Madrid’s summer transfer activity?