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News emanating from Spanish sources suggests that La Liga giants Real Madrid are looking to offload several of their players who are deemed surplus to requirements including the former Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek and Dutch u21 international Royston Drenthe, who was widely tipped to join Chelsea in the summer. It seems as if Bernd Schuster has decided that a little early spring cleaning is the order of the day at the Bernabeau with several players expected to make their way out of the squad, most of whom arrived only in the summer. The excellent start that Real enjoyed to the league, which sees them sitting 7 points clear of Barcelona their nearest rivals and clearly holding all the aces in the race for the Spanish Championship, has meant that the squad has enjoyed a largely settled period. This has meant that several players have had to content themselves with bit part roles this season and now look ready for a move on. Royston Drenthe was subject of several large bids from some of Europe's biggest clubs after excelling at the u21 Championships for Holland helping his country to retain the trophy on home soil. The former Feyenoord left winger departed Rotterdam in the summer despite the Dutch club insisting that he wouldn't move for another 12 months as they felt their young starlet wasn't ready for a move away. It now seems that they have been proved correct after Drenthe was left out of the squad altogether for Real's famous win against Barcelona before Christmas and in total making only 7 appearances for his new side. Real Madrid weren't the only side to show an interest in Drenthe over the summer with Chelsea and AC Milan also widely tipped to make a move for the player. His potential availability may now rekindle Chelsea's interest as they look for another out-and-out wide player for the left side of the attack as they look to re-shape their attacking options to cope with the loss of Drogba for the foreseeable future and get the best out of Shevchenko. If Chelsea do consider a move they may face some competition from the Italian pair of Fiorentina and AS Roma, both of whom are also in the market for the young Dutchman. Roma’s interest is certainly credible as there is a fair chance that their current left winger Mancini will be on his way out of Rome this winter after he failed to agree a new contract at the club. Therefore Roma boss Luciano Spaletti may see Drenthe as the ideal replacement for the want-away Brazilian. Jerzy Dudek is another player who could be on his way out of the club after he expressed his dissatisfaction with playing second fiddle to Real’s undisputed Number 1 choice Iker Casillas. The out of contract Polish goalkeeper joined the club after being released by Liverpool in the summer after falling down the pecking order at Anfield. Unsurprisingly Dudek has not had much of a look-in since arriving at Real and is now looking for some first team action and has already been linked with a move to Celtic, which would see him link up with international colleague Arthur Boruc. Another player who has been sporadically linked with a move to British shores is Javier Saviola, the diminutive Argentine striker, who was once thought to be tracked by Tottenham. Although Spurs have a full compliment of strikers the opportunity to acquire a quality striker in the form of Saviola, will certainly not pass-by those Premiership teams looking to reinforce their striking options. There is also interest in the former Barcelona and River Plate striker from the Continent with Marseille believed to be close to making an enquiry regarding Saviola. The striker has already enjoyed one productive loan spell in Ligue 1 with Monaco so may consider a return to France. He is still a striker of impressive quality managing 2 goals in only 6 appearances for his new side, after he joined Real in the summer after being released by Barcelona. The final player potentially on his way from Real is Roberto Soldaldo, a striker who has enjoyed several loan spells, including a particularly prolific one last season with Osasuna when he notched 13 goals in 31 appearances for the side from Pamplona. The Spanish striker, who was once considered as a potential successor to Raul has had only 20 minutes of action in 17 league matches this season for Real and is another, who could make a move from Madrid. Posted by Walter Townsend on Friday, 4th January 2008 (Average rating 0 from 0 votes. Vote) (0 Comments) |