Ian Darke

I mean, I think what we're seeing here is just what a brilliant coach Carlo Ancelotti was, if we didn't know that already.

You need to be a politician as well.

That's clear, isn't it, at the Bernabeu?

And he handled it all so smoothly without looking like he was doing much, but he really was.

So what surprised me now is

under this Alonso era is the players switching off and not being professional enough to say, OK, new coach, a new way of playing.

We want to hit back here.

We want to get the trophies back again.

They didn't win the trophy last season.

Barcelona beat them all four times.

You'd think the players would really have the bit between their teeth, and they haven't had the bit between their teeth.

Yeah, I mean, a lot's going to happen, isn't it, in the summer after the World Cup.

A lot of those national team coaches are going to end their international contract and be out on the market.

And, of course, the clubs are very aware of that, which is why we're seeing a few interims going on at the moment.

All those interims are saying the right things or trying to say the right things and hoping they might be kept, unlike Michael Carrick.

But it will be a very busy summer, I think, on the managerial merry-go-round.

Well, that says they can, doesn't it?

I mean, it's a division where anybody can beat anybody.

They've come together with quite a good little run, haven't they, just recently.

So they'll be starting to believe, and it may be with the kind of Hollywood money that they have behind them, they can invest quite well in this January window as well.