Miguel L. Pereira can be found in the social media here, and if you are hungry to find out more, Miguel has also written a book that delves into the heights and depths of Spanish football, and it is all cultural and social. Find out more about it here.
There is no place where you can feel really safe when you are a real Manager of Madrid. It’s one of the most powerful jobs in world football, not because it’s a club that wants to win everything all the time, but actually because it belongs to football managers. Few have championed their ideas in its long, successful history, and when they did, it came at a cost. Xabi Alonso begins to understand what is possible, even if it is, precisely, one of the few who cannot say that they could not be warned in the past.
Some clubs are players. Others are football managers. Real Madrid is in the first stage. You could even say it almost explains it. This is a team built by the Chairman who was, in fact, a very successful player in his youth and believed to understand the game well. And, honestly, he’s one of the greatest players of all time, who, even if he was a successful manager over time, he always didn’t rely on the role of the man on the bench.
The Chamartin crowd supported Alfredo Di Stefano’s values of Grit, character, personality, winning personality and flair, alongside Santiago Benabusis’ sense of engagement with situations, what you expect. Football managers have never been as loved or admired as they once were. Take the Metro East to the new Metropolitano, and you can easily understand how Atletico Madrid became its soul in two football managers – even if they succeeded the former players of Aragones and Diego Pablo Simeone. Barcelona, the biggest rivals of Madrid, have been shaped in their modern version, much love and thanks, by the Dutch Genius Johan Cruyff. Not Cruyff the player, as many wrongly remember, but Cruyff the manager.
Until then, Bharca was a club searching for an identity but always relying more on international superstars, from Ladislao Kubala to afeusaradona, than management. When they rolled Helenio Herrera, who had just won back-to-back tongues against the powerful real madrid between the runs of fIve European Cup Wins, they showed a lot and paid the price. Real Madrid, on the contrary, once put their hearts in the hands of one man and walked away with it.
Vanguard managers have been hired, here and there, some forwards like Fabio Capello, as Jorge Valdano always, but the club seemed free from the arms of the father figure, but Bernabeu and Di Stefano were important. The men understood that the players came first, that they needed to express themselves freely to please the crowd and collect the silverware. Their only job was not to get in their own way and maintain a harmonious environment in the dressing room.
It is true, they could not work wisely; On the contrary. Luis Molowny or Vicentel del Bosque – the two most dedicated figures in the history of Spanish football – were much higher than they were labeled, and even Miguel Munoz, knew a thing or two about the game. The same can be said of Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti, the managers who defined Real Madrid’s second golden era. They were intellectually sound, great at management, and had strong personalities. Nevertheless, they knew their place in the royal family and, above all, they were loved by the players who enjoyed their company, teachings and accomplishments.
When they were briefly replaced by the likes of Rafael Benitez, Julen LopeTegui or Santiago Solari, who were dying to leave their personal imprint on the club, morale fell and so did the team. Alonso can also recall the Jose Mourinho years, the only time perhaps in history when a manager was the media star of the side. That didn’t end well though; Mourinho stopped being ‘special’ when he decided to face the specials in the dressing room. There were too many of them, to him.
Ask who remembers the names of Real Madrid managers, who won the first six European cups? Few will come up with answers. Or three famous coaching managers Quinta del Buitre for their beneficial title that follows each other. Even many of today’s madridistas will stumble on that one. But they know the names of the players, the kits and will remember a few results.
Alonso is a football lover and has insider knowledge of everything related to the club, so none of this is news to him. Apart from the ego that every football player and football manager has, there should be strong reasons for the order from Liverpool and Bayern Munich. Perhaps it was a promise from the Board that he would fully support the way he conducted things in the dressing room. Or that the transfer market will talk about important positions in his artistic plan, the same person he is like in his real 1 days.
Alonso🗣️
“MBAPPE is very important. Of course, goals are very important but his personality, his leadership, his weight in the dressing room.”
“I was more calm than you would expect. I’m not a novice at this. I know it’s a long-term road and it’s not easy.”
Credit: UEFA story👇ELL pic.twitter.com/nrbjk7dkjb
– Football españa (@Footballelle PhenClable_) November 27, 2025
However, December arrived, and with the first responses to the broadcast of the manager who was in charge four days earlier, he won the first clasico played in the campaign and comfortably in the top eight of the Champions League. That’s the real madrid for you. That, his side did not play well all season; There were key positions in the dugout that should have been targeted in the transfer market, and the team suffered significant injuries preventing their best XI from playing regularly.
Everything is true. But everyone who saw his first weeks on the job, during the Club World Cup, saw his vision from the side, even though he only did a few training sessions. That’s all but gone now. Alonso’s side are increasingly dependent on Kylie Mbappe’s goals – most from the area, and Thibaut Courceois’ ability to stop almost everything that comes his way. That said, little has changed since the Ancolotti days. The problem is, few things have changed because the dressing room remains the same, and that’s where the club’s problems have always been. Now, before and tomorrow.
Few dressing rooms know as much about sackring managers as Real Madrid, all the way back to the day when the Bernabeu said that Manuel Fleitas solich because the players were tired of his clever return. Since then, successful managers have faced a similar fate. When Florentino Perez said his Floores in 2006, complaining that he had given great power to the Galactic, he simply reduced what this past problem did and what happened again with the likes of Vinicius Junior or Jude Bellingham.
Xabi Alonso appears to be developing a relationship with his Real Madrid stars, but what did he give up during the negotiations? Full story below pic.twitter.com/ehsvoxqkgu
– Football españa (@Footballelle PhenClable_) November 30, 2025
This was demonstrated by Alonso Returning the English International to the afternoon when he was hammered by Atletico Madrid, and it helps to explain why the manager felt the need to have one of his key names. Although sometimes, it doesn’t make sense when you think about how the team is expected to perform under him. None of the aggressive, pressing, quick transitions and passing skills we saw at Levekusen. Real Madrid are stymied in defence, slow and seem to have four and rely heavily on one man.
Gonzelo Garcia, a young, promising striker who made a name for himself during the Club World Cup, is not getting minutes, even if the program seems to be bombs in the box. His aerial ability should be the key, but as it comes to the end of the position of the names found in the attacking midfield, he cannot play the role Joseli Mato made under Ancoselulatto. The need to throw a promising new mastantuno in the starting XI when it is clear that it is a color that has graduated from the academy drawing, instead of relying on the Academy Grame (instead of low-level players, and shows the need to find a balance between closed doors.
After that, there is Vinicius. Few players in world football can be as toxic as Brazil. A very talented winger, a man who has done wonders for the club, Vinicius has been a shadow of himself since losing the ballon d’noma to Rodri against all odds. He allowed someone to do his public stunts, the kind of mahatma gandhi in football, that few people actually believe are true, to provide his football identity. His claims are often justified, and require immediate action from the football authorities, but they are more disturbing than Vinicius fuel. The fact that Perez prefers to sign Mbappe to be the star of his project instead of solidifying his role after something very good in 2023/4 is likely to do with it.
In the end, Alonso can’t find a place in his strategic plan, but he also doesn’t have the power to win the power struggle with the world star that will come out of his contract. Even rodrygo goes, a very small figure inside the dressing room, managed to stay after the intense summer market full of speculation, getting more minutes than many expected. A little of it has a lot to do with football, but with Group Dynamics. And that’s why, in the history of Real Madrid, being able to manage a group of Giant Egos has always proved more effective than hiring a matchmaker and all the players who subtly adhere to a certain ideology that has a calming effect.
Alonso’s career may not be in the limelight, and it doesn’t make sense that there is actually a discussion about it at the beginning of the year, but again, Real Madrid proves that football managers can be liked or admired. They are a necessity. If they dream of working hard for the club or the players, as Bire Shankly, Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Gudgen Klopp, Pip Gueyff, or Cruyff did. Only time will tell what will happen to the promising Basque manager, but he knows exactly where he is coming from, and don’t expect Alonso to wave his white flag now.
