"I am convinced we will fight for titles and let's wait until the end of the season to see if I am mistaken," Rafa Benitez said ahead of Sunday's match against Rayo Vallecano.
As La Liga pauses for a shortened winter break (at the request of Spain manager Vicente del Bosque with the Euros in mind) at almost the halfway stage, Benitez is being judged a lot earlier than that by the Bernabeu. The appearance on the big screens of the manager before matches has been greeted with jeers in recent weeks as the team, and the club, lurch from one disaster to the next.
Managers of Real Madrid have a lot to deal with -- the weight of expectation, a demanding support, a rather "hands-on" club president and the voracious Spanish media. And then there is the dressing room. And the necessity to win every game, preferably in style.
Many have crumbled under the pressure. Jose Antonio Camacho remains a personal favourite: "I could see that I was surplus to requirements," he said after a few games in charge in 2004. His previous spell, in 1998, lasted 22 days.
Few that have taken up the challege have thrived. Carlo Ancelotti had the measure of the board and the players, and the respect, admiration -- even love -- of the latter.
Benitez, at the moment, falls somewhere in between.
Performances
On the pitch there is a lot of room for improvement. At this stage of last season, with more or less the same group of players, Ancelotti was overseeing a 22-game winning streak culminating in a Club World Cup victory. It's not a comparison Benitez would welcome (and one that oddly hasn't been raised in press conferences) but it's there in the background, undermining everything the current manager does.
Real haven't clicked under Benitez. For every battering (Betis, Espanyol, Malmo) there has been a limp draw (Malaga, Sporting) a lucky escape (Atletico) or a loss to a side that was simply better on the day (Sevilla, Barcelona, Villarreal).
Benitez has been hampered by injuries but has selected the same 11 only twice in 23 games in all competitions this season, against Betis (5-0) and Barca (0-4). He has also been accused of the ultimate offence to the Bernabeu faithful: sacrificing his principles to keep his paymasters happy. Before Barcelona visited Madrid, Benitez had played a 4-3-3 in seven consecutive league matches, only reverting to a 4-4-2 with two defensive midfielders in Paris during the same period.
Switching his formation to accommodate half-fit players in James Rodriguez, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale for the Clasico not only betrayed a lack of assertiveness, it also betrayed those who had been performing well up to that point, Casemiro and Isco chief among them. If he is axed at the end of the season, or before then, the Clasico will go down as Benitez's Waterloo.
Still, in a refreshingly competitive league this season, Real are just two points adrift of Atletico and Barcelona -- who have a game in hand but have taken just two points from their last two Liga fixtures. Atletico lost to Malaga on Sunday, missing out on the chance to open up a five-point advantage over their city rivals. Both Madrid teams have been beaten by Villarreal in El Madrigal. Benitez can, for now, still look towards the end of the campaign with a valid measure of hope.
Fans
The Bernabeu is not an easy stadium to tame. It's not quite as mental as Valencia -- a club that could make a decent few euros by selling branded white hankies in the club shop -- but there is a simple rule at Real: win, and win pretty. So far, Benitez has been doing neither with sufficient regularity.
There isn't a season-ticket holder who wouldn't swap the 5-0 against Betis, the slaughter of a half-holidaying Malmo or the embarrassment of a valiant Rayo for a decent performance against Barcelona. Losing is one thing. Doing so while nervously glancing towards the presidential box is quite another. Benitez's ploy was fairly obvious: lose with the Galacticos on the pitch and it's not his fault. Lose with Isco, Jese and Lucas Vazquez (who didn't even make the bench) and it's on him. Form and fitness be damned.
Benitez lost the fans that day and he has not made the slightest inroad into the discontent festering in the stands since. Worse still, he won't acknowledge it. After the Rayo match he claimed he had emerged from the dressing room late and therefore "didn't hear" the cacophony of malice aimed at him.
It would have been perfectly audible to anyone emerging late from the metro stop on the other side of the Castellana.
Benitez has taken care to treat the fans with respect. They are, after all, the slayer of many managers before him. Perez rules over Real as a modern day Caesar and is acutely fearful of the mob. If it comes down to him or Benitez, there is only going to be one outcome.
Dressing room
It was always going to be difficult for anybody to step into Ancelotti's shoes. When it became apparent that the Italian was for the chop senior players took the unprecedented step of publicly supporting their manager. Cristiano Ronaldo said this month that he misses the Italian: "He's like a big bear, I can say. He's a cute guy ... an unbelievable person. I just wish every player could have an opportunity to work with him because he's a fantastic guy, a fantastic coach."
Suffice it to say the chances of any of Real's squad saying that about Benitez are as likely as nine-man Rayo beating Madrid at the Bernabeu.
Media
Perez is obsessed with the idea of Real Madrid as a "club senor," which can be roughly translated a "gentlemanly club." That means that any representative has to toe the line. Jose Mourinho lost the dressing room, alienated the board, divided the Bernabeu, caused the sporting directorship to be discarded and stuck his thumb into the eye of the eminently more gentlemanly Tito Vilanova, but his poisonous relationship with the press played an equal part in his downfall.
Benitez's tearful presentation was lapped up and in the early days his back-slapping camaraderie was a welcome addition to a league accustomed to managers unafraid to show emotion and to speak their mind.
It didn't last long. Recently Benitez has been prickly. When Luis Enrique or Diego Simeone answer a question with a gruff one-liner or basically refuse to do so at all, it is accepted as part of their persona. And they do it with an accommodating smile.
Benitez doesn't wear that hat well at all. He takes press persecution personally and that is not a good stance in a country where the sports papers outsell the broadsheets. Perez takes the club's image equally seriously and like it or not, the manager has to deal with the media.
Nobody should take the media too seriously of course, especially in Spain. But while the sports papers won't bring down a government, or help form a new one, they have been instrumental in the past in destroying a Real manager or two.
Benitez should take heed from a predecessor as the second half of the season approaches. To borrow from Camacho again: "I thought when I started [at Real Madrid] that football was more important than anything else, but to my surprise it turned out that everything else was more important than football."