It can look easy when everything is going well. Lesser lights are trampled mercilessly under your sheer might, the world's best players will move mountains to sign for you, and they can feel superhuman as they channel the power of that famous white jersey.
Almost everyone else dreams of one day being crowned European champions, you ask how many years in a row you can take the throne. There's an innate belief that it belongs to you.
Everything is bigger at the Bernabeu.
But that can also be a crushing weight, because the expectation of being the biggest and best never wavers, no matter the circumstances. So, what happens when reality does not meet those expectations?
There is perhaps no club in the world more susceptible to internal [politics](https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/?ref=au) and power struggles, because when every person in every role believes they are the biggest and best - which is what it takes to survive at Real Madrid - egos will inevitably clash.
Los Blancos have lost just once in La Liga under new manager Xabi Alonso this season, and are just a point behind leaders Barcelona. They defeated their old rivals in the first El Clasico of the season at the end of October.
But the only headlines emerging from the Spanish capital just now speak of tension and unrest. A quick Google News search throws up claims of Alonso being 'out of his depth' and 'at risk of the sack'.
The Spaniard spent five years at Real as a player, so will be acutely aware of the frenzied, logic-free reality in which the club's manager must exist. He will have known upon taking the job that a storm would always be hovering on the horizon, and that this next chapter of his life would be largely spent trying to keep it there.
The clearest challenge he was in danger of facing does little to dispel the notion that Real are a soap opera, because the most obvious, on-the-nose potential plotline is the one that is currently unfolding.
Replacing Ancelotti was a daunting task for any coach. 'Don Carlo' is so revered among the club's fans for what he achieved. As his final season at the club unfolded last year, a street mural depicting Ancelotti as the King of Spain appeared on the streets of Madrid.
His 15 trophies across two spells in charge make him the club's most successful manager. Moreover, though, his status as the ultimate Real Madrid manager extends beyond his glittering silverware haul.
They are the club whose blockbuster transfer policy coined the term 'Los Galacticos' in the early 2000s. Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham; football's answer to the Harlem Globetrotters.
Their modern equivalents are not marketed as some elite collective anymore, with each instead preferring to cultivate their own personal brands. With each of them comes a large entourage, a whole other business in itself.
Some reports say forward Vinicius Jr has at least 25 staff in his employ. According to Forbes, he is, alongside Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham, among a trio of Real players who sit among the world's top 10 highest-paid footballers. Their wealth is significantly bolstered by off-field activities.
The Galactico branding may have faded into nostalgia, but the concept is alive and well at the Bernabeu.
It is widely acknowledged that Ancelotti's leadership style was perfectly suited to dealing with such a unique environment. He had an intuitive understanding of how to cultivate relationships with these larger-than-life superstars, and, most importantly, how to keep them all happy.
They were afforded a certain degree of freedom, and Ancelotti is a master at making room for egos without having them trample all over one another. It created an embedded culture that was inevitably at odds with how his successor operates.
In an era where team structures and a coach's 'philosophy' are perceived to outweigh individualism, Ancelotti was considered somewhat of an outlier at the very top, the type of hands-off manager top clubs tend not to hire any more.
Alonso, meanwhile, arrived in Madrid from Bayer Leverkusen, his first senior management role. In leading the German side to an unlikely double, and unbeaten domestic season, he had created a side that was more than the sum of its parts. They were described as 'tactically complete'.
At Madrid, it appears that he has attempted to overhaul the entire culture in a short space of time, creating friction with some of his biggest stars. Last month's rumours, then, that Vinicius had told the club hierarchy he would not be renewing his contract amid a fractious relationship with Alonso, came as little surprise.
You would think there is no more authoritative position in world football than the manager of Real Madrid, but then there is no club at which player power can be so hard to stifle than at Real Madrid.
It is a relentlessly demanding football club, and one that, in some ways, operates in its own bonkers universe. And what is why Alonso finds himself under intense scrutiny despite what would elsewhere be considered a far-from-disastrous start to the season.
A 5-2 defeat to city rivals Atletico Madrid certainly did not help, nor have three consecutive league draws. But the noise around Alonso's position would suggest that results have been egregiously bad when they clearly have not. It's a tell tale sign that the unrest is being fuelled from within, and that is dangerous for any manager.
Perhaps Alonso's biggest challenge is not in overcoming Real's rivals, but conquering the club itself.