This time we were obliged to follow the Club World Cup from a distance and maybe even with an added degree of indifference

The big wheel of football today has Marcos Llorente sitting on top, just as it has Isco sitting at the bottom. The same could be said of Solari and Lopetegui.

Madrid has two fiestas, San Isidro and the Paloma. In the 1950s and 1960s there was another, the final of the Copa del Rey: always played here, and almost always with Athletic.

The first time I recall one team giving the other side a guard of honour was at Molineux, home to Wolverhampton Wanderers in February 1960...