Casemiro sale?

Much of this is hypothetical. Madrid have played one game so far in the league, a 2-1 comeback win against Almeria. Two of the regular central midfielders didn't start, and it showed in how the team played. That's natural, however, as continuity like Casemiro-Kroos-Modric is incredibly rare, much less the level of success they've achieved. In this short article, I will explore the two options; keep Casemiro and most likely not sign anyone else, versus sell the Brazilian and continue to regenerate the squad.

Option one is simple, so I'll just address that one first. If the fee gets up to 70 million euros, which I could see happening, both the club and the player will have a decision to make. Casemiro has won everything at Madrid, other than maybe a Copa del Rey, and nobody could blame him for going to England to double his pay and try something different. We've already seen how successful that's been for Varane. Anyway, let's say for the sake of this Madrid don't have a replacement in mind and decide to block the move. The only issues is whether Casemiro would have his head turned, so to speak, in terms of wanting to earn more as his career winds down. The other issue I see is at some point, whether this year or some time in the future, the club does have to eventually move on and create a new midfield core. None of these guys are getting any younger, and you already have Valverde, the young French guys, Ceballos, plus Blanco waiting in the wings. If this is the path, I still don't like the lack of quality depth on the right side. Lucas is not good enough at RB and Carvajal has his fitness issues. Similarly, Valverde isn't a winger and having him at RW causes creativity issues against lesser teams. Asensio is on the way out, and for whatever reason Rodrygo isn't played that often there. I've said for years that Madrid need a "Bale replacement", yet they still haven't done that. Thus, option two will address at least one of these, as well as replacing Casemiro.

As mention in the previous sentence, option two is to sell Casemiro and reinvest in multiple positions. Three positions, the two I discussed above plus striker, are all lacking in quality or depth in the Madrid squad. I actually can't decide which is most vital to fix in the mean time. It also doesn't help that I don't trust the club to actually make a move, but I digress. Let's say the 70 million euro fee is agreed upon, and Casemiro is on 100k a week (net). If you can give two or three squad players that amount of wages, as well as bring them in for relatively cheap transfer fees, that makes more sense than persisting with something that's clearly on the wane. I can't emphasize enough how sketchy the Champions League run was, and the fact that the only legit challengers (Atleti and Barcelona) were mediocre at best last season.

I've done this before, but we'll quickly recap a target or two for the positions I've mentioned. I'm taking into account contract duration, age, and how I believe they'd fit in at Madrid.

Nicolas Dominguez is my pick at DM. He's 24 and has two years left on his deal. This makes sense because Tchouameni is young and will need to adapt, so you need two legit options. Blanco isn't trusted (loaned to Cadiz as I was typing), and both Camavinga and Valverde thrive in more advanced roles. Dominguez plays in a frankly negative Bologna side that's languishing in Serie A mid table, plus he speaks the language, so it's not like it would be difficult to convince him.

At striker, the two picks are Ben Yedder and Muriel. The former has two years left on his Monaco deal, while the latter is in his final year at Atalanta. Both have played for Sevilla and the language wouldn't be an issue. I'd personally pick Ben Yedder, as I think his game is slightly more suited to deputizing for Benzema, but I could see Muriel providing a better spark off the bench. They're both "older", in footballing terms, and neither has played for a top club.

Now, to address one of the right side problem areas. Let's start with winger, since I've literally written at least one article on this. If Asensio stays, this won't be addressed. Madrid has the guys I've mentioned, plus Lucas can play there.

The more pressing need, to me at least, is right back, as none of the guys are good enough to legitimately win things in a convincing matter. Reece James would be the dream. I've mentioned Pedro Porro before, given his Spanish origin. Hakimi came through the academy. An outside pick is Di Lorenzo, given the fact that he can actually defend and attack, but nobody has linked him to Madrid and he seems happy at Napoli (contract ends 2026). Odriozola isn't trusted and could leave again, and like I said, Carvajal hasn't been the same since he started getting injured all the time.

To conclude, there are pros and cons to selling Casemiro. At this point, I don't see the pros weighing out, so I'd keep him. End of. However, if he pushes for a move, there are options that may actually benefit the squad in the long term more than keeping the Brazilian.