It has been a difficult start to the season for Real Madrid, who trail Barcelona by six points in the La Liga standings after defeats to Real Betis and Atletico Madrid. Jose Mourinho is finding it difficult to get his players to perform at a high level for 90 minutes, but at least he has them all onside at this stage, which was not the case for predecessors Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa.

Mourinho has kept on top of things in the Real Madrid dressing room, which has meant no internal conflicts, although the same cannot be said for Castilla. Julian Lopez, who took over from Arbeloa in January when he was promoted to first team head coach, has been dealing with a difficult situation involving Jorge Cestero, who has not played a single minute in the B team’s last two matches.

Cestero, who was linked with a summer move to Lille , was an unused substitute in last week’s 1-1 draw with Sant Andreu, and that snub led to him clashing with Lopez. On the back of this, he has been punished by Real Madrid, with Marca (via Sport ) reporting that he was left out of the weekend defeat to Alcorcon because of the bust-up.

According to the report, Cestero was unhappy at being replaced in the Castilla line-up by Thiago Pitarch, who had been with the Real Madrid first team for the opening weeks of the season. With La Liga currently on a three-week break, the decision was made for the teenage midfielder to feature for the B team, and this did not please Cestero.

It remains to be seen how long Cestero is left out by Castilla, but if the situation drags on, it would be no surprise if he left Real Madrid in January.