The "BBC" was back on the air Saturday as two goals from Karim Benzema, one from Gareth Bale and one from Cristiano Ronaldo helped Real Madrid end a difficult week with a convincing 4-1 win over Getafe.

Beating up on lowly Getafe is fine of course. But the good result could also be seen as merely papering over the cracks on a structure that's clearly been showing signs of decay.

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Outclassed by Barcelona in El Clasico. Disqualified from the Copa del Rey for fielding a suspended player. Continual rumors of discontent between players and manager Rafa Benitez. When taken all together, it looks increasingly like the current Real Madrid project – as begun by Florentino Perez when he returned for a second stint as club president in 2009 – could be coming off the rails.

Perez's model of amassing superstar attackers and leaving whoever the current coach is to find a way to field them all in the same team has never really been a reliable formula for success anyway. Carlo Ancelotti, the one manager who seemed to truly excel at it, was fired barely a year on from winning La Decima.

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Even beyond the on-pitch matters, there are other indications something has broken down within the club. Fielding the suspended Denis Cheryshev in the Copa del Rey, despite having received warnings from a Spanish referee via phone calls and a fax, and failing to file the paperwork for David De Gea's transfer imply some level of insulation from reality inside Real Madrid.

It could be nearing time to clear the decks and start all over again, just as Perez did when he took over and sold off the likes of Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben to bring in Ronaldo, Benzema and Kaka.

View photos The BBC of Benzema, Bale and Cristiano could be headed for a breakup. (AP Photo) More

Already, it seems increasingly likely that Ronaldo will leave at the end of the season, either to return to Manchester United or to join Paris Saint-Germain. Bale has generally been touted as the man who will assume the mantle when Ronaldo goes, but some question whether he's really up to it – not just in terms of marketability but also with his on-field impact.

In his first two seasons in Spain, Bale scored 41 goals in all competitions. Ronaldo scored more than twice that many in his first two years at Real. There's a lingering suspicion among Madridistas that Bale might not be quite as good as everyone thought he was when he came over on a record transfer from Tottenham Hotspur.

Benzema, meanwhile, remains under the cloud of a scandal involving sex, blackmail and one of his France national teammates. None of that really distinguishes him as the sort of player an institution like Real Madrid would want to make a figurehead.

With Bale also being linked to Man United and Benzema facing the genuine possibility of jail time, none of the futures of the BBC at Real Madrid are etched in stone at the moment. So who could the team build around if one or more of them goes?

Moving James Rodriguez into a more central role in his preferred position behind the striker is one option. Jesé and Isco are two other players currently on the books who could be capable of stepping up into bigger roles.

But with the three players many consider the world's best at the moment all playing for Barça, there aren't that many obvious outside candidates for filling the boots of the BBC.

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