The final days of any election campaign often throw up surprises. Add Real Madrid into the mix, a club who regularly manage to make the bizarre seem normal, and you can almost guarantee drama.
Voting for the next Real president will take place on Sunday, with Florentino Perez expected to be re-elected. The 79-year-old’s second stint in office at the Bernabeu looks set to be extended this weekend, but that hasn’t stopped rival Enrique Riquelme from taking one last punt at glory.
Riquelme enraged Manchester City when he took to Spanish television programme El Hormiguero earlier this week to claim he would bring Erling Haaland and Rodri to the Bernabeu if elected. City released a statement to say there was “no chance” of the former moving to Madrid, threatening legal action after Riquelme held up a Real shirt with Haaland’s name and the No.9 printed on the back.
The stunt is unlikely to sway voters enough to prevent Perez from securing re-election, and so attention will soon turn to the Real president’s plans, should he indeed secure the win. There will be more than a few interested spectators in the corridors of Old Trafford.
Aurélien Tchouaméni is on Manchester United’s radar but Perez has already confirmed he has no intention of letting the Frenchman leave.
Perez has long been an admirer of Rodri, and with the Spaniard refusing to shut down speculation over his future when asked earlier this week, it’s unclear what the future holds for the City midfielder. City are already understood to be in pole position to secure Elliot Anderson’s signature this summer, but if Rodri were to leave then surely their interest in the Nottingham Forest man would ramp up.
Sandro Tonali is another player being watched by both United and City. Again, if Perez were to want to make Rodri one of his marquee summer signings at Real Madrid, City’s interest in Tonali would only grow and give United another obstacle to overcome if they did pursue a move for the Newcastle midfielder.
And then there is the €150million (£130m) Perez has pledged to spend on a player he refused to name.
For that sort of money it will almost certainly be an attacking player and while United’s midfield overhaul is their priority this summer, it often takes a big-money move for the transfer market to really click into gear. Whichever club has their pockets lined with Real’s millions, they will want to offset the outgoing with a marquee signing of their own, and so the domino effect begins.
The transfer window is not even open yet, but with the World Cup complicating matters it may be that United fans have to wait until the latter stages of the window to discover who their Casemiro replacement will be. An agreement has been reached with Atalanta to bring Ederson to Old Trafford, but he’s not expected to be the man brought in to replace his fellow countryman.
It’s impossible to tell how the window will pan out for United but, as is the case in most transfer windows, the business done by Real will undoubtedly have a knock-on effect on a lot of clubs across Europe.
Sunday’s presidential election will see us move a step closer to knowing Real’s plans for the summer.
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