Sid Lowe

An opportunity to install a new culture.

To install a structure.

To install an idea and a philosophy of play.

Which couldn't happen because of that pre-existing culture of the players' attitudes.

And I think the players know at the moment that they are more exposed than ever before.

Even though there's a contradiction here.

The manager who has come in has come in precisely because, in part, they think that he is someone who will be able to reach the players and someone who will be able to, if you like, make the players feel comfortable and happy with him in a way that didn't happen with Xabi Alonso.

I think what's happened is that Vinicius has become, if you like, the symbol of it.

I don't think it's just about him, but I think, of course, he becomes a symbol of it.

And at the beginning of this, and, you know, it's curious really to take a step back and look back on where things started to unravel for Xavi Alonso, at least publicly.

Now, and of course, the answer to that is in the Clásico.

So what should have been Xavi Alonso's best night as Real Madrid manager?

Beating Barcelona in the Clásico, winning a really big game when, of course, the previous two big games, they'd been battered by Atletico Madrid and battered by Paris Saint-Germain.

And last season, they'd lost nearly all of the big games as well.

So there was a real sense of that being a watershed moment we've broken through.

But what happens?

With 15 minutes to go, Vinicius goes off.

Vinicius goes straight down the tunnel.

There's a confrontation with Xavi Alonso.

And that's the beginning of the end.