In the film Manhattan, Woody Allen asks his neurotic character, lying on the sofa in his apartment, to list on a tape recorder the reasons why it is worth living and thus maintains a certain optimism. The list is as arbitrary as it is revealing, and many … movie buffs can still recite it by heart: Groucho Marx, Willie Mays, the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony, Louis Armstrong and his Potato Head Blues. Swedish films. The sentimental education of Flaubert, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, the incredible apples and pears of Cézanne, the crabs of Sam Wo and especially Tracy’s head. This is not an objective list and does not claim to be. It’s a lifesaver.
Real Madrid, after surviving its own ultimatum at Mendizorroza, is going through a state of mind very similar to that of a Woody Allen character: neurotic, uncertain, always on the verge of a nervous breakdown. All he has to do is start stuttering. A club that questions itself every weekend, that doubts even when it wins, and that seems to urgently need to lie down on the couch to remember why it is worth maintaining a certain optimism, abandoning that preventive melancholy and supporting the coach to whom it has decided to entrust the project.
There are reasons, even if it is appropriate to put them in writing, like someone who is convinced of them: Mbappé and his 17 goals. The possible resurrection of Rodrygo Goes, this footballer who always seems on the verge of explaining himself. A useful and exploitable career, if taken seriously, as the beginning of the Valdepeñas solvent proved. Vinícius when he smiles, which is not a minor detail. The sustained growth of Tchouaméni. The return to the team of Mastantuono and Huijsen, who remind us that the future begins today. Courteous under the sticks, which is the airbag of this Madrid. The competitive memory of this club, which reappears when you least expect it. And the Bernabéu on a European spring night.
What doesn’t seem to make much sense is playing every day with the feeling that someone is sharpening the guillotine in the hallway. For a reason difficult to explain, the club considers that it is healthy for the stability of the team to filter doubts, slip in alternative names, question the coach in a whisper and force the group to save match points, as in Vitoria, with an eleven plagued by absences. It’s a special way to build trust.
Woody Allen ended his list with a beloved face. Real Madrid should perhaps start with something simpler: with their own people. Remembering who you are, what you have, and why, even in the midst of the noise, is still worth believing. Not forever. At least for the next month. And to think that nervous breakdowns, panic attacks and hypochondria are better accommodated in a Woody Allen film than in the daily life of a football club.
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