Florentino Perez rules out major summer signings at Real Madrid

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has admitted that his club will be unable to afford to make any major signings during this summer's transfer window.

Los Blancos secured their 34th La Liga title on Thursday night with a 2-1 home victory over Villarreal.

The capital giants were expected to be active in the upcoming market, with the likes of Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe and Manchester United's Paul Pogba linked with summer moves.

However, Perez has conceded that the financial impact of the coronavirus outbreak means that major signings will not be possible ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.

Perez told El Transistor: "The situation is really bad. It's difficult to ask the players to take a pay cut to help deal with the situation and then make signings like that. That can wait. Madrid will sign the best again when the situation changes.

"This year has been the most difficult for me. We lost important income from the stadium. We had to talk to the players for them to do their bit. If they hadn't voluntarily lowered their salaries, the company would have suffered losses. It's an exceptional situation.

"We receive a lot of income from the stadium, we've had losses of 25% which is a lot of money. You notice it more with Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid than the other clubs because they cover their costs with television rights and we don't."

Madrid will finish their 2019-20 La Liga season against Leganes this weekend before switching their attention to the Champions League, where they will have to overcome a 2-1 first-leg deficit to Manchester City if they are to make the quarter-finals of the competition.