alvaro morata
Real Madrid brought back Alvaro Morata drom Juventus for €30m. Getty

KEY POINTS

  • Alvaro Morata the only signing for the Champions League winners.
  • Marco Asensio and Fabio Coentrao have returned following loans at Espanyol and Monaco.
  • Academy striker Mariano Díaz has been promoted from the second team.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has said the club opted against making major moves during the summer transfer window as it was "impossible to improve" the Champions League winners' squad.

Perez is associated with big spending at the Santiago Bernabeu, having been at the helm for a number of 'Galactico' signings such as Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and David Beckham.

However, Los Blancos have been surprisingly quiet in the current mercato, with their only notable transfer being the €30m (£25.2m, $33.4m) spent to bring academy graduate Alvaro Morata back to the club by activating a buy-back option in his contract with Juventus.

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Zidane has added three more options to his first-team squad, with Marco Asensio and Fabio Coentrao returning from loan spells at Espanyol and Monaco respectively, and striker Mariano Díaz being promoted from the B-team.

The club have also overseen the departure of a number of players either on loan or permanent deals, including Jese Rodriguez, Denis Cherysev, Alvaro Medran, Omar Mascarell and Borja Mayoral. Many fans have urged Real Madrid to sign a back-up holding midfielder for Casemiro, while the club were also heavily linked with a move for Paul Pogba, who instead joined Manchester United.

Real Madrid's president has now explained that they ruled out those signings as they considered it impossible to improve a squad that conquered the Champions League last season.

"We have won the European Super Cup and the first two games of the season in La Liga. We have a spectacular squad and it's impossible to improve it," Perez said during an event to announce a new commercial agreement with Hankook Tire. "Zidane, all of his coaching team and the players are aware of their responsibilities and they want to show what they are capable of. This is a sacred place in football and the place where millions of football fans place their dreams. This club works with the highest demands and is only thinking about growing. It's a meeting point for madridismo and we share this passionate road with the best brands."

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