“We are going through a difficult and complicated moment,” Pérez said. “We know what pain that brings the fans.”Little wonder, then, that Zidane — just as he did when he left Madrid, five days after lifting the third of those Champions Leagues — took to the rostrum once again speaking of the need for change. We have to change for next season.”The nature of the change, though, is likely to be very different: Real must transform from a position of relative weakness, rather than strength. Several high-profile members of the current squad, including Isco and Gareth Bale, may well have to be sacrificed to balance the books. “I left the club because I needed it, for me, though at the time the club did not,” he said.

Source: New York Times March 11, 2019 23:48 UTC