Real Madrid brought back Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho this summer, after back-to-back seasons without a major trophy and a string of problems that previous coaches could not fix.
British newspaper The Athletic has revealed the detail behind Mourinho's approach to his players, the changes he has made since returning to the Spanish club, and how he is tackling the issues dragging the team down.
Florentino Perez made the call. The 79-year-old Real Madrid president has always held great respect for the Portuguese coach since his first spell between 2010 and 2013, and he drove the decision to sign Mourinho for a second time.
Real Madrid also paid Benfica 15 million euros to terminate the coach's contract, the equivalent of 12.5 million pounds or 16.8 million dollars, a figure that reflects how highly they rate him.
When Mourinho officially took charge in June, he became Real Madrid's fourth coach since May 2025, following Carlo Ancelotti, Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa. His work had in fact begun the previous month.
Back in May, the planning got under way: identifying potential targets in the market and working to restore the club's competitive culture, with the aim of closing the gap on Barcelona at home and his rivals across the continent in the Champions League.
Sunday's clash at the Camp Nou will show just how far Real Madrid have come. Barcelona lead La Liga and already sit six points clear of the third-placed Spanish club after nine rounds.
The first meeting between the two rivals last season, which Real Madrid won 2-1 at home in October as well, had already exposed the early tension between Xabi Alonso and some of the team's stars in the opening months of his debut campaign. His new methods grated: stricter rules in training and a heavier focus on tactical analysis.
Getty ImagesMany observers expected Mourinho to rule with an iron fist. That has not happened, according to several sources who spoke to the newspaper, all closely familiar with what goes on inside the club but who asked not to be identified as they did not have permission to comment.
One source inside Real Madrid's Valdebebas training complex said: "There has been no hardline approach or radical changes."
Another source close to the dressing room added: "The main difference is that Mourinho has the authority because he is Mourinho."
He continued: "The players who are featuring less are not all happy, but there are no tense situations or exchanges of accusations, as happened last year. If Mourinho says things will go this way, then that is how they will go."
His first step, last May, was to find out everything he could about the state of the club and the team. He leaned on people he had known since his first spell and requested detailed reports from every department.
One specialist in one of those departments said: "He asked us a lot of questions, but he did not impose anything. He followed almost all areas closely, and he wants to be aware of everything that could affect the players."
Getting to know the players individually mattered too. A few phone calls went out, but most contact came through messages, with many of them away on World Cup duty with their national teams.
Getty ImagesThat communication carried on regularly afterwards, and sources point to the ease of contact with the coach as one of the standout features of his current spell, a clear break from the mood that hung over the relationship between the first team and Xabi Alonso's staff last season.
A source close to one of the prominent players said: "He knows how to talk to them, and this is essential in a dressing room that contains such a large number of strong personalities."
None of this means Mourinho has waved a wand over the chronic problems that plague Real Madrid. The relationship on the pitch between Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior, for example, remains a worry.
Performances have improved since Arda Guler was handed a bigger role and Federico Valverde moved to right-back, yet everyone knows the team still has plenty of room to grow, and they are talking about it in the dressing room.
The medical department saw one of the biggest changes over the summer. Dr Nico Mihic returned as head of department after resuming his duties last January, and a wide-ranging restructuring followed: two members of staff left and Dr Alexander Cruz arrived from Monaco.
A plan went into place for stricter monitoring of the players' physical condition this season, with more preventive measures, gym sessions and post-match recovery programmes, all aimed at keeping injuries at bay.
Mourinho said at a press conference earlier this month that Real Madrid had reached mid-October "for the first time in the last ten years" without "any player" suffering an injury.
Sessions under Mourinho run slightly shorter, lasting between an hour and an hour and a quarter at most, but they come at high intensity with the focus always on the ball. He has also tried to spell out the technical reasons behind everything he plans to implement on the pitch.
Getty ImagesPlayers must report to the training ground between 90 minutes and two hours before each session, and they have to eat breakfast together there.
Video analysis meetings, meanwhile, are confined to the days before matches, though extra sessions are laid on in specific cases for certain players.
Sources say punctuality has improved and order within the team is tighter, but recent footage showed the players do not always arrive on time.
The youth academy has caught Mourinho's eye, even if it does not occupy a central place in his plan for building the team. His assistant Joao Tralhao serves as the main point of contact, but shortly after his arrival the Portuguese coach requested reports from the academy's management on every player by position, from the under-19 team up to Real Madrid Castilla, the reserve side of academy graduates that competes in the Spanish third division.
Mourinho has since picked out the players he wants in first-team training or in his matchday squads, where before the selection leaned more on other criteria, such as those featuring less regularly with Castilla or Real Madrid C.
Like Xabi Alonso before him, Mourinho has trimmed the number of people travelling with the team to away matches, to avoid crowding the players when there is no real need. Even so, he does not appear worried about starting line-ups being leaked.
Getty ImagesHe prefers to tell the group his starting line-up the day before a match, which may seem surprising given how sensitive the matter was during his first spell at Real Madrid and the fury that leaked team sheets caused during his time at Benfica.
The Portuguese coach reckons it is a good way to motivate the players, help them prepare mentally and keep the mood calm on match day.
Inside Real Madrid, there has been plenty of talk about the hours Mourinho and his staff put in at Valdebebas. A source familiar with the coach's routine said: "He sleeps there almost most days."
From the start, Mourinho wanted to drive a change aimed at embedding a new daily culture at the club, and he knows it will not pay off overnight.
On Sunday, Mourinho and his new group face their toughest test yet: the Clasico against Barcelona.