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Kylian Mbappe's world record move is paid for by the Premier League, proof Real Madrid are still the transfer kings

With Kylian Mbappe's imminent arrival Real Madrid have once again shown why they remain top of the transfer tree: AFP
With Kylian Mbappe's imminent arrival Real Madrid have once again shown why they remain top of the transfer tree: AFP

So, in a summer where so many of the major Premier League clubs are talking about spending well over £200m, the world transfer record is inevitably set to be demolished… just not by any of them.

You could say it’s the law of unintended consequences that football so often adheres to, or the ironic limits of limitless money alone in looking to evolve. Because, as Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe began to score and perform at a level not really seen in a teenager since the Brazilian Ronaldo, pretty much every major English club thought they had a chance of getting him due to the unprecedented level of money running through the competition. Instead, that money has really only pushed the 18-year-old towards Real Madrid, who are on the brink of again smashing the world transfer record by signing him for £161m.

The twist to it all is that the European champions this time never really had the cash for such a deal - until they brought in over half the fee by selling two subs to the Premier League in Alvaro Morata and Danilo.

It says a lot about the modern market, the European football landscape, and how Real continue to rule it from a position of huge power but not necessarily huge Premier League money.

The stark reality is that the two Spanish giants of Real and Barcelona still have a pull for players like nowhere else in the game. The economic reality is that they no longer have the hard disposable cash of the Premier League since Real just cannot spend with the freedom that Manchester City or Manchester United have been. The really clever part is how the Spanish giants have gamed that money, how they have used it to make themselves even stronger.

It’s not like they have even had to sell stars or first-team players, but they have sold essential cast-offs for that kind of money. They have moved on those that weren’t going to feature too much, and feel they got a fine deal on both. Morata expressly wanted to leave for first-team football, only to see president Florentino Perez hold out for as much as possible, and eventually get around £60m from Chelsea. There has meanwhile been general surprise around Real at the extent of Premier League interest in Danilo, who they then got around £25m for from Manchester City. James Rodriguez has also gone to Bayern Munich, although that was the one deal they didn’t make that much on, albeit for a star who couldn’t even make the bench in the last Champions League final.

Mbappe's move from Monaco to Madrid appears ever closer (AFP)
Mbappe's move from Monaco to Madrid appears ever closer (AFP)

So, through very clever market-management, an already immensely strong squad is set to be further enhanced and - most importantly - rejuvenated without that great a net spend in modern terms. It means Real might just be the greatest beneficiaries of that last Premier League broadcasting deal, that was supposed to move English clubs onto the next level but is notionally only seeing the gap between them and the European champions increase.

Even allowing for the possibility that Mbappe doesn't turn out worth the money, it doesn't escape the fact that Real have used the sales of secondary players to bring in the primary deals that Premier League clubs had wanted to do.

It could of course have unintended consequences for Real, too. You only have to look at the summer of 2009, when they had a similar mega-window signing Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Xabi Alonso and Karim Benzema. Real had sold Arjen Robben to Bayern Munich and Wesley Sneijder to Internazionale to fund those deals and free up squad space, only to see both Dutch stars excel and fire their teams to the 2010 Champions League final at the Bernabeu while they themselves went out at the last-16.

Perez and Real have once again flexed their transfer muscle this summer (Getty)
Perez and Real have once again flexed their transfer muscle this summer (Getty)

The difference is that Real were at that point desperately toiling to chase Barcelona and get back close to the top of European football, as opposed to operating from that very position now. It similarly shouldn’t be forgotten that many of those 2009 players have been much more valuable than Sneijder and Robben in the long run given how they have now helped win three Champions Leagues in four years - especially Benzema and Ronaldo.

It has helped them form the squad they have now, perhaps the strongest in depth the game has ever seen, and so helped them to game the market. They are somehow making that squad even better. It is a position, for all their imposing wealth, that Premier League clubs can still only imagine.