The window in Europe has only three more days to get transfers over the line. But speculation does not end with January, indeed an even more fickle wind might be blowing come Feb 14.

That is Valentine's Day. It is also the day on which Real Madrid play Paris St Germain at the Bernabeu. And it could be the beginning of the end of the romance between Zinedine Zidane and Madrid.

Who writes this stuff? Who dreams up a rumour like this?

In this case, Zidane is the author of his own speculation. His managerial career had kicked off almost as spectacularly as his playing time.

Winning two Champions League titles in his first two seasons straight after stepping up from coaching the B team would, in any ordinary situation, guarantee the manager's position.

Yet, as Real trail Barcelona in LaLiga, and are out of the Spanish King's Cup after falling to humble Leganes, he faced up to the reality that his future depends upon the PSG tie.

"Yes," he said, "that is clear."

Marca, the Madrid paper that often spreads the word for Real president Florentino Perez, put it this way: "What seems white a few weeks ago becomes black. And if Zidane's Real Madrid seemed insurmountable, now it has become a vulgar team and without any response in compromising situations."

So Feb 14 is more than the showdown between superstars Cristiano Ronaldo in white and Neymar in Parisian red, blue and white.

It is common knowledge that Perez, the godfather to Los Galacticos, always wanted Neymar. Madrid tried for him before he joined Barca, but Real wear the wrong shoes to pull that off.

They are an adidas club. Barca, PSG and Brazil are Nike.

Yet what Perez wants, Perez usually gets. Whispers grow that Neymar isn't settled in Paris and that, after the World Cup, he could complete the journey from Barcelona to Madrid via a stopover.

Madrid, it is said, would pay €300 million (S$487 million) to get him.

Might Ronaldo go the other way?

Don't get ahead of ourselves. These are mere musings, albeit encouraged by Ronaldo's apparent discontent that he was recently overtaken by the €50 million-a-season deal Lionel Messi signed with Barcelona.

Should that discontent translate into Ronaldo's recent indifferent form? He turns 33 next month. And that, despite his belief that he has a good four years left in him, his wonderful career has always been dependent on physical prowess as much as God-given talent.

We digress. Ronaldo and Madrid know that what really matters, what has always defined Real Madrid, is the Champions League.

Winning three Champions League titles on the bounce has never been achieved before (although at the start of the European Cup in the 1950s, Real imperiously won it in five successive seasons).

Rest assured that president Perez will not tolerate the status quo. He has a vision of global grandeur, and is prepared to pay what it takes to buy that. In the past, it was always about star players. Now it embraces the star makers, the manager or head coach.

The open secret around the Bernabeu is that Mauricio Pochettino is top of the shopping list, with Jurgen Klopp next.

Both coaches promote attacking, high-speed, high-pressure football, making those superstar players run for their money.

Both are employed, Pochettino at Tottenham and Klopp at Liverpool. But when did a contract, or the price to buy it out, ever dissuade Perez? The fact that Liverpool keep selling stars to Barcelona might alone stimulate Real to tempt Klopp away from Anfield.

But Pochettino, an Argentinian who has played and coached in Spain, is far and away the first choice.

Perez will tempt him by making bids for Harry Kane, Eden Hazard and David de Gea next summer. Kane, who prospers under Pochettino at Tottenham. Hazard, whose fans include most people at the Bernabeu, including Zidane.

And de Gea, whom Perez regards as unfinished business, a Madrid-born goalkeeper who so nearly joined them from Manchester United until the deal broke down on a failed fax confirmation in 2015.

That trio could cost the better part of S$1 billion, with wages on top. Kane and Pochettino are supposedly looking forward to taking Spurs into the new stadium next season.

They also are ambitious men. Ambitious men hunt trophies, and after so nearly challenging for the Premier League title two years ago, Spurs might already have peaked under Pochettino.

All speculation, of course. It's the season.