On Wednesday night at the Santiago Bernabeu Erling Haaland’s agent, Rafaela Pimenta, was among the 69,000 crowd to watch Real Madrid — playing without a centre forward as usual — beat Braga 3-0.
On the same night a prominent Spanish radio journalist had announced that Real Madrid had ‘ruled out signing Kylian Mbappe’ this summer, or ever.
And all this came 24-hours after the Spanish club went to the trouble of releasing a statement to officially deny they were negotiating with Mbappe ahead of him becoming a free agent this January.
They erred in the summer not doing more to sign Harry Kane. They failed to look beyond his 30 years and have looked on enviously ever since at the way the Bayern Munich striker has adapted to his new club every bit as quickly as Jude Bellingham.