Spain's national coach Vicente Del Bosque can still only talk about Real president Florentino Perez through gritted teeth, but this week he has probably been silently thanking his former adversary and nemesis.
The construction magnate gave the beloved former Real player his marching orders as the Spanish giant's coach back in 2003 after deciding not to renew his contract just a day after he won the club its 29th league title.
The incident remains a sore point with Del Bosque which a good run at the World Cup will only partially erase.
However, thanks to Perez, the gaze of the Spanish media has been partly diverted from La Roja's World Cup preparations at the Spanish federation's training centre in the western suburb of Las Rozas, by all the hysteria just a few miles across the city in the vicinity of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
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Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan have answered all the questions on the pitch this season after their unprecedented treble for an Italian side, taking both the Serie A title and the Coppa Italia as well as the Champions League.
However, what happens off the pitch is now the big question looming over the head of the Special One and his men.
Mourinho infamously jumped ship from Porto to Chelsea in 2004 after winning the Champions League with the Portuguese club and didn't even celebrate the triumph with his team and fans in the Dragao.
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Real Madrid's failure to make the Champions League final in their own Santiago Bernabeu stadium this Saturday only makes it more poignant that, almost 50 years ago to the day, they were involved in what many consider to be one of the best club matches of all time.
Real president Florentino Perez spent hundreds of millions of euros last summer with virtually the sole objective of winning a record 10th Champions League in front of the club's own fans and he is apparently still grinding his teeth at the team's failure to do any better than the last 16.
The only consolation for Perez is that their bitter rivals and this season's La Liga champions Barcelona will not be there either, having lost in the semi-final to Inter Milan.
So as Inter prepare to face Bayern Munich this weekend, let us turn the clock back half a century to a bygone era.
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The headline in Spanish sports daily AS last Friday compressed the recent history of Fulham's Europa League final opponents into one line: "Atletico - from hell to glory in 10 years."
As far the writer was concerned, hell - El Infierno - was the Spanish second division, where Atletico Madrid languished for two frustrating years at the start of the millennium. The reference to glory implies that he thinks that they are about to hoist aloft something of significance for the first time in 14 years.
My alternative title would have been: "Atletico - from hell to glory in barely 10 months."
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It's been a week of mixed emotions in Hamburg.
On one side of the city the fans of Hamburger SV are still bemoaning their lost opportunities last Thursday.
Rather than the Rothosen - red shorts - it will be Fulham who will contest the Europa League final against Atletico Madrid in their own Nordbank Arena on May 12 after Hamburg's 2-1 defeat at Craven Cottage.
However, in the areas down by the docks and the famous Reeperbahn, or should I say infamous depending on your point of view, there has been unrestrained joy over the last day or so from the fans of cross-city rivals FC St. Pauli.
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Hi, I'm Phil Minshull. I've lived in Spain since 1997 and covered Spanish football since the first day I got here. My blog aims to provide some insight into what's happening in La Liga, and there is much more to it than only Real and Barcelona, as well as elsewhere around Europe. 
