Real Madrid want the world to know there’s another show in town

FOR REAL? Before the Geopolitics World Cup circus gets under way, Real Madrid would like you to know there’s always another show in town. Los Blancos have an odd, difficult relationship with the tournament. Spain’s 2010 triumph involved Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso and Iker Casillas being bolted on to a raft of Barcelona players, somewhat demeaning to any aristocratic pretensions. Back in 2018, Madrid upended the Spain national team by snaffling away Julen Lopetegui to be their coach, such that he was sent back from Russia before a ball was kicked. After Fernando Hierro, a Madrileno final boss, took the reins, the tournament was a bust for Spain, and relations have been strained ever since. By little coincidence, there are no Madrid players in Spain’s squad, currently doing the Chattanooga Choo Choo at a Tennessee training camp. All while the National League Braintree’s Tommy Smith and Shamrock’s Ricardo Lopes take the stage for New Zealand and Cape Verde respectively. Though that also had plenty to do with the rubbish season endured at the Bernabéu, Alonso being offed , Álvaro Arbeloa not much cop as an interim, and some unseemly headlines, including players fighting in the dressing room with Fede Valverde hospitalised, and a holidaying Kylian Mbappé landing his private plane at a Madrid airport, 10 minutes before a vital game with Espanyol. The lads at El Chiringuito de Jugones have been going potty. Florentino Pérez’s answer to the madness? José Mourinho . …