Atletico Madrid continued what is looking like a substantial job of rebuilding on Thursday when they announced the signing of Marcos Llorente from rivals, Real Madrid for £27 million.
Replacement for Rodri?
Llorente is regarded as a direct replacement for central midfielder, Rodri who is expected to leave the club this summer with Pep Guardiola's Manchester City on the verge of paying his release clause of £62 million.
Llorente has spent his entire career with Real aside from a season when he was loaned to Deportivo Alaves.
He joined Los Blancos as a 13-year-old but he never managed to break into the first team and he was told by Zinedine Zidane that he was among those that the club was willing to let go in order to recoup some of the money already spent on players this summer.
Despite not being a regular for Real, he did manage to collect a Champions League winners medal in 2018, a UEFA Super Cup medal in 2017 and FIFA World Club Cup medals in 2017 and 2018. In the 2018 FIFA World Club Cup final, he managed to score one of only two goals he netted for the first team.
Keeping it in the family
Llorente is a boyhood Real Madrid fan and is actually the fourth member of his family to play for the club.
His father, grandfather and great uncle all played for Real with his great uncle the famous Francisco Gento who won six European Cups with the club.
Atletico faces a difficult summer having already lost Lucas Hernandez to Bayern Munich. Diego Godin and Juanfran are leaving on free transfers with Rodri and Antoine Griezmann also seemingly on their way out.
Llorente joins Brazilian centre back, Felipe who joined from Porto as Diego Simeone looks to rebuild a squad to see Atletico finish ahead of their city rivals for the third season in a row.