Los Blancos may have spent big on the Bournemouth centre-back but he already looks like a bargain buy for Xabi AlonsoJude Bellingham calls him 'Spaghetti'. It is, admittedly, not the best or most fearsome nickname. Centre-backs should probably sound cooler, or, at least a little more intimidating. Pasta is, objectively, not the kind of thing that rattles the best strikers in Europe. But look at Dean Huijsen, and it's oddly perfect. The guy is wiry thin. He does not look like a professional athlete. Everything about him - awkward stance, spindly legs, dorky demeanour - suggests that he should be doing pretty much anything else with his life. Yet Huijsen is a truly excellent centre-back, and at a time when Real Madrid really need one. Most of the talk for Los Blancos over the last 18 months has been about the right-back they eventually signed, and how they would configure the attack. It didn't really occur to anyone - for some reason - that central defence might have been a far more pressing issue. Indeed, the centre-back pool appears frightfully thin. Antonio Rudiger is world class, but spent a lot of last season struggling with knocks. Raul Asencio isn't quite at the level required. Meanwhile, both David Alaba and Eder Militao are unable to stay fit. Huijsen's signing, at the time, raised a few eyebrows. It seemed, in abstract, a Galactico purchase, a classic Madrid 'because we can' pinching of a top Spanish player. Yet a few weeks into the season, and he looks like not only Madrid's most important signing of the summer, but also the best. There is a long way to go - and others may yet improve. But for now, Huijsen's purchase looks something of a masterstroke from the Madrid hierarchy.