Real Madrid’s ideal transfer window during the upcoming summer would start with a move for Kylian Mbappe, who is set to leave PSG at the end of the season.
The Frenchman has already informed the Parisian giants about his decision, with coach Luis Enrique pretty much confirming the same by wishing him “all the best for the future” in a press conference.
Other than Mbappe, Real Madrid are also pursuing a move for Bayern Munich superstar Alphonso Davies. The left-back is set to become a free agent next year in 2025, and wants a much higher salary than he is on currently to renew with Bayern.
Madrid are ready to pay around €40-50 million for his signature, and have reportedly already agreed personal terms with the the player ahead of the summer.
Some reports have also stated that Madrid are considering bringing back Miguel Gutierrez for €8 million by activating his buy-back clause at Girona.
There is no clarity about what the future might hold for him, though, with Bayern themselves interested in him to replace Davies.
There could be a time during the summer, though, where Madrid have four left-backs in their arsenal, including the aforementioned two in Davies and Gutierrez, but also Ferland Mendy and Fran Garcia, who are already a part of the team.
And ideally, all four players are starter quality for a lot of top teams in Europe, which means Madrid could be forced to offload at least two of them, but which ones should they be?
Finding balance
Right off the bat, selling Davies is out of the question. The Canadian is one of the best players in his position, and will obviously not be sold immediately after Madrid buy him — on a €10 million salary, as well.
The question, therefore, becomes finding the right balance between the rest of the three options and choosing one.
Mendy is the least offensive one of the three, but has the best defensive qualities. However, those can be replicated to a large extent by Davies, who is very well adept at tracking back and recovering the ball.
Fran Garcia and Miguel Gutierrez are more attacking options than Mendy, but in very different ways.
Garcia is an expert with his crosses from wide areas, particularly. He produces quite the loop form these positions, which makes it very difficult to defend against. His accuracy is also rather impressive with these, as he has already registered four assists this season.
On the other hand, Gutierrez is much more in the Marcelo mould. Girona have largely utilised him in an inverted role with enough freedom to overlap and underlap.
While crossing is not particularly his strong suit, his passing from tight areas is something to behold often. He is able to find players running behind the defence with his lobbed through balls and also changes the direction of the attack very well with his diagonals.
Neither of them are particularly defensively solid, though, or quite as quick as Mendy or Davies.
The verdict
With all three options quite solid, selling two of them becomes a rather mind-boggling task. However, with the current climate of football and the tactical changes that have arose in recent times, there is perhaps a correct answer here.
While Garcia and Mendy are both tremendous in their own right, Gutierrez’s ability to invert and provide numbers in midfield, to an extent make him a more useful asset.
Therefore, Madrid Universal’s verdict would be to sell Ferland Mendy and Fran Garcia.
He is also arguably the most creative of the quartet, and can also fill in as a right-back largely due to his ability to pass at most angles.
Mendy’s problems also extend to his injuries concerns, which have caused concerns within the club for a while, now.
While tactically keeping Gutierrez probably makes the most sense, Real Madrid’s final decision could eventually come down to different reasons completely.
For example, Gutierrez may not be happy to fill in as Davies’ deputy after competing for the title in a starting role for most of this season.
Contrarily, Madrid could eventually decide to sell whichever one of the three that has the highest transfer value or most teams pursuing him — most likely to be Gutierrez.
Either way, the final decision will depend on the players themselves. Real Madrid have never stopped their assets from leaving the club and it seems unlikely that they will now, irrespective of how important they may be or may become.