Perez calls for squad cull

Real supremo says squad size is now too big

Last updated: 4th July 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Perez calls for squad cull

Perez: Busy summer

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Florentino Perez believes Real Madrid need to look towards trimming their squad following a number of world class summer captures.

The Liga giants have broken a host of spending records this close season after capturing the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Raul Albiol and lining up a move for Karim Benzema.

Real continue to be linked with other big-name players from around Europe, primarily defenders, but Perez says the time has come to trim Manuel Pellegrini's squad.

Perez thinks up to 10 players may need to leave with the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart, Royston Drenthe and Klaas Jan Huntelaar all being tipped to depart.

Calm down

"Now we need to calm down a little because squads usually have around 25 players and ours now has some 35," Perez told Spanish television station Cuatro.

"We need to concentrate our efforts on convincing some players that they will have to leave. It should not be forgotten there is a World Cup next summer and all our players want to play in it.

"If players aren't going to have the chance to participate here they'll want to do it somewhere else, to be able to make it to the World Cup."