A tough year for Isco and Marco Asensio shows leaving Real Madrid may be their best chance of progress
The pair have been linked with Premier League transfers and Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham are said to be some of the clubs keen
Real Madrid midfielder Isco's future is once again the talk of the town with Chelsea now linked with a £70million swoop, while team-mate Marco Asensio is also the subject of speculation.
It is an odd season for the Spanish giants, to say the least.
Last week, losing 3-0 at home to a CSKA Moscow side that had nothing to play for was the latest in a series of baffling developments for Los Blancos, who seem to produce new drama every day, regardless of who is in charge.
Nothing makes sense at the Santiago Bernabéu these days – not even the things that could seemingly be taken for granted.
When Cristiano Ronaldo departed in the summer, two of the names expected to take a step up were Isco and Marco Asensio – two of the young darlings of Spanish football who had played well in consecutive Champions League wins for Madrid, and who could reasonably be predicted to show even more of their quality when freed from the constraints of playing first and foremost to supply Ronaldo.
Yet last weekend, when Madrid travelled to take on comfortably the worst team in La Liga, Huesca, neither Isco nor Asensio were in the starting line-up. More confusingly still, both had stood out in the preceding midweek Copa del Ray match against Melilla, bagging a brace each.
When manager Santiago Solari changed his mind and decided to give them an opportunity again this week, starting both against CSKA on Wednesday, the end result was not to his liking.
Nor was it to the Bernabéu’s.
When Isco attempted what was deemed one dribble too many before shooting with Madrid 2-0 down, some of the fans in attendance audibly expressed their discontent. To make matters worse, he responded in turn, asking 'what do you want?', followed by something else on the slightly stronger side.
Questioning the opinions of supporters doesn’t tend to work out well for players, especially at Real Madrid, and it could yet prove to be a definitive moment in Isco’s expectation-defying trajectory in 2018. Already out of favour with the coach, being out of favour with the people who buy tickets isn’t likely to help, and when added to the rumours he doesn’t get on with some of the dressing room heavyweights in the Spanish capital, the road back to a starting spot could be a long one.
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The Andalucian has been tempted with moves elsewhere in the past, but now a departure looks more likely than ever.
At 26 he should be entering the peak of his career, but instead is caught in a needless emotional battle that won’t help him to return to his best. Now he’s the talk of the town for the wrong reasons, the fact Isco is an exceptional footballer is forgotten; he is a player capable of dragging Malaga deep in the Champions League on his own shoulders, and of being a starting player in a European Cup final win for Madrid not long ago.
He surely has more to give, provided the right conditions, and it now seems more probable that the right conditions will be at a different club.
For Asensio, who is younger and less confrontational than this team-mate, things are not quite as far down the line.
The Mallorquin didn’t do himself any favours earlier this season though, stating it wasn’t his job to 'carry' the team, and deferring to other players with more experience. That shirking of responsibility goes against the culture at Madrid, where bravado and confidence tends go hand in hand with success, and the attacker hasn’t been able to shake the shrinking violet tag that has followed him since.
There is a sense too that his development has stalled.
The youngster made the leap up from the Spanish second division to La Liga with admirable ease when he signed for Madrid from Mallorca in 2015, a subsequent one-year loan at Espanyol enough to show he could tumble with the best. The stratospheric momentum continued when he went on to make regular appearances in the league title and Champions League-winning Los Blancos side of 2017.
In the time since however, Asensio’s ascent has faltered, and there are murmurs that the benefits that come with being a Real Madrid superstar haven’t helped.
Putting what the players may or may not need to one side, there is also the minor matter of what Madrid want, and their patience with the two will not be eternal. It has been a bad, depressing season for their fans, where the club has been exposed for its lack of planning beyond Ronaldo and evoking memories of their last big dip under Bernd Schuster in 2008.
Even before the halfway mark in the current campaign, there is already a sense of simply trying to get to the summer with the least amount of damage done as possible before carrying out a thorough rebuilding process with the kind of ready-made superstars the Spanish giants have a habit of signing at their lowest ebbs.
If Real's season continues as present, it would be no shock if neither Isco nor Asensio survive the cull.