After Real Madrid confirmed the loan of Norwegian Martin Odegaard to Arsenal, this means that coach Zinedine Zidane will rely on the old guard in the midfield without any competitors.
The "dictatorship" of Luka Modric, the German, Toni Kroos and the Brazilian Casemiro, made Odegaard a new victim and forced him to leave for London, after "Zizo" did not give him enough minutes to prove himself and present his talent.
The Spaniard Isco, who wants to leave, remains in the current Mercato, but the departure of the Norwegian international - it seems - closed the way for him, and there is no choice but to stay at the Bernabeu until the end of the current season.
Before Odegaard, the royal contracted many players, but they were not given many minutes of play due to the control of the "Iron" trio in midfield.
Spaniard Asir Ilaramendi moved in 2013 from Real Sociedad to the Merengue to be a regular, but when Casemiro returned from his loan to Porto, he took the place of Iaramendi, to quickly pack his bags and return to Sociedad after only two years in Madrid.
After Ijaramenidi, came the role of Matteo Kovisic, who proved to be a useful alternative in the three successive editions Real Madrid won in the Champions League, but he did not start until one of the three players was injured, and for this he left for Chelsea.
Then he signed Dani Ceballos from Real Betis to compete with the trio for a position or to be a substitute for one of them, but he left for Arsenal on loan for the second season in a row.
Marcus Llorente is another example of how difficult it is for any new player to penetrate the Madrid midfield and play in it, and Llorente was moving from one dilemma to another until he was pushed to leave for Atletico Madrid, to present distinguished levels and become a mainstay in coach Diego Simeone's squad this season.