As much as it stings that we’ve spent an absolute fortune and are nowhere near Madrid’s level, there’s a load of reasons why they spend less, apart from obviously some questionable transfer fees on our behalf. Real have a solid spine of players who’ve been around for years, are able to hoover up players from Spain - the country with the greatest depth in talented footballers over the past decade - relatively cheaply, are one of the two most desirable clubs to play for, and aren’t desperate for new players to bring success and therefore held to ransom on transfer fees. Apart from the mega transfers (Bale and James) I think Vinicius is the first time they’ve crossed the £30m mark this decade.