When the final whistle blew last Saturday, Real Madrid were confirmed as thirteen-time champions of Europe, their third in a row and fourth in five years - but it's been anything but smooth since then.

Both Cristiano Ronaldo and matchwinner Gareth Bale kicked the door wide open to moves away from the club before they'd even left the pitch.

"I need to be playing week in week out, and that’s not happened this season for one reason or another," said Bale.

"I had a five- or six-week injury at the start of the season and I’ve been fit ever since so now I have to sit down in the summer and discuss it with my agent and take it from there.”

“It’s been very nice to be at Madrid,” said Ronaldo. “In the coming days, I will give a response to the fans because they actually have always been at my side.”

And then, of course, Zinedine Zidane stepped down as manager of Real after two and a half wildly successful years that saw him win three Champions League titles and La Liga.

But now a fourth man has suggested he's heading for the exit door.

Mateo Kovacic, the hugely talented Croatian midfielder, has found his game time limited under Zidane and appears to have reached a point where leaving the club could be necessary.

"I believe I'll play more, whether in Real or somewhere else," Kovacic said on Friday.

"Now is the time for me to play."

As for standing offers, he was professional in his response.

"Offers?" he said. "I am under contract with Real and I wish not to comment on other clubs."

Kovacic obviously isn't on the level of Ronaldo or Bale but the 24-year-old was one of the most highly rated young midfielders around when he left Internazionale in 2015.

Trying to force your way past two of the absolute best in the world in Luka Modric and Toni Kroos is nigh on impossible for a creative midfielder and so Kovacic has found his progress stalling at Real - certainly not the first young player to have that problem.

And so Real may need a new squad player this summer on top of everything else. They may have lifted the Champions League three times in a row, but things are far from straightforward in Madrid right now.