Former Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz has rejected an idea that Barcelona's current slump in form echoes that of the Blancos side which nosedived during his 2003-04 season at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
Until recently, Barcelona had gone six months and 39 games unbeaten in all competitions and were huge favourites to retain the Liga title as well as the Champions League and La Liga trophies.
However, Luis Enrique's side have now taken just one point from their last four La Liga games, with their lead over challengers Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid having been cut, while they have also been knocked out of the Champions League quarterfinals by Atletico.
Such a situation has led both AS and Marca to recall the 2003-04 campaign when a Galactico-packed Madrid team coached by Queiroz was chasing the Treble late in the season but capitulated and ended up winning nothing.
Current Iran national manager Queiroz has told the "El Partido de las 12" radio show that the real problem that season had been the previous summer's transfer business, when Madrid president Florentino Perez had signed David Beckham and allowed Fernando Morientes and Claude Makelele to leave.
"You cannot compare the squad Barcelona have now with our squad then," Queiroz said. "They have experienced players, and negative runs should not influence players of the quality of Barca. We did not start to go down after losing the Copa del Rey final [to Zaragoza in March].
"It was at the start of the season. It was miraculous with the squad we had that we were eight points ahead of [eventual winners] Valencia. As far as I know Barca have not sold Luis Suarez, as we sold [Fernando] Morientes to Monaco, and I don't think that they have sold [Sergio] Busquets like we did [Claude] Makelele to Chelsea."
Madrid chief Florentino Perez had signed current coach Zinedine Zidane for that Galacticos team, as well as other stars such as Brazil international Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos, but Queiroz suggested he did not really understand football.
"[Perez] is a fantastic person but when he starts to think he knows a lot about football he makes mistakes," the Portuguese coach said. "The president did not want to understand things. And in the end it was me who paid the price."
AS also spoke to ex-Madrid striker Javier Portillo, who was a young backup striker in Queiroz's 2003-04 squad.
"For me what happened that year is still a mystery that I am unable to explain," Portillo said. "We had a record first three quarters of the season. But we suffered a dip after losing the Copa del Rey final in extra time in March. It was a hammer blow and affected us.
"We began to doubt inside, despite having everything in our hands. Then we lost in the Champions League to Monaco. The squad was not big enough and we could not win anything."
Portillo featured little that season, with Queiroz sticking with his big name attackers Ronaldo and Raul Gonzalez for most of the games, meaning his situation was quite similar to that of Barca youngster Munir El-Haddadi at the moment, with Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez rarely being rotated.
"Madrid's first XI was the best in Europe, full of Ballons d'Or," he said. "Even still, we missed having more depth, and they could have counted more on the homegrown youngsters."
Portillo, who has retired as a player and is now on the staff at Hercules in Spain's third tier, said he felt that his former club would now be strong enough over the final five games to win the title.
"Seriously I think it will be Madrid," he said. "At the moment. I don't know if Barca have some problem in the dressing room, but they seem to have gone to pieces. And Atletico win many games by the minimum."