Would failing to sign a Galactico be such a bad thing for Real Madrid?

Real Madrid don’t really need to buy a Galatico this summer, but that’s never stopped them before.

Supporters have the club’s 11th European Cup to stare at until the football starts again so they don’t need a shiny new signing. But that was the case in 2014 when they last won the Champions League and Florentino Perez still went out and spent €100m plus on James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos because they had played so well at the World Cup.

The Real Madrid president sat down in front of the television at the start of the Euros and waited for it to become just as glaringly obvious to him exactly who he should bring to the club this year.

Except it didn’t become obvious. Robert Lewandowski scored once in 510 minutes of football. Eden Hazard played second fiddle to Belgium’s very own Travis Bickle and was sent home by Wales. And Paul Pogba played like a man whose price tag had been tampered with by Mino Raiola.

"A steal at €20m," enthused Florentino watching at home. "No that’s €120m sir," said the transfer market elves. Perez was running out of options. "This Will Briggs seems to be creating a lot of noise. What position does he play?" "He doesn’t play sir". And so on it went.

At the end of the tournament there was no clamour from supporters to sign anybody and so Madrid were left wondering if they might get away without the grotesque smashing of the transfer record for one season. With just over a month left of the window that’s the way it’s looking. As a distraction tactic the Galatico model has always been unbeatable.

Supporters have turned a blind eye to just one league title in the last eight seasons because every time they begin to think of such things Perez dangles another shimmering bauble in front of them. He delivered Luis Figo in 2000, Zinedine Zidane in 2001, Ronaldo in 2002, David Beckham in 2003, Michael Owen in 2004 and Robinho in 2005 before resigning because the club had gone three years without winning a single trophy.

When he returned in 2009 he brought Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka in one €200m triple-whammy and that led to another trophy-less campaign. If there is no-one who will improve the team at the right price – and for as much as Zidane fancies him – Pogba’s €120m price is not, in Perez’ eyes, ‘the right price’ – then maybe there should be no big new arrival.

In keeping with the tradition of eyeing up the best players at the most recent international tournaments they are looking at Newcastle’s Moussa Sissoko. They need a reserve left-back to replace Fabio Coentrao and a holding midfielder but beyond that they are the European Cup holders, they have Alvaro Morata and the very promising Marco Asensio back at the club and Gareth Bale and Ronaldo in harness up-front so why panic?

It’s impossible that they will not buy anyone. But if Pogba completes his move to Old Trafford, it’s difficult to see any new signings being anything more than "sensible additions to the squad". Last year David de Gea was supposed to be the prize offering. But as both Real and Manchester United fumbled in their pockets like two men hoping to avoid picking up the bill, the signing never happened.

Perez faced fans the next morning expecting to feel some sort of wrath. But there was no wrath. And Madrid won the European Cup with a settled squad. Not making a big signing still feels a bit like cancelling Christmas but past precedents suggest it's not always a bad thing.

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