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“This is a team, it is a club, and we all go together hand in hand,” Xabi Alonso declared, maybe asserting a little too much. “If you coach Real Madrid, you are prepared for anything,” he added on the day before Pep Guardiola's side step back into the Santiago Bernabéu for a new instalment of a frequent heavyweight clash. “I anticipate the challenge ahead, starting tomorrow—an opening to redirect the disappointment. Our minds are fixed solely on City. Football, for better or worse, is a game of swift changes.” Failure and things could alter for good, and permanently: this moment is an obligation, too.

Emergency Discussions After Dismal Setback

Following Madrid’s desperately poor 2-0 home defeat on Sunday, Alonso revealed he had “formed his own assessments,” and he was not alone. Into the early hours, urgent meetings carried on, the club’s board forming their own opinions after a solitary triumph in five league games. Their analyses were not the same and while severe measures are being postponed, forbearance is running out, the names of potential replacements already out. “These are scenarios you must deal with, yet my mind is fixed only on the game, on what I can influence,” Alonso stated in the press conference

“Certainly the trainer devised an effective approach, but when it comes down to it, the players execute on the field,” one of the squad's leaders remarked. “A 2-0 defeat to Celta indicates an issue that lies with us, not the manager.”

A Quick Descent After Early Success

City will be his twenty-eighth match in charge of Madrid and it could be his last at a club where a crisis is always just two losses around the corner, where even sharing points is insufficient, and there’s perpetually an alternative who can coach. Things have indeed changed fast, even if the seeds of the problem were there from the start. Sold as a systems coach, exactly what they needed after a season of permissiveness and underachievement, Alonso was an anomaly at a squad-centric organization.

When Madrid secured victory against Barcelona in late October, they opened a five-point gap at the top. They had secured twelve victories in thirteen competitive games, although the defeat was emphatic: 5-2 at Atlético. It also highlighted flaws. Taken off after 72 minutes, Vinícius Júnior marched straight down the tunnel, reportedly threatening to leave the club. In a statement a few days later he said sorry to all but Alonso. At the executive level, rather than supporting the trainer, there was radio silence.

Frictions Coming to Light

Internally, the conclusion was clear: Alonso was wrong to remove Vinícius off. Pressed on the issue if he would make the same call, Alonso replied: “I am unsure of the purpose of that query. If, in the moment, I believe a decision is required on the field, I will make it.” Frictions had been laid bare, a disconnect between trainer and a portion of the team. Federico Valverde too had made his frustrations public. The puzzle pieces weren't aligning as they should. A common complaint began to slip out about all the directives, the film sessions, the lengthy training. Who did he think he was, the manager?!

More than a week after the clásico, Madrid were overcome at Liverpool, beginning a run of two wins in seven. Capable of a more direct style, they overcame Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao but between those drew at Rayo, Elche and Girona. Eventually, talks were held to mend divisions or at least paper over the issues, to bring calm. Focus shifted to the footballers for the first time.

A Short-Lived Reconciliation

In Bilbao, where they had been gathered a day early, it seemed some middle ground had been found; Alonso accommodating their demands more than they did his. Reconciliation was staged when Vinícius embraced the 44-year-old as he departed. A brief break followed. Subsequently, though, Celta overcame them and so it unravels again.

That it is public knowledge that Alonso’s future is on the line is as important as the fact it is. If Madrid beat City, that can always be denied, but it is calculated. Alonso knows that. He also knows, for all that he tried to talk about injuries and injustice, not even truly believing his own words, Madrid were dreadful against Celta: a lack of style, a deficient mentality, a lack of organization.

The Manager: The Most Obvious Solution

But the weakest link, is always the manager, and Alonso’s future, more than the actual football, was the central theme to this game. However much the man who is still Madrid’s manager kept trying to bring it back to the match, which he did with almost every response. The briefest response he gave might have been the most significant, had he truly believed it. Asked if he felt the entire team was behind him, Alonso replied in a solitary term: “yes.”

“Managing Real Madrid doesn't involve transforming the culture; it requires fitting in,” Alonso added. “The culture of Real Madrid is well-known to us; it's the reason for its status as the world's premier club. Adaptation, continuous learning, and player communication are key. There will be highs and lows. Meeting challenges with drive and a positive mindset is the only route to improvement.”

It was when he was asked if he felt by himself that Alonso talked of a team, a club, that goes together, and when attention was turned to the question of support or the lack of it from above, he answered: “Dialogue with the leadership is ongoing, founded on trust, togetherness, and mutual respect. We are all united in this endeavor. We are psychologically prepared for any challenge: the squad is unified, certain of victory tomorrow, without a shadow of doubt. This is the Champions League. We are playing at the Bernabéu. The environment will be electric. That generates a unique dynamism, even among the players.”