‘Keep fighting for the badge’: Arbeloa makes passionate defence of Real Madrid fight duo

Álvaro Arbeloa insisted Fede Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni should be given the chance to “keep fighting for the badge” after a second dressing-room bust-up in two days left the Uruguayan on the floor and needing to be taken to hospital for stitches in his head.

The morning after Real Madrid fined the players a record €500,000 each for the incident and the morning before they face Barcelona in the clásico, the coach gave an extraordinary press conference in which he claimed the dressing room was “healthy”, said that he was “proud” of his footballers and insisted that he would not allow them to be “burnt at the stake” for what they had done, saying that everyone makes mistakes, even club legend Juanito who famously stamped on Lothar Matthaus’s head. He also said he had also seen worse, recalling the night in 2007 that Craig Bellamy attacked Liverpool teammate John Arne Riise with a golf club.

While Valverde has been told to stay at home because of the “craniofacial trauma” suffered in the fight, the coach confirmed that Tchouaméni will be in the squad to face Barcelona. If Madrid do not win the clásico, their greatest rivals will be crowned champions.

Arbeloa hit out at what he called the “lies” told about his players but he also described dressing-room leaks as a “betrayal”, concluding: “I am responsible for what happens at Real Madrid and if you want to have someone to blame, here I am.”

“I have two things to say,” Arbeloa began. “I am very proud of the decisiveness, transparency and speed with which the club has acted. And, two, that the players have expressed their regret, they have admitted their error, and they have accepted the consequences of their actions. They have said sorry to the fans, the club and the dressing room, and that’s enough for me. They do not deserved to be publicly burnt at the stake. Fede Valverde nor Aurélien Tchouaméni have shown every day what it means to be a Real Madrid player, with their commitment and effort, and I am not going to forget that.”

“If there is a player that represents Real Madrid, that is a paradigm of what Madrid is, it’s Juanito. And did Juanito never make mistakes?” Arbeloa went on. “Anyone can make mistakes but Fede Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni are two players who represent very well what Real Madrid is, who deserve a chance to turn the page, to keep fighting for this badge.”