With their La Liga title push all but scuppered for this season, things are starting to get a bit antsy at Real Madrid.
A 1-0 home defeat in the Madrid derby at the weekend saw Cristiano Ronaldo publicly castigate his teammates for letting him down, ranting to MARCA:
If we were all at my level, maybe we would be (league) leaders.
He then went on to name names:
I don’t want to disrespect anyone, but when the best players aren’t available it’s harder to win. I like to play with Karim, with Bale, with Marcelo.
I’m not saying the others like Lucas [Vazquez], Jese and Kovacic are not good players – they are very good players – but it’s not the same.
After subsequently insisting that he was simply referring to his “physical level” in his little post-match huff, it’s since been reported that Ronaldo apologised to the colleagues he slighted via Whatsapp.
That was Monday. Today it’s being rumoured in the Spanish press that some of Ronaldo’s Real cohorts are “staggered” by the lack of effort he’s putting into his training drills of late.
According to Sport, one anonymous member of the squad has supposedly revealed that Ronaldo has “dropped his levels” to a “radical” degree.
The article reads thus:
(Real Madrid players) have always considered him an example of professionalism for his desire and intensity, which was on display all the time.
However, things have changed. ‘Cristiano now doesn’t move in training. His change has been radical,’ a member of the team said.
Given that we’re talking about the Spanish press here, we’d take those quotes with a big old fistful of salt, but it’s not exactly beyond the realms of fantasy that little lord precious pants is throwing a wobbler given his season just came to a disappointing splutter of a conclusion.
Cue an entire summer of ‘Ronaldo back to Old Trafford’ bumph.