Alex Kirkland

That didn't work.

And Solari...

you know, didn't make it.

I think he took over in October, lasted till March, didn't make it to the end of the season.

So there are two recent examples there of coaches who've stepped in mid-season at Real Madrid.

One worked out in the best possible way and another didn't.

But no, in terms of Arbeloa, like I say, at the club, there is a lot of faith in him as a coach, even if he is, of course, you know, totally unproven at the highest level.

Yeah, the big question is why now?

Because we knew that Xabi was under huge pressure.

He had been for months.

We knew there were doubts right at the top of the club, really, about him and had been for some time.

But the feeling was, and pretty much literally everyone thought so, that they came out of the Super Cup having done enough to keep Xabi in his job.

Yes, they lost the final to Barcelona, but they had managed to compete.

They lost 3-2.

It wasn't a repeat of the 5-2 loss in the Super Cup final last season, for example.

So, yeah, why now?

I think there are a number of factors.

One of them is that I think that

The way they played in that game against Barcelona yesterday didn't go down too well.

There was a feeling they were sort of overly defensive and conservative.