Florentino Pérez spent €225 million, re-hired José Mourinho, and brought in six new faces. Three games in, Real Madrid sit level with Barcelona on points at the top of La Liga. The project is alive — but not every piece fits as neatly as the table suggests.
Mourinho has won all three openers, including a nervy 2-1 comeback against Espanyol on the opening day before back-to-back four-goal performances against Real Sociedad and Málaga. The football looks good. Whether it holds up across 38 league games and a Champions League campaign is a different conversation entirely.
Here's how every signing looks so far — and what it means for Madrid's season.
The ones who make sense immediately
Marc Cucurella — A+
This one was obvious the moment Mourinho flagged it. Álvaro Carreras and Fran García never nailed down the left back role, and Ferland Mendy's body just refuses to cooperate. Cucurella, 27 and a World Cup winner, cost Chelsea a significant fee but arrived at Madrid for what turned out to be a reasonable price given the market. His ability to defend, press, attack and thoroughly irritate opponents is exactly what Mourinho's system demands. The Barcelona connection raised a few eyebrows. Nobody's talking about that now.
Bernardo Silva — B+
A free transfer from Manchester City after nine seasons and more trophies than most players see in a career. At 32, Silva won't be doing this for another four years, but he brings genuine elite-level intelligence to Mourinho's midfield pivot. He can play multiple positions, he's a leader in the dressing room, and he understands how to win at the highest level under tactical pressure. What he isn't — and this matters for anyone watching Madrid's Champions League odds — is a defensive midfielder. Rodri's profile is still missing from this squad, and that gap will be tested in Europe.
The bigger questions
Ibrahima Konaté — C
The free deal from Liverpool looks smart on paper. A 6'5" centre-back who costs nothing in transfer fees fits Madrid's recent recruitment model perfectly. The problem is that Konaté hasn't looked like an elite defender for some time. Liverpool fans weren't devastated when he left Anfield — that tells you something. He barely featured for France at the World Cup, starting only the bronze medal match, a 6-4 loss to England that was hardly a testament to defensive organisation. Mourinho's track record of rebuilding confidence in damaged egos is real, but Konaté needs to find form quickly. Madrid's backline is still their most exploitable area.
Denzel Dumfries — B-
Activated via release clause before the World Cup had even finished. At 30, Dumfries is a known quantity — two Serie A titles with Inter, two Champions League finals, and a player who made Barcelona's life miserable in last season's semi-finals. He competes with Trent Alexander-Arnold for the right back slot vacated by Dani Carvajal. The issue is that Alexander-Arnold's defensive vulnerabilities are well-documented, and Dumfries doesn't address them either. He's an attacking fullback in an area where Madrid already had an attacking fullback. Top sides in Europe will continue to target that corridor.
Yan Diomandé — B-
Pérez promised galácticos. Rumours swirled around Michael Olise, Enzo Fernández, Julián Álvarez. What Madrid got was a 19-year-old from RB Leipzig — Ivorian, electric, and carrying a club-record price tag. Diomandé is genuinely one of the most exciting teenage prospects in European football right now, but building your attack around someone with barely a year of senior experience is a high-risk call. He's being introduced carefully by Mourinho alongside Vinícius, Mbappé and Bellingham — which is the right approach. The ceiling is enormous. The timeline is uncertain.
Carlos Espí — C
The signing nobody saw coming. The 21-year-old striker arrived as a squad option — Mourinho's Joselu blueprint — and promptly scored a 90th-minute winner against Espanyol on his La Liga debut. The crowd loved it. But a backup striker making late cameos is exactly that: a backup striker making late cameos. He won't threaten Mbappé's starting spot. Whether he can do it consistently with limited minutes across a full season is the actual question, and one debut doesn't answer it.
Overall, this is a squad with a clearer identity than Madrid have had in two seasons. But the defensive midfield hole is real, Konaté needs to rediscover himself, and hanging a club-record fee around a teenager's neck rarely ends without turbulence. Three wins from three is a fine start. The real audit comes in November.
