Rubén Cañizares, Real Madrid reporter for Madrid daily ABC and the paper’s man on the ground in Greece, says something rather peculiar happened on Los Blancos’ latest trip. It began with doubts and ended with more question marks – but also with three points that significantly smooth Real Madrid’s path towards finishing in the top eight of the Champions League league phase.

During the trip, journalists from radio stations COPE and SER stayed in the same hotel as the Real Madrid squad – an old-school scenario that did not go down well at the club. By chance – because Athens certainly doesn’t lack good hotels – both stations booked their reporters into the same place that Real Madrid had chosen for their stay in the Greek capital. The club later tried to use this situation to justify the afternoon leak that Bellingham had been seen walking around the hotel with a bandage on his calf, supposedly preventing him from starting against Olympiacos.

In his brief pre-match interview with Movistar+, Xabi confirmed the Englishman was carrying a knock, but downplayed it as something minor and did not rule out bringing him on in the second half. It was a strange stance given how delicate and sensitive that area of the body is. This was only matchday five of the league phase in the Champions League, far from a do-or-die fixture, so it was hard to grasp the idea that a player with a muscle issue was not fit to start but was still cleared to come on after the break – and even more so to do it with Madrid already 4–2 up.

In the end Bellingham did play, and for a full half hour, entering with the game practically decided. His impact on the team was minimal, and after the final whistle the doubt remained: was he really injured? Inside the club, the line after the win was that he was, firmly rejecting the notion that leaving him on the bench was a purely tactical call by Xabi. The question marks persist because, for various reasons, the Englishman has never really been able to get fully up to speed this season.

Jude returned earlier than expected from his shoulder operation in July, and Alonso rushed him back into the starting XI at the Metropolitano – a night when Real Madrid not only played badly but were effectively a man down. Bellingham was not ready for that kind of workload. That political decision by the coach to start him had immediate consequences: away in Almaty and then against Villarreal he began both games on the bench. Bellingham is said to have viewed those calls as unfairly singling him out as the one to blame.

Jude’s personality is not straightforward. And his level, compared with last season and now, does little to calm certain frustrations that are not appreciated within the club. It is true he produced two good performances against Barcelona and Valencia, but he has not been able to build on them. He has boosted the perception of some displays with important goals – such as against Juventus and Elche, scoring decisive winners in both – but for a player of his class that feels like too little.

In reality, Bellingham has never truly returned to the level he showed in the first half of his debut season at Real Madrid. Since that disallowed goal at Mestalla in March 2024 – chalked off after Jesús Gil Manzano rushed the restart, prompting the protests that earned Jude a red card – he has spent almost two years performing below that standard: a few bright spells, but generally a middling level. Xabi has not managed to change that. Not yet, at least, even though from day one the Basque coach offered him a leading role – one he had been reluctant to grant Vinícius in some matches.

Bellingham does not like it when Alonso uses him out wide or asks him to drop deeper in build-up to help progress the ball. He wants to play as a classic No 10, which in turn forces Arda Güler to take on the tasks Jude does not want to do. When Güler and Bellingham share the pitch, they still do not really complement each other. That situation also hangs over Valdebebas and is starting to cause concern. In normal circumstances both are first-choice players, but the chemistry that should naturally exist between two gifted footballers who operate in similar zones is still missing.