Real back to work with big questions to be answered in the post-Zidane, Ramos era

Although the European Championship is still to finish, several La Liga sides return to pre-season training this week, with Real Madrid one of the early starters on Monday, reported Xinhua.

The summer saw two major departures at the club, with Zinedine Zidane resigning as the first-team coach, while club captain Sergio Ramos' 16-year stay came to an end, and it is hard to predict how those departures will affect the club.

Carlo Ancelotti was swiftly named Zidane's replacement and the Italian starts work with several questions to resolve.

One issue that is likely to drag on for most of the summer is Real Madrid's pursuit of Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe, and much will depend on whether the Frenchman agrees a new contract or not with his current club.

If he fails to reach an agreement, then Real Madrid have to decide whether to make an offer for him this summer or wait a year for him to arrive for nothing - which must be tempting given the current economic climate in football.

If Mbappe does sign a new deal, Madrid will have to start looking elsewhere for a new forward and how much money the club has to play with will depend largely on the second major question: what to do with players returning from loan.

Despite impressing at Real Sociedad and Arsenal in the past two seasons, Martin Odegaard has so far failed to win a regular first-team spot at Real Madrid and you have to think a moment has come when another loan deal is not going to help either the player or the club.

Dani Ceballos, also back from Arsenal, said recently that he would rather be sold unless he has a chance at first-team football with Madrid. Both Odegaard and Ceballos would bring in decent transfer fees, as would Luka Jovic, although Madrid would have to accept a big loss on the 60 million euros they paid for him two years ago.

Brahim Diaz has impressed with AC Milan and the Spain Under-21 side and there is clearly a market for the player who joined from Manchester City in 2019.

If able to avoid the injuries that have plagued him in recent years, central defender Jesus Vallejo, coming back from Granada, could be an option to replace Ramos (or Raphael Varane, who goes into the last season of his contract without agreeing a new deal).

Take Kubo comes back after a season spent between Villarreal and Getafe, but lack of an EU passport is a problem for the Japanese winger, who has not done enough in two years on loan to show he can play in the Real Madrid first team.

Gareth Bale is also due to return after his season at Tottenham and the future of the highly-paid Welsh international is likely to provide one of the major stories of the summer with Bale seemingly content to spend the last year of his contract in limbo in what could well turn into a battle of wills between player and club.