Real Madrid's new transfer strategy makes for a quiet summer - ESPN FC (blog)
Florentino Perez (July 7, 2001): "We will take this club to the place where it belongs based on Zidanes and Pavones. Florentino Perez (June 6, 2009): "I've only followed the path set by Santiago Bernabeu: some of the best players in the world (Alfredo Di Stefano), the best of [other teams in] Spain (Amancio Amaro) and, with them, the best from our own cantera... For almost a decade, Real Madrid's signing strategy looked so simple that president Florentino Perez was able to summarise it in a single line, using blatantly obvious examples that hammered the point home. Nowadays, one (or Perez, for that matter) can't explain Real Madrid's squad management policy in such a succinct manner anymore. Two summers and four transfer windows have passed since they signed their last blockbuster (Gareth Bale, and no, at the time James Rodriguez did not feature in the same league as Ronaldo or Bale, despite his price tag or his undoubted class), and... The club's policy has switched to focus on players from both Spain and other countries who can deliver on two categories: raise the skill level of the squad and increase the merchandising sales in those specific countries (see Alarcon, Isco. Regarding the vanishing "Pavones", the club has finally discovered that loaning promising homegrown players (or young signings, such as Lucas Silva). Source: www.espnfc.com
