COMMENT: Zinedine Zidane is well aware of how things work at Real Madrid so his alleged misgivings about pre-season orders from the boardroom could have been exaggerated.

Reports of a clash between Los Merengues's French head coach and president Florentino Pérez has been widely reported over who should stay and who the club should sign to bolster their ranks this summer.

In 2001 Zidane became one of the original Galácticos, the collection of superstar signings made by Madrid at the start of the new millennium, and knows what promises are made to stars.

During the first Galácticos era it was said that stars such as Zidane, Luis Figo and David Beckham all had to play and that Pérez has never stopped advising his coaches on the financial and marketing benefits of such players all being in the starting XI.

James Rodríguez is one of the current crop of Galácticos at Madrid and the president is reportedly keen to keep the Colombian on board, but Zidane had other ideas until a change of tune this week.

Problems between coach and player have existed almost since the change of head coach in January and when the player was seen laughing and joking as Madrid trailed Wolfsburg 2-0 in the Champions League quarter final first leg in April it looked like a summer exit was likely.

"[Former coach Carlo Ancelotti and Zidane] are two very different coaches and the fact that he isn't playing at the moment doesn't mean anything, but it's obvious that change of coach was bad for him," James' father, Wilson Rodríguez told the media afterwards.

Pérez and Zidane have held lengthy talks about players coming and going but few expected Zidane's announcement that James was a player he saw as part of a winning Madrid team with him at the helm.

“James is a Real Madrid player. We have a very good squad, we have won with this team and James is just one more in the team. He will remain at Real Madrid," the Madrid trainer stated.

If that was Zidane's choice, then the fact that young Martin Odegaard travelled to the United States on tour certainly was not, but again Pérez's influence came to bear as he persuaded the coach to take him, if only to showcase his skills.

Odegaard had his inclusion in a first-team pre-season tour included in his contract, along with a base salary of €1.2 million per annum when aged 16, and so Pérez told Zidane he was going, but sugared the pill by suggesting it be a shop window for a loan move for the youngster.

With many stars still on holiday after their Euro 2016 exploits, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, Madrid and Zidane could afford to try and test the starlets and second string.

In the 3-1 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, Oldegaard played the entire second-half in Ohio and while he was unable to change the outcome, he showed some neat touches without truly impressing.

A loan move to a club in Spain or the Bundesliga is now likely and Zidane can breathe more easily, but he still has a battle to convince Pérez of the worth of some of his transfer targets and validity of selling players that the president feels still have commercial value at Madrid.

“Odegaard arrived in a blaze of publicity from Stromgodset and was said to be a real star of the future," a journalist from Marca, Spain's biggest selling daily sports paper, told me.

“The problem is that while Madrid had fought off competition from other big clubs, the player was promised things he should not have been.

“Zidane was in charge of the B team (Madrid Castilla) with Odegaard and he feels that there are other players from the youth ranks that are more deserving of a chance to shine during the pre-season trip."

While Pérez maybe using his power to press Zidane over James and Odegaard, the coach is fighting back and has let it be known that if Madrid only sign one player this summer then it has to be Paul Pogba from Juventus. Manchester United currently appear to be favourites to re-sign the player for over €100 million only four years after seeing him leave Old Trafford for nothing.

But Zidane and Madrid have other ideas and the delay in any deal being done could be that while Pérez may have his detractors, his desire to have what he wants can also be used for the good of the club's head coach and not just the bad.