Kylian Mbappe‘s arrival is at least 12 months away and there will almost certainly be no new signings at Real Madrid this year. So step forward Martin Odegaard and Eden Hazard, your time has come (again).
Odegaard was first presented at the club in 2015. He became the first 16-year-old to be given a Galatico-style welcome with a press conference and shirt presentation in front of the world’s media.
It was always going to be tough for him to live up to the extraordinary hype. Five years and three loan clubs later he is ready to make what will feel like a second debut, on Sunday.
Eden Hazard will have a chance to kickstart his Real Madrid career after a poor first season
Hazard’s arrival last summer created an even greater level of expectation. But what followed – one goal in 22 games – was monumentally underwhelming. That will be remembered as a false start, but only if the former Chelsea forward flies out of the blocks this time.
The feeling around the two ‘signings’ is very different. Odegaard generates huge excitement; Hazard major doubts.
The first two-thirds of Odegaard’s loan season last year, at Real Sociedad, the team Madrid play Sunday, was sensational. Injuries and fatigue caught up with him post-lockdown but if he repeats early campaign form Madrid will have upgraded an already exciting midfield with the still underrated Casemiro, the ageless Modric, Rolls-Royce Toni Kroos, and turbo-boosted 22-year-old Fede Valverde.
Odegaard has taken the number 21 shirt made vacant by Brahim Diaz, who has gone to Milan on loan. It’s the same number he wore last season as he became Real Sociedad’s playmaker.
Martin Odegaard has impressed immensely while playing on loan at Real Sociedad last term
Hazard has retained the number seven shirt he first held aloft June 13, 2019 in front of around 50,000 supporters at his unveiling.
Pictures of him appearing to sport a slight paunch underneath his Belgium training gear two weeks ago raised alarm bells in the Spanish capital and when Belgium coach Roberto Martinez said he wasn’t injured but neither was he fit enough to play for his country, a code-red crisis was called.
Hazard turned up overweight to last year’s preseason training. ‘I put on five kilos in the summer’ he told Sport/Foot Magazine, adding that he was able to shift the excess just as quickly as he gained it.
Hazard’s poor first season went largely under radar because injuries hindered him from ever getting a run of games together, the interrupted season made for a strange campaign, and it was still a picture of Gareth Bale on the Real Madrid dartboard.
Zinedine Zidane will be looking to offer both stars the chance to cement their spot in his squad
Now Bale is gone. Supporters and pundits will need to seek out a new target if the season begins to splutter.
Zinedine Zidane is under pressure too. There is a sense among directors that he got what he wanted with the Bale situation ending with the player leaving. Now he needs to show that his judgement was right. He will hear about it if Bale begins to score goals at Tottenham while Real Madrid struggle.
The two young Brazilians Vinicius, 20, and Rodrygo Goes, 19, will contest the wide forward berths with Hazard and Marco Asensio. Karim Benzema will continue at centre-forward with it still not clear who his stand-in will be.
Borja Mayoral is back from two years away on loan at Levante. If Madrid can find a club willing to pay to take Luka Jovic on loan and pay his wages then they may allow the Serbian forward to get a confidence-boosting year away from the intense spotlight of Madrid and use Mayoral for a season as Benzema’s reserve.
If they find homes for both then they would need to bring in another striker, something there is not much time for, especially when there are currently no clear targets.
It is well known that Real wish to land Kylian Mbappe, but that move is at least 12 months away
In defence they look light at centre-back and right-back. Nacho Fernandez was always the reliable utility player but he did not convince last season. If he fails to find the old form that earned him a Spain cap then Zidane’s squad has only three centre-backs and no real cover for right-back Dani Carvajal, although attacking full-back Alvaro Odriozola is back from his fairly inactive loan spell at Bayern Munich.
Zidane knows from experience that there will be no grace afforded him just for winning the league last season. He has already used up all the credit he banked from that, bailing out of the Champions League against Manchester City with such a whimper.
He will need to win the league again, play better, keep developing the youngsters, and be stronger in the Champions League.
With no Mbappe to dazzle opponents, he will hope Hazard and Odegaard perform to their huge potential.
Odegaard continuing to mature and Hazard taking his second chance to lead Real Madrid, will be Zidane’s best bet for another successful year.
Real Madrid have got rid of one forward this summer in the form of Welsh winger Gareth Bale