Isco played 14 minutes for Real Madrid as they beat Getafe earlier this week. It would have been a few minutes longer, but for the player's vanity.
As one of Zinedine Zidane's coaching team was trying to explain tactical instructions before he entered the action, the attacking midfielder was far more interested in how his hair looked.
A television network timed Isco's 'adjustments', as he repeatedly wet his hair to smooth it into a ponytail, at one minute and 20 seconds. All the while, Zidane was waiting to make the switch.
It provoked a furious reaction from Real's fans, who blasted his lack of professionalism and his evident disrespect for his coaches. The general consensus was that he should leave the Bernabeu at the earliest possible opportunity.
That won't happen until the summer and you do wonder what Isco, 28, is going to contribute between now and then.
He has started just three LaLiga matches all season and has featured in just 126 minutes of league action since his last start on November 8.
Zidane has made him essentially a substitute of last resort in the prominent games and often he doesn't get on at all, or even make the squad.
No goals and just one assist in 15 outings this season tells a sorry tale and despite his contract running until 2022, it seems Isco is beyond redemption in a Real squad in desperate need of a belt-tightening cull.
The hair incident last week followed supporter anger that Isco and Marcelo shared a joke together on the pitch as Real crashed out of the Copa del Rey in humiliating fashion to third-tier Alcoyano last month.
Relations between the player and fans are in deep freeze and it'll take a great deal of effort to thaw things out again.
As Real blunder on in the likely hopeless pursuit of Atletico Madrid at the top of LaLiga and the equally unlikely prospect of Champions League glory, potential suitors for Isco will already be scoped out.
Back in December, one Spanish media outlet suggested Isco's decision to leave Real had 'put some of the biggest clubs in Europe on alert, including Juventus, Manchester City and Manchester United'.
As much as the Spanish football media want Isco to scale the heights because he's one of their own, this desire has always been greater than the player's capacity to match the expectation on him.
Manchester City have not been interested in Isco since 2013 when Manuel Pellegrini tried to sign him from Malaga. Pellegrini got the best out of Isco playing him with freedom behind the striker minus the shackles of any defensive duties.
He shone under the Chilean and ended up going to Real Madrid instead of the Etihad. Seven years on he is still only 28 but looks the shadow of the player that helped take Malaga to a Champions League quarter-final.
Despite ongoing links to City, Pep Guardiola has never shared Pellegrini's fondness for Isco and never requested that City move to sign him. Guardiola demands the sort of sustained intensity of his players that has always been absent from Isco's game.
It's unlikely Manchester United and Juventus feel any differently and it would be a surprise if Arsenal, the last club linked with Isco, take a gamble on a player whose best days seem so far behind him.
If they do, the challenge for Mikel Arteta will be to get a talented but languid and inconsistent performer up to Premier League speed in time to help Arsenal challenge next season.
They also have eyes for Joan Jordan and the all-energy Sevilla midfielder looks like a far better investment.
Sevilla have also been linked with Isco. A move there would reunite the player with Julen Lopetegui, who always managed Isco well when he was Spain and briefly Real Madrid coach.
It would be an interesting reunion – perhaps if anyone could save Isco from disappearing off the map before he hits 30 it would be Lopetegui.
If Jordan went to Arsenal then Sevilla might move for Isco although they would gambling on Lopetegui's ability to turn Isco into an all-purpose midfielder – something no one else has ever really managed to do.
He has always been the No 10 who struggled when – as is the case in most top teams – there was no room for a No 10 or someone better than him was already playing there.
Real Madrid don't play with a No 10 so Isco has had to try to adapt. The problem has been that he neither has the pace to move further forward and play as a wide forward, nor the engine, muscle and guile that Luka Modric has to play as the box-to-box midfielder demanded in a 4-3-3.
The talent has never been up for debate and it's a shame to see it wasted on the bench at Real Madrid.
For all that Spain supporters would love to see him become the man who makes Juventus or Manchester City tick in the Champions League his next destination is likely to be a notch down from that.
And it will come with a big responsibility on whoever decides to sign-off on the gamble.
