Real Madrid plan 540m-euro summer spend (AS) 😱

Having already spent 50m on Eder Militao and identified five further summer targets, it promises to be a very expensive close-season for Real Madrid.

If Real Madrid want to push through their ambitious plans to overhaul their squad this summer, they're going to have to spend well over 500m euros.

Coach Zinedine Zidane has sat down with club chiefs, and together they have identified the players - Paul Pogba, Eden Hazard, Christian Eriksen, Tanguy Ndombele and Luka Jovic - who they want to bring in, in addition to the already-signed Eder Militao. Madrid know that the costliest, and trickiest, of those purchases will be Pogba, 26, with reports in the UK media stating that Manchester United will demand around 150m euros for the Frenchman. Meanwhile, Chelsea want 112m euros for Hazard, 28, despite the Belgian being out of contract in 2020.

Eriksen's Tottenham deal also expires in just over 12 months' time, but although the North Londoners are thought to be out to bank more than 100m euros for the Denmark midfielder, Madrid are reluctant to go higher than 85m for a player not quite in the same bracket as Hazard. Nevertheless, Los Blancos could be forced to up their valuation should Eriksen help Spurs to overturn Ajax's first-leg lead and put himself in the global shop window that is the Champions League final...

Finally, Lyon are believed to be after 80m euros for midfielder Nbombele, 22, talks are at an advanced stage over the signing of 21-year-old striker Jovic from Eintracht Frankfurt, in a deal expected to cost Madrid 60m euros.

In total, buying all five adds up to 487m, to which the 50m already spent on Militao must be added. Almost 540m euros... Such an investment would comfortably surpass the 453m euros Madrid have spent on the 23 signings that they have made in the past five years and in order to put together a transfer kitty large enough for such a summer spree, the 13-time European champions will have to turn several sources of funds.

With around 150m euros already at their disposal - according to the club's accounts - Madrid can also expect to raise cash from player sales (with the likes of Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and Mateo Kovacic earmarked for the exit) and a new deal with kit suppliers Adidas, which is to be announced soon and is likely to bring in more than 100m euros a year. That still won't be enough, however, and having already borrowed 575m euros to finance their stadium redevelopment (albeit they don't have to start paying that back until 2022), Madrid are set to take out a loan to complete their transfer warchest.