There can be only one table. Just one, in the shape of a square, and it must be big enough to accommodate all 24 players who have made the trip. Please put six chairs on each side, so everyone can see everyone else, and no place is better than another. If you can't construct a table big enough or you don't have a banquet room to fit it, we will find a different hotel.
The instructions were clear, passed down from Diego Pablo Simeone, the Atletico Madrid manager, to Tomas Renones, the club legend who handles all aspects of first-team life, and then to the catering director at the Courtyard by Marriott in Wolfsburg, Germany.