Real Madrid's new Young Galactico policy is reaping rewards

There was a time when Real Madrid were simply ‘win now’. Now, they are ‘win now, and win again’. And that doesn’t just refer to events on the field.

Two years ago, around the summer of 2015, a new project at Real Madrid was being developed and undertaken with immediate effect. Florentino Perez, for all his faults, was wise enough to foresee the changing face of the football world. The market his club had previously operated in so lavishly, and at times seemingly without direction other than to attain the world’s biggest stars, was becoming more saturated (PSG, Manchester United and City etc) so Real Madrid in part decided to remove themselves from it.

Instead, they’d find a new market, one identified by Florentino and his team at the club. It began two years ago, and the president revealed it himself in an interview with Onda Cero.

"We believe we have to have those players from Spain and the world who are going to be very good. We follow them and then we invest small amounts in them. If they develop well, they are revalued - if they don’t then we don’t really lose money”.

It sounds ever so simple but in actual fact, few went down a similar route. Borussia Dortmund are attempting something similar but without a spine of sorts to build from. There are no Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric or Cristiano Ronaldo type superstars, and they remain a selling club. Real Madrid, on the other hand, would pad their team together around these elite players they already possessed. They wouldn’t however, invest in bringing in any more.

Florentino was also unnerved by the spread of money coming into football. More teams were beginning to emerge with rich owners, while in England the Premier League was injected with astronomical amounts of money from TV rights.

The summer of 2014 perhaps represented the last of any such lavish purchases, with James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos arriving. From then on, Real Madrid would invest elsewhere.

“It has always been focused on the world's best players, the best Spanish players and the academy. Now we have perfected it, being attentive to young players from all over the world. We are carrying out a great project, which will guarantee us for the future,” said Florentino to Marca upon his recent re-election as president.

Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo will be vital in guiding the young talent

Dani Carvajal and Alvaro Morata would come up from the academy while Isco, Lucas and Mateo Kovacic from elsewhere. Admittedly Lucas went wrong, one of the ‘badly developed players’ Florentino referred to. His £10.5 million hardly terrified the accountants at the club.

Money was more recently spent on Jesus Vallejo, Fede Valverde, Sergio Diaz, Marco Asensio, Vincius Araujo and Theo Hernandez. Borja Mayoral and Marcos Llorente meanwhile are academy products returning from loans. The latest out and out purchase has been Dani Ceballos. They’ve all been brought in at a very young age, and in some cases, already look to be extreme bargains (Vallejo was €6m, Asensio just €3.9m). They are all deals backing up Florentino’s very public declaration of intent in 2015 to shake things up at the club. Seven players under 23 have arrived in the last three summers alone.

These deals have all been pulled off in the backdrop of an exploding market, one that was tipped to burst, but has only continued to inflate. Paul Pogba, Gonzalo Higuain, John Stones, Romelu Lukaku and Alexandre Lacazette are just some recent blockbuster deals at the highest end. All the while, Real Madrid operated elsewhere, retaining the high quality of the squad in order to win now - but also with foresight and a view on dominance in the future. Few are now stacked for the next decade like Real Madrid.

Take Asensio and Ceballos. Their main rivals for these deals were Barcelona. In the first case with Asensio, the Catalans baulked at the idea of paying €4m and did not understand the way the market was developing. If Asensio had gone elsewhere and Barca decided to move for him again in three years, there would be a risk of having to pay a world record fee. With Ceballos, Barca reacted too late after Real Madrid already made avenues with the player and his entourage. Now neither player will likely ever wear the Blaugrana, despite being two of Spain’s brightest talents.

Marco Asensio starred for Real Madrid last season to great effect

This summer, Real Madrid have worked particularly efficiently. They’ve acquired Pepe’s replacement (Vallejo), a second left-back option as cover for Marcelo AND to operate as a winger (Theo), a second defensive midfielder with a different skillset to Casemiro (Llorente) and finally a player to cover for Modric with the view to eventually replacing him (Ceballos).

Juni Calafat has been tasked with attracting young talent, scouring the globe for those at 18 and 19 years old and that will according to Florentino’s remit, “mark the future of football.” Much of Calfat’s work is overseen by Ramon Martinez, now leading the overall football department of the club.

It’s not too difficult to see Real Madrid’s next move either. Kylian Mbappe remains the most sought after player by the club, and he is obviously a special case. The Monaco star will command a high fee given his blistering performances last season. Real Madrid can make these moves now too, given they’re saving money elsewhere. Instead of scatter gunning money throughout the team, they are investing wisely while others get caught up in an intense market.

Real Madrid’s policy still targets galacticos, but rather than ageing stars commanding absurd fees, they are after the stars of tomorrow.