Real Madrid were crowned both champions of Spain and Europe last May in what was their most successful season since 1958.

That was, quite remarkably, the last time that the most successful team in the history of the European Cup managed to win it alongside La Liga.

They retained their Champions League trophy in doing so and were immediately made hot favourites for doing it all over again - but that all seems a long time ago.

The decline at the Santiago Bernabeu has been extraordinary, with the team struggling so badly that midfielder Toni Kroos recently admitted that the main target is finishing top four this year.

Their league record is currently worse than the one Rafa Benitez was sacked for and even Cristiano Ronaldo has been unable to avoid a dramatic fall from grace.

The five-time, and reigning, Ballon d'Or winner has scored the grand total of four league goals this season. That 'haul' puts him 27th in the goal rankings for this La Liga season - a quite stunning drop in form.

Ronaldo has, however, managed nine goals in just six Champions League games this season, becoming the first player to score in every group stage game. That is the player who we've gotten used to over the past nine years at Real - and that's the one currently kicking up a fuss.

The 32-year-old has made the club very clear that he feels he deserves a bumper contract, with a particular grievance that two players earn more than him.

Marca reports that those two players being Lionel Messi and Neymar - or the two Ronaldo just beat to the Ballon d'Or.

It's easy to see why the self-proclaimed "best of all time" would have a problem with two players he was considered as being superior to earning more than he does, especially when he's at a club like Real Madrid.

It has been previously reported that Ronaldo feels entitled to a new deal after his heroics in the Champions League last year - something that he claims to have been promised by club president Florentino Perez.

Ronaldo being unsettled comes at the wrong time for Real. They're struggling badly in the league and already looking at replacing two-thirds of the 'BBC' in Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema.

Attempting to also replace arguably the club's greatest ever player on top of that appears impossible, at least on the surface, even with the links to the likes of Harry Kane, Eden Hazard, and Mohamed Salah.

They wouldn't have been expecting it last May, but this is make or break time for Real Madrid.