Zinedine Zidane stood for 29 minutes fielding questions but all of them really came down to two: Why now? And, what next?
Santiago Solari had been sacked as coach of Real Madrid and in his place Zidane would return, 284 days after he had left.
Real failed to win without him, first under Julen Lopetegui, the sacked Spain coach, and then Solari, the interim-turned-permanent coach, who watched on as Madrid’s season went up in smoke in six days.
Solari’s exit was inevitable but the idea any suitable replacement would take over for 11 La Liga games, with nothing to preside over except the aftermath of a crisis, seemed fanciful.
“When the president called me the first thing I thought was: go,” said Zidane. Which begs the question: what has changed?
“I returned because the president called me. I love him and I love this club,” he said. “We will change things, for sure, for the years to come.”
Zidane knew he would return with more authority than ever, far more even than after he had hoisted a third consecutive Champions League trophy.
The suspicion then was that he was just a face, a popular manager to keep the ship steady while star players engineered their own success.
As two coaches came and went, Zidane’s stock rose with every chance missed, every seat left empty and every point that Barcelona moved further away.
Zidane could have waited until the summer but the job might not have been available. Jose Mourinho, speaking on his increasingly regular public appearances, seemed eager.
Perez was under fire from all directions, from the fans, many of whom blamed the board more than Solari in the newspaper polls, and from the players, led by Sergio Ramos. “We need to start working on a new glorious era,” said Perez.
Zidane has three months to decide what needs changing. He arrives under no illusions. Madrid triumphed in Europe but in La Liga last season, Barcelona finished 17 points ahead. Now the gap is 12.