Mourinho: 'The squad is closed'

Jose Mourinho believes Real Madrid's business this summer is all but complete, insisting "the squad is closed" to any further arrivals before the transfer window slams shut. The Portuguese's return to the Spanish capital has been marked by a flurry of activity, 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 and Bernardo Silva signed from Manchester City, with both of those deals struck on free transfers, and Madrid's newest faces have already been on show.

Rodri the one that got away

It had been widely 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 confirmed Madrid held conversations with the midfielder, only for him to show doubts over joining Los Blancos before completing his €76.5m (£65m) move across the Clasico divide.

While Mourinho said sealing a move for Rodri would have been the "cherry on top" of Madrid's transfer business, he insisted he is delighted 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."

Mourinho got off to a winning start as Madrid edged to a late opening-day victory against Espanyol in LaLiga, with Carlos Espi netting a stoppage-time winner after a moment of Jude Bellingham early goal had been cancelled out by Cala at RCDE Stadium.

Midfield audition against La Real

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 Federico Valverde and Silva in midfield against Espanyol before replacing the latter in the 80th minute for Eduardo Camavinga.

Mourinho looks set to deploy the same pairing for Wednesday's meeting with Real Sociedad, 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 finished a season suffering the last couple of months, but you can't start in August not at 100 per cent," Mourinho explained. "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, and history is on their side against La Real. They have won their last six LaLiga matches against Sociedad, their best run against the San-Sebastian side since February 2018 (W7), while Mourinho is also unbeaten in his six top-flight matches against them (W5 D1).