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£30 million

Galacticos II will all end in tears.

Have they bought any defenders yet?

Galacticos they may be, but do they really pay for themselves in bringing in shirt sales/commercial sponsorship?

In other words , how the hell do Real Madrid afford it?!

They are owned by a bank aren't they

I may be wrong, but the way I see it, they are so far in debt that they just keep spending. Nobody is willing to stop them as they stand to lose too much.

Apparently when Beckham was at RM his shirt sales/merchandise alone brought into the club between £24-30 million.

The club has an annual turnover of £250 million.
The gate reciepts were £55 million, 60% of Man Utd's for the same year.
Unsustanable, even with the Royal family having some money invested in them (allegedly, even though everyone knows the Royal family are fans).

Real had to apply for a bank loan for £23 million to cover running costs last year too.

Sounds like financial suicide.

They sold their training ground a few years ago for hundreds of millions.

Ive heard simmilar to R4E. That the Madrid banks just will not call in the loans, and keep giving them new loans.

Real Madrid is owned by their fans isn't it? They are also an institution, more so than any of our clubs. The banks, local council, government, you name it, will all bend over backwards to help them out if they have to. No chance of anyone calling in any loans or causing any trouble.

I could see them getting there money back through merchandise for one star player, such as Kaka or Ronaldo, but both of them? Then you've got to add on all the extra players they're signing for £20m plus. They'd have to increase their turnover by 50% minimum to cover them all, can't see that happening.

Takes the piss the way Platini and the FIFA twat go on about there being too much money in the Premier League. At least our clubs only spend the money they've earned or can afford and seldom do they just piss it away. Obviously Chelsea and Man City are exceptions to the not pissing it away rule.

as above any money madrid want, madrid get

Basically their banks will go bust before Real Madrid.

Which is awful.

Ignoring the financial guff that coinsides with signing these players I actually think in footballing terms Real will be pretty hard to beat in coming seasons - they will strengthen at the back but as always they see attacking threat as the priority.

I've always had a soft spot for Real going back to the days my old man worked out there sometimes and while I hate that Chelski spend loads of money I just think it's good fun when Real do it.

I think it's pretty nailed on that they'll play Utd in the Champs Leauge this season, it's been a while and it'll be interesting to see if any of their players can handle Ronaldo.

Raul Albiol - Valencia.

yeah Raul Abiol from Valencia for 15m

Is he that good that he can be the defensive rock on which they build tey're side? 'cause cannavaros past it

and moved on i think?

They've got 3 good centre backs now in Albiol/Garay/Pepe. With Sergio Ramos at RB. Need a new left back though, Marcelo isn't the best defensively.

Cannavaro's back at Juve.

Getting ridiculous now.  Another £30 mil for Alonso. 

Subject to a medical,with Liverpool stating that the fee is "confidential".The reason for the delay,
was that Alonso's agent wanted a big cut and both clubs weren't happy with this.

As has already been said, I'm pretty certain this buying the best policy won't work.  However, for those interested - Real Madrid are the new team to beat on PES 2009.  Simply awesome.

Madrid, who had a debt approaching £500m before the spending spree, now has a debt approaching £750m, and now overtakes Man Yoo as the most debt ridden club in world football.

And yet UEFA still has a dig about the English clubs and their debts...

I did read somewhere that someone from UEFA was saying that there was disquiet within UEFA over the Man City and Real Madrid spending sprees.

Disquiet, I bet the clubs are shitting it. Not.

Chelsea have debts of £736 million, Man Utd have debts of £700 million, Arsenal have debts of £416 million currently and Liverpool have debts of £500 million, this level of spending cannot continue.

It is financial suicide long term.

And Real spent £30 million on Xabi Alonso today.

About 6 posts up Sippo.

Keep up.

Aquilani will replace Alonso at Liverpool. After Liverpool agreeing a fee with Roma

i still bet real madrid will win la liga though

I believe that those are 3 different kinds of debt:

Chelsea's is entirely to their owner, and interest free. I suspect Man City's is the same though I am surmising here.

Arsenal's is largely tied up in the stadium project and secured against future season ticket sales. They have been unfortunate that a lot of this debt would have been cleared by the sale of flats at Highbury, though sales/prices haven't been as good as was originally planned.

Liverpool's and Man United's is actually their owners' debt passed onto the club, then owed to a third party at some sick interest rate.

At least this is my understanding of this complex matter.

But anyway, I for one am really enjoying seeing all these enormous transfers going through.

What a great summer it has been.

Hopefully there are plenty more to come.