When Real Madrid had comfortably defeated Barcelona in the first El Clasico of the season by a 3-1 scoreline at Santiago Bernabeu and were looking almost undefeatable, nobody could have predicted that they would find themselves five points behind Xavi’s side even before half the La Liga campaign was played. And yet, here we are.
Barcelona got themselves a 1-0 win against Girona this weekend, while Real Madrid could only manage a goalless draw vs Real Sociedad, despite being the dominant team. It meant that they slipped further away from the Catalan giants, who are now leading the league by five points.
Real Madrid have been struggling for their best for some time now. They struggled before the World Cup break and the expectation was that things would change after the big tournament. But they have continued to look sluggish.
Yet, there has been no movement from Real Madrid in the January transfer window. And Carlo Ancelotti confirmed that that will remain the case. As reported by the club’s official website, the manager said:
"“It’s closed in every respect, both in terms of exits and players coming in.”"
Ancelotti confirms Real Madrid’s transfer plans
The public stance has always been that Real Madrid would not be making any further additions to the squad in the middle of the season and they have stuck to that till now.
Rumours recently broke out that the club will get a deal done for Fran Garcia this month before sending him back on loan to Rayo Vallecano for the rest of the season, but that has not transpired till now either and it remains to be seen what the situation is regarding that.
But it looks pretty much certain that Los Blancos will continue on with the squad that they have right now, despite the number of issues that they have faced this season already. Let’s just hope that things get better moving forward.