In June new coach Manuel Pellegrini took over a bloated, expensive, ill-balanced squad of 35, a squad which had failed completely last season.

Sporting director Miguel Pardeza has been working round the clock to offload the club's unwanted players, but this has been difficult because of the high salaries and low tax rates enjoyed by top footballers in Spain.

On Friday Real announced the departure of veteran defender Gabriel Heinze to Olympique Marseille, on a free transfer. The whites paid around 10 million euros to Manchester United for the Argentine just two years ago, but have now had to let him go for free in order to see the back of him.

This is the kind of bad business that only the really big clubs can get away with.

Heinze is the sixth reject that Pardeza has so far managed to get rid of, after Jordi Codina and Dani Parejo (Getafe), Javier Saviola and Javi Garcia (Benfica).

Pellgrini now wants to see the back of unwanted Dutchmen Royston Drenthe, Rafael Van der Vaart, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Klaas Jan Huntelaar, as well as Michel Salgado, Mahamadou Diarra and Alvaro Negredo.

The most frustrating case for poor Pardeza has been that of Huntelaar. After a month of arduous negotiations, the Dutch striker finally seemed to be all set to leave for Stuttgart - only to change his mind at the last minute.

Huntelaar has returned to training with Real, but Pellegrini completely ignores him and will not pick him for any of the summer friendlies.

Sports daily AS claims on Friday that Negredo and Van der Vaart might be used as part payment to Liverpool for Xabi Alonso, which would kill three birds with one stone for the overworked Pardeza.