Real Madrid: Zinedine Zidane promised £300m transfer overhaul to return to Bernabeu

Santi Solari was sacked on Monday after overseeing the club's exit in the Champions League and Copa del Rey

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has promised Zinedine Zidane an expensive overhaul of their ailing team, as he convinced the French legend to return to the Bernabeu.

Zidane has been named the new manager, just 10 months after leaving in part because he realised that the three-time European champions required significant renovation of an ageing squad as well as to replace Cristiano Ronaldo.

Perez tried to put that off at the time, and persist with a team that had won four Champions Leagues in five years, only for things to collapse this season under Julen Lopetegui and then Santiago Solari.

The club had been hoping to delay any decision until the end of the season, and had aspirations of bringing in Jurgen Klopp or Mauricio Pochettino, but the difficulties of securing both as well as the nature of a hugely disappointing season has seen Zidane move.

The club want to again bring in a “galactico” this summer for the first time since 2014, and maybe even three such stars.

Neymar has been a long-term target but so are Tottenham Hotspur’s Christian Eriksen, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Neymar’s Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Kylian Mbappe.

There are plans to spend over £300 million this summer, while bringing in money from significant sales, with Gareth Bale and Luka Modric among those expected to leave.

It is understood the issue of overhauling the squad was key in discussions between Perez and Zidane, with the president realising the need to make serious “concessions” in order to bring his star manager back.

The move will have further-reaching implications for England, since it will now mean Madrid do not move for either Pochettino or Klopp, while Jose Mourinho will not return to a job he had been mooted for.

There is understood to have been too much difference of opinion within the club over re-appointing the Portuguese.