Crisis at Real Madrid: Kylian Mbappe optics 'terrible' and is Jose Mourinho the answer after 'worst week in living memory' of fights and failure?

Madrid's "public implosion" in recent days constitutes one of their "worst weeks in living memory" - and it could trigger drastic action in their managerial search.

Los Blancos' annus horribilis plumbed new depths on Sunday night, with a 2-0 loss to Barcelona handing the La Liga title to the Catalans.

If there were raucous home celebrations in and around Spotify Camp Nou, it was quite the opposite among Madridistas, with a sense of deep gloom surrounding the club.

Not only did they witness Barca's painful coronation, but it brought to a close a dreadful week, with Federico Valverde missing El Clasico after suffering a head cut in a training-ground fight with team-mate Aurelien Tchouameni.

There has also been a toxic situation brewing around star forward Kylian Mbappe.

The Frenchman has, by the numbers, had a good season, but the last month has seen his perception among fans sink.

While recovering from injury during a difficult period for the club, he was pictured in Sardinia with girlfriend Ester Exposito.

He also had a reported spat with a coach in training, pulled out of contention for El Clasico citing muscle soreness, and then posted a strange photo on social media when his side were 2-0 down on Sunday night.

All the while, he has seen a petition demanding his exit from the club circulate online.

TNT Sports' Spanish football expert Phil Kitromilides has shared the feeling from on the ground in Madrid.

"The situation with Kylian Mbappe has got a lot worse in the last month," he said.

"I'm talking about his relationship with the fans, how he is being perceived by the fans.

"Kylian Mbappe is a really bright guy. You speak to him, he is eloquent, he is intelligent, he is clearly smart. He's either being advised very, very poorly or taking very, very bad decisions, because the optics of him going on holiday and frolicking with his girlfriend, who happens to be a high-profile Spanish actress, while the team is struggling, are terrible.

"Anybody should have advised him; 'you can do this, you're allowed to, but don't. You shouldn't'. It looks very, very bad.

"And then for him to post on Instagram 'Hala Madrid', with a little white heart, when they're 2-0 down and being completely outplayed in the Clasico where they're going to lose the league title, is just bonkers. And that has had a really, really big impact here in Spain. The furore is enormous from Real Madrid fans. They can't understand what he's doing. And I can't understand what he's doing. We're talking purely off-the-field stuff as well.

"On the field, there is the issue of where does he fit into this team to get the best out of everyone? We know his specific numbers, pretty decent. He is still the top scorer in La Liga. He's chipped in with a high number of goals. Not all of those goals have been of the most importance, shall we say. In some of the Champions League ties, he hasn't necessarily been available, or been at his best, or had his shooting boots on. And it's a big problem.

"Real Madrid waited seven years to sign him. They waited seven years to sign Kylian Mbappe. They suffered the ignominy of him suggesting he was coming and then saying, 'Oh, no, I'll stay at PSG'. And then he did it again. There were people who were high-profile Real Madrid voices in the media saying 'this guy can never wear the Real Madrid shirt. Look how he's treated us. Look what he's done to us'. And then they go and sign him.

"Now, obviously, scoring goals gets fans on your side. But behaving the way he's done in the last week has got the fans very much on his back. And I think people can also see he hasn't made this team better. Kylian Mbappe hasn't made Real Madrid a better team. I think that's very, very clear to see. Him and Vinicius Junior aren't at their best when they're both in the team. And if you add Jude Bellingham into the mix as well, you've got a trio of three of the world's best players who don't seem to be able to be at their best when they're playing together, which is a massive, massive problem.

"Real Madrid won the Champions League two seasons ago. Who wasn't there? Kylian Mbappe wasn't there. And I think it is overly simplistic to say he's come and it's all fallen apart. But I think part of the reason that things have gone badly for Real Madrid is Mbappe's influence on the pitch and off the pitch, in terms of hierarchy, in terms of the dressing room as well. It has unsettled the team that were the champions of Europe.

"So it hasn't worked out at all. And it's a massive, massive job for the next manager to come in and try and sort out."

On the topic of new managers, Jurgen Klopp might get the fans excited, but there is one other larger-than-life character who looks in pole position for the Bernabeu hotseat - Jose Mourinho.

The Portuguese might have managed some of the world's biggest clubs - including Real between 2010 and 2013 - but can even he sort out such a bulging in-tray?

"I think it's been one of the worst weeks for Real Madrid in living memory," Kitromilides adds. "Genuinely, this level of public implosion, I think it's unprecedented.

"There have always been fights behind the scenes, literal and figurative fights as well. But for this to be splashed across the front page, for the captain of Real Madrid - Fede Valverde would have captained Real Madrid in a Clasico - for him not to be available because he got into a fight with one of his team-mates, is just extraordinary. And it kind of underlines how bad things have got.

"They're lucky that Barcelona took their foot off the gas and didn't really go for the kill in the Clasico on Sunday night because it could have been five, six, or 7-0, and it could have just brought the level of toxicity up to an even higher level.

"But even a 2-0 defeat in Barcelona, winning the league title in a Clasico, after everything that's preceded it, it's definitely made it one of the worst weeks in living memory for Real Madrid. And it's just deepened their institutional crisis. They're in crisis on every level, on the pitch, off the pitch.

"They don't know who's going to be the next manager, the players [themselves]; those who are available because loads have been missing. Injuries have been another big, big problem for Real Madrid. The attitude of the players, literal fights in training. It is an extraordinary mess.

"To look at that and for someone to think, 'let's add Jose Mourinho to that mix' is a strange conclusion to come to, I would suggest. But that is what the president has desired for a while. Florentino Perez has sort of idealised fond memories of Jose Mourinho and what he achieved with Real Madrid. So I think we're going to see him be the next manager of Real Madrid.

"But back to the actual football and where the two teams are, I think the Clasico just underlined how far apart they [Real Madrid and Barcelona] are at the moment in terms of having a footballing ideology. Real Madrid clearly have no idea how to play together. And the last three managers have been unable to fit the three best players together and get the best out of them.

"Mbappe, Vinicius and Jude Bellingham are Real Madrid's three best players and three consecutive managers haven't been able to get the best out of them in a starting XI. They haven't been able to implement a clear ideology. Xabi Alonso tried, but the players he had at his disposal, i.e. Kylian Mbappe and perhaps Vinicius Junior as well, didn't buy in to this high press, high effort, high energy kind of football that he wanted. And it fell apart.

"Whereas with Barcelona, there is a very clear idea of how they want to play, what they want to do and what Hansi Flick is able to get from his players. And we saw that laid bare for all to see in that Clasico."

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