Having been unceremoniously dumped out of the Champions League by Arsenal before losing the Copa del Rey final to Barcelona on Saturday, Real Madrid are faced with the prospect of their third potless season in the last decade as they look to close a four-point gap to Barcelona in La Liga across the last four games of the season.
President Florentino Perez looks set to oversee significant squad surgery in the summer, with replacements for ageing centre-backs, a New Toni Kroos and a New Luka Modric thought to be high on the agenda, while a New Joselu also wouldn’t go amiss.
They’ve enjoyed great success in plucking talent from the Premier League, with Eden Hazard the exception to a rule that’s seen Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso, Modric, Gareth Bale, Thibaut Courtois and Antonio Rudiger pitch up at the Bernabeu and win the obligatory Champions League title or six.
But which Premier League players could be set for Real Madrid this summer?
William Saliba (Arsenal)
Rumours of Real Madrid’s interest in Saliba have been rumbling along for months now, picking up of late, with the latest report suggesting the 24-year-old is ‘the choice to captain the defence starting next season’ on the assumption that Antonio Rudiger will be sold or committed after his latest act of insanity.
And while it does in some ways appear bewildering to Arsenal fans and the wider public that Saliba would want to sign for an immoral football club which routinely throws toys from the pram if they or their individual players don’t win, the argument from Saliba and the other players on this list for joining would likely be “yeah, but that’s because they normally win”. Footballers like winning.
Dean Huijsen (Bournemouth)
Real Madrid are like the most attractive date before the prom in any American sitcom. While Liverpool carry Huijsen’s books to class, Chelsea write love poems and Arsenal plan journeys through the school day to ensure they walk by wearing three colognes, Real Madrid remain aloof until the final moment before leaning against Huijsen’s locker and asking if he fancies it.
Ibrahima Konate (Liverpool)
Liverpool have dug themselves partially out of the out-of-contract hole this season by agreeing extensions for Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, but Trent Alexander-Arnold still looks set for Real Madrid despite the celebration hints, and would be wise to consider offers for Konate this summer if they fail to agree new terms with the Frenchman.
Reports suggest his agent shockingly wants more money than Liverpool are willing to offer his client, with sporting director Richard Hughes forced to ‘postpone’ contract talks, and although we might expect the infamous free agent vultures to wait and snag him next summer, prospective new manager Xabi Alonso is supposedly keen on Real Madrid signing the 25-year-old ahead of next season.
Murillo (Nottingham Forest)
Real Madrid were supposedly keen on Murillo in January, which feels a little bit like one of those rumours entirely fabricated on the basis of him being a) Br azilian, and b) a maverick, with those two factors leading the transfer finger to be pointed squarely at Real Madrid.
But that’s also of course why no-one would be at all surprised if Los Blancos paid big money for the 22-year-old, whom we would be gutted to see leave the Premier League as we’re struggling to think of a more watchable centre-back.
Sandro Tonali (Newcastle)
Real Madrid chief scout Juni Calafat is looking for a long-term replacement for Luka Modric, the poor sod, and seeing Tonali as an option points to the dearth of Modric equivalents in modern football.
We’re not saying Tonali isn’t great – he may even be the best Premier League midfielder right now – but while classy to an extent, he doesn’t ooze it from every pore. But perhaps his hustle and bustle quality is more what Real Madrid and every football team needs in this grimly energy-obsessed era. They could certainly do a lot worse.
Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool)
Mac Allister perhaps has a touch more Modric about him and having “read the rumours” Refused To Rule Out Transfer To Real Madrid by saying he’s happy at Liverpool, though he did leave gossipmongers with a morsel of content by saying: "No matter how much the club loves me, if I play poorly this weekend, they’ll lose interest."
Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea)
Atletico Madrid are also supposedly interested in the midfielder, who was basically terrible for Chelsea for a season-and-a-half following his British record £106.8m move from Benfica before being very good in some games this season and sort of alright in most of them.
We could see him being brilliant in La Liga, and he may well turn out to be excellent for Chelsea, but if the Blues can recoup a big portion of what they paid for him we would advise they take the money and spend it on a centre-back and a goalkeeper.
Ryan Gravenberch (Liverpool)
Real Madrid never appear to have been entirely convinced by Aurelien Tchouameni after they nicked him from under Jurgen Klopp’s nose in 2022, and while Liverpool were angling for a defensive midfielder last summer, Arne Slot made do with Gravenberch, who’s turned out to be one of the revelations of the season in that role to the point where their money can now be spent elsewhere to bolster the squad.
Unless Real Madrid land Gravenberch, whom they’ve been linked with for the last six months or so, and whose agent gave a cryptic response when asked about the supposed interest. "We would love him to join Real Madrid," he said.
Alexander Isak (Newcastle)
If anyone deserves a relaxed money-bathing semi-retirement in Saudi Arabia it’s Carlo Ancelotti after being handed the quandary of fitting Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham into the same football team and getting them to play like a football team while two of them – naming no names – do f*** all when they haven’t got the ball. He’s struggled, but anyone would.
Incredible that it’s come to them needing a fifth £100m forward to make things work but it really does look like that, with Thibaut Courtois outlining their desperation for a Proper No.9 after defeat to Arsenal by mourning the departure of Stoke City great Joselu last summer.
Isak might just be the best all-round striker in world football right now, and Real Madrid rarely settle for anything less than the best.
Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
They may well be more interested in the best goalscorer in world football though, given the other guys tick most of the other forward boxes, and that’s Erling Haaland, who will cost them an arms, legs and several bodies, but it would be quite the big boy move from the big boy Club.