‘The squad is closed’ – Mourinho thrilled with Madrid signings despite Rodri miss

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Jose Mourinho believes that Real Madrid’s business this summer is all but complete, suggesting “the squad is closed” to any more arrivals before the window slams shut. 

Madrid have been busy in the transfer market ahead of Mourinho’s return to the Spanish capital, with six new players walking through the doors of the Estadio Bernabeu. 

Yan Diomande’s reported €125m move from RB Leipzig headlines Los Blancos’ business, while Marc Cucurella, Carlos Espi and Denzel Dumfries have also joined for fees. 

Ibrahima Konate arrived from Liverpool, while Bernardo Silva signed from Manchester City, both of whom were on free transfers, and Madrid’s newest faces have been on show.

Madrid began life under Mourinho with a late opening-day victory against Espanyol in LaLiga, with Espi netting a 90th-minute winner after Jude Bellingham’s early goal had been cancelled out by Cala at RCDE Stadium. 

It had also been reported that Madrid were keen to bring Rodri to the club, but the World Cup winner opted to sign for Clasico rivals Barcelona after leaving Manchester City.

Mourinho said Madrid held conversations with Rodri, only for the midfielder to show doubts over joining Los Blancos before completing his €76.5m (£65m) transfer to Barcelona. 

And while Mourinho said sealing a move for Rodri would have been the “cherry on top” of Madrid’s transfer business, he was pleased with the players brought in.  

“For me, the squad is closed, but the market is still open – you never know if a player will come and say, ‘I’ve been benched twice, and I want to leave’,” Mourinho told reporters.

“In theory no [more deals]… but something could always happen… In my head, the squad is closed, and I have not asked for anyone. I am very happy with the players I have.”

Ready for our first home game! pic.twitter.com/J2hDP038Hf

— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) August 25, 2026

After allowing both Luka Modric and Toni Kroos to leave over the last couple of seasons, Madrid have struggled to control matches from the middle of the park. 

Rodri was seen as the solution to that, but after missing out on his signature, Mourinho elected to start with Federico Valverde and Silva in midfield against Espanyol before replacing the latter in the 80th minute for Eduardo Camavinga. 

Mourinho is likely to deploy the same midfield two for their clash with Real Sociedad on Wednesday, with the Madrid boss confirming Aurelien Tchouameni was not ready to play. 

“He’s got a problem, the holiday time wasn’t enough [for him to recover], seeing the games approaching, the player wanted to try… but we’ve decided that you can’t start a season in suffering,” Mourinho explained.

“You can finish a season suffering the last couple of months, but you can’t start in August not at 100 per cent.

“So we decided with him, the staff, the medical department, to get him to return at 100 per cent.”

Madrid have the chance to win their first two LaLiga games of a season for the fourth time in the last five campaigns (2022-23, 2023-24 and 2025-26), only failing to do so in 2024-25, and they have a good record against La Real in the top flight. 

They have won their last six LaLiga matches against La Real, their best winning streak against the Txuri-Urdin in the competition since February 2018 (W7).

Mourinho is also unbeaten in his six LaLiga matches against La Real (W5 D1). Only against Espanyol (seven games – W5 D2) has he overseen more games without defeat in the competition (also six against four other teams).

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