Opinion - Ballon d’Ors, Clasicos and more: Real Madrid are the model superclub right now and it isn't close

It's not been a bad few days for Real Madrid has it? After strolling to an impressive 3-1 win in El Clasico over Barcelona, Los Blancos took home the Ballon d’Or on Monday evening, with Karim Benzema winning the award for the first time. It was one of the less surprising Ballon d’Ors, it must be said. Benzema’s victory had been an open secret for some time now after his goals propelled Madrid to a La Liga and Champions League double.

Ad Having scored another in the Clasico, Benzema and Real Madrid are now three points clear at the top of La Liga (albeit after only nine games), and with some of Europe’s elite struggling this season, they are the favourites to retain their title in the Champions League. If you’re a Real Madrid fan, life is good right now. Ballon d'Or'I'm not even on the podium' — Courtois says winning Ballon d'Or is 'impossible' for goalkeepers4 HOURS AGO Which brings us to the core argument of this article.

Are Real Madrid the model elite club right now? The short answer is yes, absolutely. There are undeniably better run clubs further down the pecking order (the Bundesliga and Union Berlin say hello) but in terms of the top table of clubs in the world right now, Madrid are the example of how to run a team. Here’s the long answer as to why.

Let’s start with what most fans care the most about: the transfers. It seems that, at long last, Florentino Perez has landed on the perfect system. Rather than just launching money at his problems, Perez has started to use market inefficiencies to buy young players earlier or undervalued players and then use the big expenditures as a complement to the main transfer strategy, rather than as the driving factor.