Alex Kirkland

Is it going off the rails again?

Because Arbeloa, like I say, had that dodgy start in the Copa del Rey.

They got knocked out of the Cup.

But after that, it looked like he was starting to put something together and the players were starting to buy in.

And here we are, like I say, right back to square one.

Yeah, Madrid fans want two things.

They want trophies and they want effort.

You know, it's not about a style of play, a philosophy like Barca might have, but you want to win things and you want to see that the players are working hard.

And we've seen that time and time again.

Some really popular players at the Bernabeu aren't always the superstars.

They might be, you know, a homegrown academy product.

who puts in a shift, who works hard, who always gives 100% despite being, you know, a fairly limited player compared to some of his Galactico teammates.

And one of the big frustrations around this team, and the reason I think they might be getting whistled again on Sunday in the Rio game, we saw all those whistles the other day after the Alonso sacking at the Bernabeu louder than I'd ever heard it being there.

I think we can get some more of that other weekend.

Maybe not quite as loud, but still, I think the team is going to sort of feel the frustration of the fans because...

increasingly, it's the players that are under the spotlight.

You know, Alonso has gone, Arbelo has come in, they're still not doing it, and there's, I think, more and more of a focus on the players, as well as the club at executive level, as well, about decisions that they have taken.

But this is about the players.

I think they're going to feel that from the fans, because, yes, the feeling is...

we have albeit there are legitimate discussions about how the players fit together and and that the squad and and that kind of thing but we've got talented players and they are not delivering time and time and time again yeah i think we're going to see that from the from the fans of the weekend we said that when the lonzo went they said that's it the hiding place is gone yes