€94m to spend, no-one to buy?

REAL MADRID last night brought their galactic summer spending to almost €200m with an agreement in principle to pay €35m to Lyon for striker Karim Benzema. Lyon have accepted this bid and the player is now negotiating the terms of his transfer.

But as Cristiano Ronaldo officially became a Madrid player in a €94m deal with Man United, Benzema’s deal eliminated another attacking option from Alex Ferguson’s grand plan for next season, leaving the Old Trafford manager with almost €80m burning a hole in his pocket.

With Benzema gone, David Villa likely to remain in Spain and Bayern Munich talking Monopoly money over Franck Ribery, Ferguson may be starting to regret letting his Portuguese goal machine off to the Bernabeu. Samuel Eto’o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic also seem beyond United’s reach.