There is a theory, defended by Cristiano Ronaldo's friends, that we have all heard during the years and that today the editor of my Spanish paper, the maestro, Alfredo Relaño, mentions in his editorial.
Selection
For once this Clasico is also about the goalkeepers.
Will Jose Mourinho play Antonio Adan (everybody's favourite to play as Mourinho promised him he will play the cup) or new acquisition Diego López?
How is Victor Valdés handling the pressure after having said he was leaving? It seems like he's handling it well: the Camp Nou gave him an ovation in his first appearance after the announcement and club president Sandro Rosell is asking him to reconsider.
Elsewhere on the pitch Real Madrid will have key players missing: Pepe and Sergio Ramos (not a huge problem it seems, as the team has conceded one goal in the last six games where they were not the partnership at the back), Angel Di María, Fabio Coentrao and Iker Casillas are all out.
Barcelona, on the other hand, will have a very in-form Pedro available, as well as a confident trio of Cesc, Iniesta, Xavi in a team adapted to a variation of the Barcelona style we saw under Pep. This team may have conceded more than they have done for a decade, but they've also scored more than ever.
To be less predictable, Tito Vilanova decided to stretch the team, to make it more direct (although they still like to keep the ball a lot) and lose a bit of the control in favour of more box-to-box football. That normally benefits both Barcelona and Messi, who finds himself with more space - but that has a risk, shown by the amount they've conceded.
And Madrid? In an interesting turn of events Florentino Pérez decided to come out publicly to say a cover of a newspaper was a lie, that the story about players wanting to leave if Mourinho didn't in the summer wasn't true.
It was a strange decision as he hadn't come out in front of the press for ages, but he was forced by players who were unhappy with a leak that made them look like black sheep - and the prospect of Mourinho putting more petrol on the fire.
One conspiracy says that Mourinho's people might have passed on the leak so his ideas about players working against him were confirmed. That's an interesting idea.
In any case, it seems that the events have reinforced one route: the one where all staff and players work together, forgetting what separates them, to win the cup and the Champions League. And then, in the summer, accept it is time to part company.
Watch Real Madrid tackle Barcelona in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final from 7.55pm, Wednesday, Sky Sports 3 HD.
