REAL MADRID have pocketed an incredible £230million in the last seven years by selling duds to Premier League clubs.
The likes of Mateo Kovacic, Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria and Alvaro Morata have all made the switch from Spain to England in recent times.
But Prem fans regard them all as full-time flops, with Real Madrid’s accountants the only ones celebrating.
Robinho’s £38m Man City move in 2008 was the first major warning sign.
But that didn’t stop Arsenal from shelling out a whopping £42.5million on German playmaker Ozil in 2013.
His numbers in English football have since made for decent reading, with Ozil scoring 33 goals and providing 54 assists in 184 Premier League games.
And he has also won three FA Cups during his time in North London.
But things have turned very sour at the Emirates, with Ozil first falling out with Unai Emery and then his successor Mikel Arteta.
The current Arsenal boss took the staggering decision to drop him from his Premier League and Europa League squads for the current season – despite him earning £350,000-a-week.
And all further Prem signings from Real have been even more ineffective.
Manchester United spent an even bigger £59.7m on Argentine winger Di Maria in 2014.
He lasted just one season at Old Trafford, scoring four times and assisting a further 12 goals in 33 appearances under Louis van Gaal before joining Paris Saint-Germain.
2017 then saw Manchester City shell out £26.5m on defender Danilo.
He featured 60 times during two seasons under Pep Guardiola, before he left for Juventus.
However, Real made the most money from Alvaro Morata’s £65m switch to Chelsea in the same summer.
The Spanish striker scored just 24 goals and provided only six assists in 72 matches before he was shipped off on loan to Atletico Madrid 18 months later.
Chelsea have since returned for Mateo Kovacic in a £40m deal, despite the midfielder contributing zero goals and just two assists in 51 games in the season before he left.
He has, however, generally impressed for the Blues under Frank Lampard, although with so many midfield options now at Stamford Bridge, there is speculation over his future.
There have also been a couple of loan deals in recent years, with defender Jesus Vallejo moving to Wolves and Dani Ceballos going to Arsenal.
In the most recent window, Tottenham splashed £27m on Sergio Reguilon AND agreed to take on much of Gareth Bale’s mammoth wages to bring the Welshman in on loan.
Only time will tell if Real Madrid will be laughing all the way to the bank yet again.
Man Utd and Real Madrid open ‘to letting Alexis Sanchez and Gareth Bale leave on free -transfers’
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
