When the La Liga fixtures were released on 1 July last summer, most eyes were drawn to the fact there was a Clásico right towards the end of the season. All neutrals hoped this could be a decisive and, well in a literal sense, it could be. With four fixtures remaining, Barcelona sit 11 points clear of Real Madrid. Thus, should Barça avoid defeat against their fierce rivals in Sunday night's showpiece fixture at Camp Nou, they would secure a 29th league title, closing in on los Blancos' record of 36.
Never before in the 124 year history of el Clásico has one club secured the La Liga title against the other, hence why it promises to be an historic Sunday night in Catalonia. So, how did we get here? Well, it was not always going to be this way. Back in October, goals from Kylian Mbappé and then Jude Bellingham saw los Merengues beat Barcelona 2-1 at the Bernabéu. At that point, Xabi Alonso's side moved five points clear at the top and it appeared as though he had figured it all out.
Well, after starting the season with ten wins out of 11, the Real Madrid players seemingly decided that is enough of that. By early-January, when Barça narrowly beat them 3-2 in the Supercopa de España Final in Jeddah, the dressing room and the club had turned so toxic that Alonso was sacked the following morning.
After only six months in charge of Castilla, Álvaro Arbeloa was promoted to the top job, but has simply appeared out of his depth. Los Blancos have won only 15 of 24 matches under Arbeloa, losing seven, beaten in La Liga by Osasuna, Getafe at home and most-recently Mallorca at Son Moix. Last Sunday, Barça's title party was delayed by a week or so, as Vinícius Júnior's double downed an Espanyol side sinking like a stone, without a win in 17.
Thus, whether or not Barça do clinch the title this weekend, this will be a second successive season without a major trophy for Real Madrid. After letting Carlo Ancelotti depart last summer, the arrival of Alonso was supposed to signify a change in direction for this club. Instead, Florentino Pérez has completely botched that, dispensing with a manager who worked miracles at Bayer Leverkusen, delivering die Schwarzroten's first-ever Meisterschale, and will do great things in the future.
There is also unrest against Kylian Mbappé, despite the fact he has scored 41 goals this season. Before he arrived, los Blancos won La Liga and the Champions League, doing nothing of the sort with the Frenchman in the team. It also is not a good look that Paris Saint-Germain have reached back-to-back Champions League Finals without him, potentially set to go back-to-back in Budapest.
Now, there are reports that Aurélien Tchouaméni and Fede Valverde were involved in a training ground bust up on Wednesday. This comes in a week where it was also reported that "tensions are rising" after Mbappé was "involved in a flare-up with a coach", noting that the forward "spoke angrily and in insulting terms towards the member of staff".
So, what next for this seemingly rudderless ship? Well, because Pérez only has the phone number of three football managers, Zinédine Zidane and Ancelotti unavailable, it appears increasingly likely that José Mourinho will be re-appointed this summer. First and foremost, after Mourinho essentially blamed Vini Jr. for all continued unacceptable racist abuse he keep suffering, following the Gianluca Prestianni incident in February, the arrival of the 63 year old may not go down well at Valdebebas.
Beyond that, is he really the right man for this job? Well, who knows who is. This Real Madrid dressing room is seemingly unmanageable and has been allowed to be so by Pérez. This group of players surely cannot be happy about their back-to-back Champions League quarter-final exits and successive runners-up finishes in La Liga. Should they fail to win Sunday's Clásico at Camp Nou, which seems the most likely outcome, perhaps seeing Barça players celebrating right in front of them will bring into sharper focus everything that's going wrong in Madrid.
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