If you only listen to the doom-mongers or place blind faith in the tone of most Real Madrid news conferences this season, then you probably fear that Luka Modric and Carlo Ancelotti are at a breaking point. You might worry too that the Croatia international has been stomping around Los Blancos' training ground with a face like thunder, as their relationship lurches towards a bitter end.
Nevertheless, Madrid's brilliant playmaker might well end up needing to send his shrewd boss a vintage bottle of Svrdlovina red wine (the best from Modric's Zadar region of Croatia), plus a nice selection of Ancelotti's preferred Italian ham (of which he admits to being inordinately fond), if Ancelotti's unpopular tactic works out.