Crisis club Real Madrid are set to cut their losses during the transfer window and ditch their two remaining galacticos Ronaldo and David Beckham, according to Spanish newspaper AS on Tuesday.
Real began 2007 as they finished 2006 - with a defeat - and already the knives are out for two of the Bernabeu's biggest, and best-paid, stars.
Coach Fabio Capello met with sporting director Pedrag Mijatovic and president Ramon Calderon on Monday and AS claims he demanded the two stars be sold during the January transfer window.
While Beckham, whose contract runs out at the end of the season, continues to stall over signing an extension, Ronaldo's is a case of time having finally caught up with the three-times world player of the year.
"If you can, sell him during the transfer window," Capello told his bosses, according to AS. "In these conditions, he's not part of my plans."
Ronaldo's career has hit the skids over the past two seasons.
Once regarded as the most dangerous and prolific striker in world football, he is now much derided for his expanded waistline and reduced influence on the pitch.
Last season he was frequently jeered by Real's fans and before a Champions League match against Arsenal he made a public plea for patience, while also suggesting he would leave in the close season.
But the new season brought a new coach and Capello decided to give him one last chance, only now his patience has worn thin.
French newspaper L'Equipe has also claimed that Ronaldo, who has played in just seven league games this season, more than half of those as a substitute, and scored a solitary goal, is a bad influence on other players, notably young Brazilians Robinho and Marcelo.
Rumours abound that Ronaldo leads his impressionable team-mates on inappropriate nights out, while he often turns up to train, according to Capello, "in an unacceptable condition for a professional footballer at Real Madrid."
But to blame Ronaldo for Real's malaise this season would be unfair. In all competitions he has taken to the field just 13 times, including six times as a substitute.
His return of four goals and no assists is not what the Bernabeu has come to expect of the once star striker, but given he missed the start of the season with injury and has started only seven of Real's 24 matches in league, cup and Champions League, he cannot be solely blamed for their demise.
Yet Ronaldo's performance in Real's recent slump, which included three defeats in their last four league matches, was not worth his reported 10 million euros a year salary.
A 3-0 defeat at home to newly-promoted Recreativo Huelva saw Ronaldo play 67 minutes and manage only one shot on goal - which missed the target.
He got only 37 minutes as a substitute at Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday, a team that had not won in 10 league games, and he managed just two shots this time.
The Brazilian superstar's status at the club has greatly changed.
His former president Florentino Perez, whose galacticos policy at the club initially yielded such great success, once said of him: "I would sooner sell the Santiago Bernabeu than let Ronaldo leave."
But Perez's successor Calderon apparently does not feel the same way.
It is not just Ronaldo under pressure, though. Capello has been criticised for his signings and their lack of success.
Of his summer recruits, only Ruud van Nistelrooy has been a success. Fifteen goals in 21 games in all competitions has seen to that.
But even Italian World Cup winning captain and new world and European player of the year Fabio Cannavaro has not overly impressed and defensive midfielders Emerson and Mahamadou Diarra have become deeply unpopular with Real's attack-hungry support.
Capello's signing of three South American youngsters (Marcelo, Fernando Gago and Gonzalo Higuain) for a combined 35 million euros in the transfer window does not seem likely to solve their issues either.
But the question is, are Real really in crisis. Capello insisted after the Deportivo defeat that they were still enjoying a good season and Mijatovic said after Monday's meeting that the club had faith in Capello and knew how to solve it's problems.
They are third in the league, only five points off top spot despite their recent troubles, and still in both the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.
Some might be glad to suffer such a crisis, but tellingly Capello decided Tuesday to bar the press and public from Real's training sessions.
Real, it seems, have their backs to the wall.
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