While Benítez remains unclear as to whether any of his transfer requests will be met, Mourinho was granted six players to the value of 73.5 million euros in his first season in charge of Real Madrid. And to boot, this was after an outlay of 264 million euros the season before , with Florentino, freshly reinstated as president, claiming “we have to do in one year what is normally done in three”. He subsequently signed Cristiano (€96m), Kaká (€65m), Benzema (€35m), Xabi Alonso (€30m), Albiol (€15m), Garay (€10m), Negredo (€5m), Granero (€4m) and Arbeloa (€4m).
In Mourinho’s first year, Florentino brought in Di María, Khedira, Canales and Özil to boost the midfield, Pedro León to bring width and Carvalho to strengthen the back four.
The Portuguese coach was unique in being given free rein on his transfer requests; for instance, Di María was on his wish list and was signed for 25 million euros (and subsequently sold to Manchester United for 75). Özil put pen to paper for 15 million euros, signing from Werder Bremen, while Khedira was brought in for 10 million euros from Stuttgart. That summer both Germany internationals had shone at the 2010 World Cup, and Mourinho later joked “Valdano didn’t even know who Özil and Khedira were”. In fact, at the time Madrid had a sporting director in Jorge Valdano, who actually had little say in the club’s transfer dealings.
In his second season, the ‘Special One’ was granted Coentrao (€30m), Varane (€10m), Altintop (€10m), Sahin (€10m) and Callejón (€5m), and in the third Modric (€30m) and Diego López (€3.5m), both in the winter transfer window.