It finished as it started, with a new coach like Xabi Alonso apparently totally out of sync with the grand old institution of Real Madrid around him.
While many around the club were all too keen to point to Kylian Mbappe allegedly stopping his teammates giving Barcelona a Super Cup guard of honour, as appeared to have been suggested, some went back much further. They went back to Alonso’s first assignment, and a fixture against Al Hilal at the Club World Cup.