Sunday's 3-1 win over Real Mallorca saw Madrid become Spanish champions for the 30th time in their illustrious history, but the first time since 2003.

It was also the first piece of major silverware the club have won since Vicente del Bosque led them to the league title four years ago, and means the likes of departing superstars David Beckham and Roberto Carlos can leave on a high.

The man who succeeded where Carlos Queiroz, Jose Antonio Camacho, Mariano Garcia Remon, Wanderley Luxemburgo and Juan Ramon Lopez Caro all failed, is coach Fabio Capello, who rode a wave of a criticism this season and rumours of impending dismissal to win his second league title with the club.

Capello also led Madrid to the championship in his one previous season in charge back in 1996-97.

There are no guarantees Capello will be in the hotseat against next term, but if the Italian does leave the Bernabeu this summer he can at least look back on a hugely eventful second 12-month stint at the club as mission accomplished.

Brought in by new president Ramon Calderon and his sporting director Predrag Mijatovic - who played under Capello during his first term at Madrid - the former Juventus, AC Milan and Roma boss quickly set about strengthening the club's underachieving side.

In came two of his trusted lieutenants from Juventus, Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson, while prolific Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, Malian powerhouse midfielder Mahamadou Diarra and Spain winger Jose Antonio Reyes joined from Manchester United, Lyon and Arsenal (loan), respectively.

Despite all the major changes and new faces last summer though, things did still not go to plan for the Spanish giants in the first half of the campaign - in fact far from it.

With results and performances less than inspiring before Christmas, combined with persistent speculation about the futures of two of the club's 'Galacticos' - Beckham and Ronaldo - Madrid found themselves under fire from fans and media alike around the turn of the year and the start of 2007.

A 3-0 home loss to Recreativo Huelva in the final game of 2006 made for a cold winter break for the club, but worse was to follow in the opening game of this year as they lost 2-0 against a Deportivo La Coruna side that had failed to win any of their previous nine league matches.

That defeat, Madrid's third loss in four league outings, set the alarm bells well and truly ringing at the Bernabeu and the following day Mijatovic met Capello, president Calderon and technical secretary Franco Baldini for emergency talks at the club's Valdebebas training ground.

Mijatovic said after the meeting "we have detected all of the problems and we are able to solve them".

However, there appeared to be little evidence of that in the following months as Madrid were dumped out of the Champions League and Copa del Rey while continuing to under-perform in the league, leading to reports that Capello was living on borrowed time.

During that period Madrid were in the process of blooding a host of youngsters in the shape of winter signings Fernando Gago, Gonzalo Higuain and Marcelo, plus home-grown defender Miguel Torres.

But it proved to be the form of two of the squad's older hands that was to be instrumental in the club's stunning late-season revival, with Beckham and Van Nistelrooy in scintillating form over the closing months.

Beckham had been told by Capello he would never play for the team again in January following his announcement that he would be joining the Los Angeles Galaxy this summer, but the former England captain forced himself back into the reckoning, and with devastating results.

In the 10 league games Beckham has played since being brought back in from his exile Madrid have yet to lose, while the 32-year-old's form has not only earned the midfielder universal praise, but also a recall to the England squad.

Van Nistelrooy has been arguably even more influential than his former Manchester United team-mate though, and the Dutchman's tally of 25 goals this season was more than any other player in La Liga.

Madrid are no two-man team though, and the previously much-maligned midfield pairing of Diarra and Emerson has been crucial to the team's success, as has the ever-dependable goalkeeping of Iker Casillas.

Brazilian forward Robinho is another who seems to have flourished of late, while Raul and Sergio Ramos have both weighed in with crucial goals of late as Madrid won 10 of their final 12 matches.

Behind all of that though has been the guiding hand of Capello, and while the Italian may have ruffled more than a few feathers and taken a tremendous amount of flak, at least he achieved what he was employed to do - returning Madrid to the place where he left them in back in 1997, on top of the Primera Liga pile.