MADRID — A few days before Real Madrid and Barcelona were to meet in the first Clásico of last season, the Madrid team’s manager at the time, Rafael Benítez, sat down with the club’s president, Florentino Pérez.
It was only November, and Benítez had been in his post for only a few months, but even at that early stage of the season, his position was shrouded in doubt. There was a lack of what the captain Sergio Ramos would later call “affinity” between the cool, methodical manager and the cadre of glittering stars that made up his squad.