Madrid look to cut €75m off their wage bill as Bale, James & co could leave (AS)

Bale, James, Odriozola, Mariano and a few more could be on the way out as Real Madrid try to reduce their wage bill during the coronavirus crisis.

Real Madrid's numbers are not in the red and they are trying to navigate the coronavirus crisis as best they can to make sure it stays that way. Whatever happens with the league season, Madrid are looking beyond that.

They have put money aside for a situation like this but they need to make changes elsewhere to make sure they stay out of the red. The club want to lighten the load by reducing the wage bill; this season they have spent €284 million on salaries and they want to change that with some names on the chopping block.

The first one, red and circled, is Gareth Bale. The Welsh attacker is the highest paid player on €29 million (€14.5 net per year). He has been cast to the side by Zidane and is a luxury in the current crisis.

It's a similar situation with that of James Rodríguez, who has been left on sidelined by the French manager since his return from Bayern Munich in the summer.

Between the two players, they makde €45.4 million. Bale's could go and Pogba could replace him but the Welsh player might take some convincing. 

"Gareth loves Real Madrid and the city, his time at Madrid will end with another Champions League or maybe another contract," Johnathan Barnett told AS.

With James, the club don't want to let him leave for free but his contract ends in 2021. It's now or never to get a fee for the Colombian.

There are more situations like this but at a smaller scale with Mariano being the most obvious one. Madrid tried to find another club for him last summer but he didn't want to leave. He has made €8 million (all in gross) this season and has played just 65 minutes.

It's the same with Brahim, who is on €7 million for just 170 minutes this year. Odriozola, currently on loan at Bayern Munich, is the same. The right-back's position is now, in theory, taken up by Achraf and he is no longer needed. There are other players out on loan with more complicated situations including Dani Ceballos (€6 million) and Jesus Vallejo (€4 million).

Madrid want to reduce wage bill significantly

Adding up all of these figures, that could be a €75 million reduction in wages. Some of that would obviously be taken up by the incoming players who replace the departures. Madrid will save there though. Odegaard in on €3.5 million (plus a bonus of €50,000 for every game he plays with the first team). Achraf is also on a lower wage (€3 million).

Real Madrid are in good shape when it comes to their salary bill before the coronavirus struck. They paid 52% of their total income on salaries and the ECA call this the efficiency ratio. The association recommend this figure should not exceed 70% and Madrid were in no danger of coming close to the LaLiga salary limit imposed in 2019-20.

It was set at €641 and their wages stood at €456 million. Their financial health is good but we haven't seen the worst of the coronavirus crisis and it remains to be seen how long more we will be without football as clubs scramble to try and lower their expenses.