Once Zinedine Zidane confirmed that he no longer wanted to continue as coach of Real Madrid, there was a sharp, collective intake of breath, but in hiring Julen Lopetegui, Florentino Perez genuinely thought he had the right man to take the club forward. However, things didn’t go quite to plan and that’s putting it mildly. Perhaps it was the right man at the wrong time. After all, whoever followed the Frenchman was surely on to a loser. Revered as a player, he only enhanced his reputation at the club after an incredibly successful few years. Lopetegui had to hit the ground running, particularly because of the way that Real had made such a big fuss out of signing him on the eve of the World Cup. His first competitive fixture, a 4-2 defeat against Atletico Madrid in the European Super Cup, will have rung some alarm bells. Just a few months later, he was out, but to say that no one saw it coming is inherently wrong. Real were awful domestically throughout 2017/18 and were only saved by their Champions League form. During Lopetegui’s tenure, they’d simply carried on where they left off in La Liga. With Zidane long gone and with his reputation untarnished, it was left to the former Porto tactician to carry the can. Almost as soon as he and his backroom staff departed, Antonio Conte was mentioned as a strong frontrunner, but a thinly veiled threat from Sergio Ramos and less than pleasing financial demands, both personally and for spending on transfers, seems to have put paid to the Italian’s candidacy. At the present moment, Santiago Solari, another former player and the actual Castilla coach whilst Zidane’s name was on the paperwork (the Frenchman didn’t have the appropriate qualifications), is in the hot seat, and what a start he’s had. The entire mood around the camp has changed.