‘I genuinely think that nobody’s listening. Real Madrid’s best players are having their athletic and creative juices squeezed out of them

There’s still time to turn things around, but 2024/25 is not shaping up to be a vintage year for Real Madrid.

The long-awaited arrival of Kylian Mbappe at the Bernabeu was supposed to supercharge an already all-power Madrid machine – and 32 goals in 46 appearances in all competitions is not to be sniffed at – but results have been patchy by Los Blancos’ standards.

Boss Carlo Ancelotti – ranked at no.2 in FourFourTwo’s list of the best managers in the world right now – is soon to enter the final year of his contract with the club, and Spanish football expert Graham Hunter has revealed what he thinks comes next.

Why Real Madrid have stuttered and what that means for Carlo Ancelotti

It’s been a challenging season for the Los Blancos boss (Image credit: Getty Images)Madrid are still fighting to retain their Champions League crown and sit only four points off top spot in La Liga, but 10 losses to last term’s two nods to a team in decline when transfer business suggests they should be improving.

Toni Kroos left in the summer and Dani Carvajal has been out for much of the season with injury, but Hunter believes a much broader issue is behind Ancelotti’s struggles to maintain last season’s levels.

In Toni Kroos, Madrid lost a midfield stalwart last summer (Image credit: Getty Images)“Ancelotti has been cursed by the fixture list,” Hunter told FourFourTwo.

“They’ve known from the start that a clutch of seven or eight footballers were coming back from summer tournaments and had four days of preseason training: that is like literally trying to push a boulder up Everest.

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“And yet… no one gives a f**k.

“Everybody is casting around looking for f**kwit explanations, when the fact is, that their best players having their athletic and creative juices squeezed out of them. And I genuinely think that nobody’s listening.”

With Ancelotti’s contract running down amid a tough season with Madrid, links to the top job at the Brazil national team have resurfaced for the 65-year-old.

Despite hoping that Ancelotti stays in the Spanish capital to see out his contract, Hunter predicts a different path due to the season Los Blancos have had so far.

Graham Hunter believes Xabi Alonso, once one of Ancelotti’s players at Bayern Munich, could take over the Madrid boss’ post. (Image credit: Getty Images)He continued: “My best guess is that I think Madrid will approach Xabi Alonso. Again, my best guess is that I think that he’ll say yes.

“And then with huge sadness for anybody who’s got a working brain or an appreciation of decency and talent in football, we might be saying goodbye to Carlo Ancelotti.”