Real Madrid have the worst defensive injury crisis in world football after Eder Militao joined Dani Carvajal with a torn ACL, leaving the Merengue club with only Antonio Rudiger as a healthy, full-time senior starter in the back four.
Los Blancos have been without a top left back these last two seasons and continue to waffle on signing Alphonso Davies, in the hopes they can steal the Bayern Munich superstar for free.
Their right back situation is now a certified disaster with even Lucas Vazquez, who is not actually a right back, injured. In central defense, it will be Rudiger holding down the fort on his own with only Castilla star Raul Ascencio to help, unless if Real Madrid finally get serious about signing the center back help they should have already added in the summer when Nacho Fernandez went to Saudi Arabia.
And yet, Florentino Perez arrogantly thought he didn’t need to do anything because he had the best team in Europe from the 2023/24 season and was adding Kylian Mbappe (and Endrick, who almost never plays anyway) to that squad.
It was a Galacticos era flub made by the man many assumed had learned from his horrible mistakes about 20 years ago. Evidently, he has learned very little, and now that Barcelona are run competently again by Hansi Flick, Real Madrid are getting smacked.
While they slowly mull over their center back options and completely ignore the obvious upgrade in Sergio Ramos, they are busy being linked to more attacking options.
ESPN’s Alex Kirkland and Rodrigo Faez report that Real Madrid are actually increasing their interest in Bayer Leverkusen star playmaker Florian Wirtz, who appears to be Madrid’s latest “Galactic” obsession.
Real Madrid already have three No. 10’s they signed last summer, all of whom excelled on the pitch in Real’s Champions League-winning campaign – Jude Bellingham, Brahim Diaz, and Arda Guler.
And everyone expected Guler to take a big step forward in importance this season after an exceptional summer with Turkey, but he’s played so little to the frustration of him, his teammates, his fans in Turkey, and even Perez himself.
As clubs circle around Guler, Real Madrid have to seriously worry about losing one of the world’s most talented prospects – a worse blow than Martin Odegaard to Arsenal – and all the while they are busy looking into signing a 100 million euro-plus player who would fully guarantee Guler’s exclusion.
Real Madrid need to spend their time, money, and resources on defenders – on solidifying a hopelessly unbalanced squad that was decimated by not only their greatest rivals, but also Serie A struggles AC Milan in the Champions League.
Wirtz is a wonderful player and a generational playmaker who already has years of world-class play despite only being 21. He’s also older and less gifted than Guler while costing likely five times the price the Turkish international did.
Instead of worrying about hoarding attacking talent like it’s 2003, Real Madrid need to get serious about using their supposedly limited financial resources on players who will make sure they stay on top as a squad for the next decade.
If there’s money left over for Wirtz and a way to integrate him AND Guler together, then, by all means, pay, because Wirtz is worth 100 million euros in a vacuum. But if signing the German star comes at the cost of Guler and two quality defenders, it’s clearly not worth the trade off. At all.
