Zidane knows ‘exactly’ what he wants but admits ‘nothing’s ever concrete’ in transfer market

In today’s edition of reading too much into vague, practically meaningless quotes from football managers, we take a look at Zinedine Zidane’s latest over in Spain. Speaking ahead of their match this weekend, the returning Real hero confirmed that the will be looking to make significant changes to the squad this summer — he was supposedly promised a blank check by club president Florentino Perez — and that he has a clear idea of how he will go about doing so.

“I know exactly what I want. [...] We have talked about player profiles and that is clear in my head. We’ll see what we can do. What is certain is that there will be changes. You can never stand still.”

However, and this is the part where we ignore reality and substitute our own, he also admits that things can change very quickly and football and nothing’s ever certain until the ink dries on the paper — and sometimes not even then.

”Nothing is ever concrete with these things, it’s just what you aim to do, your desire to change certain things, that’s all.”

-Zinedine Zidane; source: Express

It’s assumed and expected that Eden Hazard will be signing with the Galacticos in the summer, bringing to an end his time at Stamford Bridge after seven years. It’s surely the only reasonable conclusion to the transfer saga all these years in the making.

But nothing’s ever concrete, right?

In fact, Zidane was responding to a question about Kylian Mbappe rather than Hazard in this instance, though his statement of the obvious should apply in either case. Here’s a slightly different wording or translation, with a bit more context.

“I’m not going to mention any names. We’re looking at the future but that will be discussed when the time comes. I know what I’m looking for and I’ll speak to the club about the kind of players I want, but not now.

“There’s nothing decided. I’ve got some ideas and I’d like to change things. It’s clear in my mind what kind of players I want to bring in but it all depends on the market. There will be changes and there will be alterations to the playing style as well.”

-Zinedine Zidane; source: Managing Madrid

Either way, we can only hope until Hazard signs something — maybe it will be a Chelsea contract instead? And then we snap back to reality.