With eleven days of the window left, Real Madrid’s most delicate piece of business is not a signing at all. It is finding Raúl Asencio a way out. According to Bernabéu Digital, the centre-back’s agent Jorge Mendes is now actively working the market on his behalf, holding talks with clubs in the Premier League and in Serie A, with José Mourinho having given the green light to a departure. An Asencio transfer has become the key that unlocks the rest of Madrid’s so-called ‘Operación Salida’ — the exit plan the club needs to complete before 31 August.
What you will find below:
- Why Mourinho has signed off on an Asencio exit after one season in the first-team picture
- The brief Jorge Mendes has been handed, and where the interest is coming from
- Why the club would rather sell Asencio than lose Eduardo Camavinga
- The Camavinga and Tchouaméni situations, and what MARCA report about a late Premier League move
- Two more academy names on the sales list, and what realistically happens before the deadline
Background: how Asencio went from emergency solution to squeezed out
Asencio’s rise was one of the few uncomplicated pleasures of a difficult period at the Bernabéu. A La Fábrica centre-back handed his chance when the senior defence was in pieces, he took it, kept it, and ended up a Spain international. Twelve months on, the queue in front of him looks very different.
Madrid have rebuilt the position twice over this summer. Dean Huijsen and Ibrahima Konaté, the Liverpool defender who arrived on a free, are the pairing the Spanish press expect Mourinho to start with — a shift we covered when Antonio Rüdiger began the pre-season losing his place. Behind them, Bernabéu Digital point to the emergence of the academy pair Mario Rivas and Joan Martínez, both of whom impressed enough over the summer to be considered genuine options. That is four bodies for two shirts before you get to Asencio.
And there is a fifth. In a separate report, Bernabéu Digital describe Éder Militão as the card Mourinho is still holding: the Brazilian is working his way back from injury, the coach has no intention of rushing him, but he is planned for as a centre-back who can compete for a starting place once his rhythm returns. For a young defender who needs minutes rather than reassurance, the maths stop adding up.
The Asencio transfer: what Jorge Mendes has been asked to do
A brief covering England and Italy
Bernabéu Digital’s reporting is specific about the shape of the operation. Mendes is aware of Mourinho’s wishes and is negotiating with several clubs in the Premier League and in Italy’s Serie A, with the objective of finding both a destination and a financial structure that satisfies every party. Crucially, the same report stresses that Madrid feel no obligation to accept whatever lands on the table: the club are willing to facilitate the move, not to hold a fire sale. No fee, no buying club and no personal terms have been reported, and nothing here is official.
The wider context is that this is a departure Madrid would bank rather than merely tolerate. Asencio is academy-trained, which in accounting terms makes any sale close to pure profit — the same logic that has driven the club’s record summer of academy sales. It also, as Bernabéu Digital note, could create the margin for one final move in the squad.
Why Mourinho would rather sell Asencio than Camavinga
This is the part that tells you most about the dressing room. We reported earlier this week that Mourinho preferred an Asencio sale to losing Camavinga, and the latest reporting hardens that hierarchy. Per Bernabéu Digital, Camavinga has told the coach directly that he wants to stay and fight to win his place back, and that message has landed. Asencio, by contrast, faces the prospect of very few minutes given the competition described above.
There is a complication, however, and it is worth being straight about it. The same outlet’s market desk reported on Wednesday evening that Mourinho still thinks Camavinga should be the one to go if something happens late. Both things can be true at once: a coach can accept a player’s desire to stay while believing the squad would be better balanced by his sale. What is consistent is that Madrid are not going to force either exit.
Camavinga, Tchouaméni and the door Madrid have left open
On the midfield, Bernabéu Digital, citing MARCA, report that Real Madrid have not closed the window on selling one of Camavinga or Aurélien Tchouaméni. For much of the summer a major midfield sale was under consideration; neither player was willing to leave, both are under contract, and the operations stalled. The nuance is that the club would still listen if the Premier League returns with another attempt — while not expecting it to happen.
Tchouaméni’s position appears to have moved furthest. After Manchester United’s interest cooled when the Frenchman turned down their offer, the same report suggests Madrid may have put a renewal proposal to him, which would effectively end any prospect of an exit this summer. That is reporting rather than confirmation — no renewal has been announced — and it sits alongside the earlier claim that United were ready with an obligation-to-buy structure for Camavinga.
The challenges: three reasons this is harder than it looks
Depth is thinner than the list suggests. It was only last week that Madrid went into the final stretch of pre-season with three fit senior centre-backs. Militão is not back, Rivas and Joan Martínez are teenagers, and selling Asencio in the last fortnight of August leaves no obvious replacement route if a defender pulls up in September.
Timing works against the seller. Clubs shopping in the final ten days of a window know the selling side is under pressure. Madrid’s stated position — no need to accept just any proposal — is the right one, but it also means the realistic outcome could be a loan rather than the clean sale the balance sheet would prefer.
And the player has to want it. Nothing in the reporting suggests Asencio is pushing for the door. Mendes’s job, as described, is to find a solution that convinces the footballer as well as the club. A homegrown defender who fought his way into this team a year ago is entitled to weigh up whether he would rather stay and compete.
Also on the list: two more academy exits
Asencio is not the only name being worked on. Bernabéu Digital, citing the journalist Ben Fernandes, report interest in two further La Fábrica players: clubs in Italy and Belgium have asked about Daniel Yáñez, though only to establish his situation and with no progress to speak of, while David Jiménez continues to attract attention, with Porto the latest to enquire about the full-back. Other top-flight clubs are said to be interested but dependent on their own outgoings. No asking price has been discussed for either.
Both debuted for the first team last season without establishing themselves, and neither was given minutes in pre-season under Mourinho — the clearest signal there is. It continues a pattern we tracked when two more academy departures were confirmed earlier this month.
Outlook: what happens before 31 August
The framing from inside the club, per Bernabéu Digital’s market live blog, is that Mourinho considers his squad complete and the market effectively closed — barring a surprise from Florentino Pérez. Read alongside everything above, three things look likely to define the final eleven days:
- An Asencio departure, by sale or loan, with the Premier League and Serie A the most likely destinations
- A quiet resolution in midfield: Camavinga and Tchouaméni both staying unless England moves late
- One or two more academy sales, adding to a summer of record profit from La Fábrica
There is one further wrinkle. Bernabéu Digital, citing MARCA, report that Federico Valverde has turned down offers this summer and intends to stay for years — the Uruguayan has been the subject of a positional debate all pre-season rather than a transfer one. The same outlet also describes him as the man who will wear the armband this season; the club have not confirmed a captain, so treat that as reporting rather than fact.
The verdict for Madridistas
An Asencio transfer would be a strange kind of milestone: the academy graduate who saved a season being moved on because the club rebuilt the position so aggressively around him. The financial logic is impeccable and the football logic is defensible. The risk is the one every August carries — that a squad trimmed for balance turns out to be a squad trimmed too far. Madrid begin the defence of nothing at all at Espanyol on Saturday, and the window shuts five days later. Keep watching Mendes.
