Last summer, things didn't look great in Madrid; Karim Benzema, a stalwart of Carlo Ancelotti's side, announced rather suddenly that he planned on leaving the club. Meanwhile, his presumptive long-term replacement, Kylian Mbappe, elected to stay at Paris Saint-Germain for at least one more season.
Even at a glance the squad looked imbalanced, without a reliable central striker, and too many centre-midfielders, while expensive veterans Toni Kroos and Luka Modric were ageing and past their best.
And to make things worse, Madrid were playing catch up. Barcelona won the title in 2023, and were never really pushed by Los Blancos. If this was the campaign to hunt down the Blaugrana, the pieces didn't seem to be in place to pull it off.
Fast-forward a year and things look remarkably different; Real have won La Liga after opening up a double-digit lead at the top. It all amounts to one of Ancelotti's finest jobs in management, the synthesis and application of a squad rife with talent but lacking in clarity. A Madrid side that shouldn't really work has become one of the best in Europe. GOAL takes a look at how the Italian has masterminded another triumph...