Isco banking on Real Madrid's revolving door of managers to get his career back on track

The Spain midfielder is about as talented as they come yet still can't find his way into the Madrid starting XI

Given that Real Madrid hired Santiago Solari in October and then handed him a three-year deal to officially make him their manager in November, you might assume that any players not in his plans would be allowed to leave the club this month.

And yet the player that it would make most sense to sell - the one with whom Solari's relationship has completely broken down - will be staying put. Isco no se vende is the message from the Bernabeu and they're not budging on that strict stance that Francisco Roman Alarcon Suarez simply isn't for sale.

How Madrid are supposed to deal with the ongoing Isco situation is an interesting question not simply because he is one of the world's most talented midfielders who would fetch a lot of money on the open market, but because they have no plans to do so despite his inability to break into the team. Why is it that a club would allow a valuable asset's price to tank as he sits on the bench, occasionally not even in the squad, as the team around him struggles?

The most logical conclusion and, indeed, the one that those around Isco have come to is that rather than wrestle over power right now and kick up a stink, the diminutive playmaker will win if he plays the long game. The 26-year-old midfielder has a long contract (expiring in 2022) and is far more secure in his employment status than Solari, who has been unable to turn the team's fortunes around and will likely be replaced this summer.

Mauricio Pochettino remains the dream man to take over, and should he do so then Isco's primary issue evaporates overnight. In fact, whoever came in would be an upgrade on Solari for the Benalmadena-born midfielder, the lovable boy from the coast who was supposed to grow up into a Madrid legend but whose career has somewhat... stalled.

Real Madrid's Argentinian head coach Santiago Solari (EPA)

Under Julen Lopetegui, his former Under-21 coach at international level, Isco began this season with as positive an outlook as he had enjoyed in years.

With Luka Modric's impressive 2018 always likely to give way to age and the link between Isco and Lopetegui, this was supposed to be a campaign where the former Valencia and Malaga man laid down a marker. Instead he didn't start in any of Solari's first six games in charge, being named in the team just twice during the Argentine's 16 games as boss, and Isco has now been reduced to waiting out the numbered days of Solari's reign.

There remains the possibility, of course, that Solari turns things around at Real Madrid. Ten points seems a lot to make up in La Liga but the top five are all flawed teams and, as we have seen in recent years, the club's relationship with the Champions League ensures that's a prize that is always in play whether Madrid are playing like thoroughbreds or donkeys in other competitions.

But when it comes to Isco, the player is determined to stay at the Bernabeu and he has had multiple reassurances from the club that he will not be sold. It all points to the writing already being on the wall for Solari and a waiting game for Isco, not that it will make him feel any better about the situation and not that it will claw back a season of his career destined, at this point, to be lost.