Real Madrid president Florentino Perez made the headlines last week by getting ready to splash out more than 160 million euros (US$222.17 million) on Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo.
He is rumored to be prepared to spend more than 250 million euros this summer and his profligacy in a time of economic crisis has been criticized.
Perez, however, is clearly unfazed by the criticism and his next targets include Valencia’s David Villa, David Silva and Raul Albiol and Diego Forlan of Atletico Madrid.
A harder task for Real than signing new players, however, is that of offloading unwanted ones.
General director Jorge Valdano and sporting director Miguel Pardeza will be working all summer to offload at least 12 unwanted players, sports daily AS said yesterday.
Wing-back Royston Drenthe is top of the unwanted list, after he suffered an anxiety attack in January after being jeered by Real fans at the Bernabeu Stadium.
Drenthe was left out of the squad for three months and he rarely appeared again at home games.
Another Dutchman set to be offloaded is Rafael Van der Vaart, who only arrived a year ago but has looked lethargic, slow and even irrelevant on the field, useful only for his free-kicks.
Klaas Jan Huntelaar could also be on his way. He was signed in December from Ajax but has failed to convince
Wesley Sneijder is another Dutchman who could be leaving the Bernabeu, He made at bright start in the 2007-2008 season, but looked short of fitness, spark and self-confidence last term.
Valadano and Pardeza are even considering selling Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Arjen Robben.
Van Nistelrooy was Liga top scorer in the 2006-2007 season but suffered a knee ligament injury last season, and has been out of action now for eight months.
Robben started to impress last season, after a first season in Spain ruined by injury. But he might now be surplus to requirements after Ronaldo’s arrival.
Real are also keen to get rid of Javier Saviola who has hardly played since joining in 2007. However, an obstacle, as with the other Real misfits, is his salary.
Saviola earns around 3 million euros per season at Real and is unwilling to join a club who will not pay him so well.
Other unwanted players are Mahamadou Diarra, Javi Garcia, Gabriel Heinze, Michel Salgado and Jordi Codina.
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