OPEN THREAD — Misplaced Euphoria Pt. II: 29 Apr. 2026

The Basics. I actually can’t dedicate as much time to this as I did yesterday, so let’s first knockout the basics of where the board has been a bit haphazard in their approach this year. First, let’s just briefly discuss our managerial situation.

Xabi. As we now know, JAS hired Xabi with a limited green light from Florentino Perez. Xabi who by all fashions is a project coach asked for materials for his project “a LB / CB / DLP” and received two of the fold (who despite recent trepidations started the season off positively) and Franco Mastantuono (an Argentinian youth who was purchased for more than Zubimendi.) Without that DLP, Xabi spent the majority of the fall trying to pigeon-hole Arda Guler who imo can’t play deeper into that role to have some semblance of build-up play in possession. It didn’t work. Then as everything really fall apart regarding the locker room / project, the project manager wasn’t given the most crucial matter needed — time for said project.

🚨 Xabi Alonso likes Zubimendi, but Real Madrid sees Valverde, Tchouaméni & Camavinga as the best in the world for that role. @JorgeCPiconpic.twitter.com/4T4vtyFa0C

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) June 10, 2025

Honestly, and we can disagree on whether Xabi is a worst manager than Arbeloa (I’m not sure what ground people have to still stand on that but I’m just not going to fight it), the most alarming part about Xabi’s firing is that the club made this decision in December but waited until the end of January to actually fire him. How is that a competent process? If Florentino and the board were convinced that Xabi Alonso wasn’t fit to manage our team after the Celta Vigo loss, it makes little to no sense to delay that decision. Hire the interim manager. Give Arbeloa time to work with the players prior to the business end of the season. Cut vacations short so that real work can begin.

Delaying his firing only leads to what we saw — more haphazard last ditch efforts to salvage his job. Players risked for short-term goals without consideration of their long-term health. Less commitment from the players towards a lame duck manager. And inevitably — more losses.

And I don’t even want to get into how incompetent it is to leak this information. Like this information doesn’t make the board look good. And sadly most of us who follow the team’s leaks, knew that during that time it was a matter of when not if.

🚨 Real Madrid decided to FIRE Xabi Alonso in early December.

The only reason they didn't officially fire him until January was because they were looking for the right coach to replace him.

The club now regrets that decision to wait for those few weeks, because they believe… pic.twitter.com/S3LCqv85W8

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) April 18, 2026

Current Managerial Process. This I’m just going to sneak in because I’m limited on time and this is a quick win. The current managerial shortlist is a pretty big example of the lack of process or long-term thinking from our board. It’s a motley crew of managers ranging from Xabi-lite (e.g., Unai Emery, Nagelsmann, funnily enough Sebastien Hoeness at Stuttgart), Klopp who would demand full authority, Scaloni x DD who have won World Cups but nothing else, Pochettino who simply exists, and Jose Mourinho who is the nostalgia pick. There is reasonably no clear connection between our choices besides that they’re all men who manage football teams. There is no unifying ideas or profiles or methodology. TBH I can’t even tell you how each manager would approach our current existing team or why we’d inquire their services beside that they exist. These are really just names for the sake of having names. The smattering list seems a bit thoughtless.

Possible names for Real Madrid's coach next season, mentioned by sources:

🇮🇹 Massimiliano Allegri
🇦🇷 Mauricio Pochettinho
🇪🇸 Cesc Fabregas
🇪🇸 Unai Emery
🇪🇸 Alvaro Arbeloa
🇩🇪 Jürgen Klopp

🧐 Who would you like to see? pic.twitter.com/IyjJl3cEXp

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) March 9, 2026

Pintus / Medical Staff. I don’t have time for this so all I’ll ask is for people to look into the yo-yo nature of how we hire Pintus and then fire him because we think his explosive training leads to injuries and fatigue. And then when things are going badly, we hire Pintus again. Put on a Bane mask. And talk about voodoo.

🚨 Florentino Pérez is not happy with the amount of injuries at Real Madrid.

Antonio Pintus is pointed out the most, but the medical services or the physiotherapists are blamed too.

Ancelotti is also accused of ‘burning out’ the players or rushing them after injuries. @relevopic.twitter.com/vRHsHNLIBQ

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) December 12, 2024

A Vacuum of Leadership | Great Tantrum. Now imo this is actually the most important matter at hand. And I understand that we may disagree on this concept, but institutional culture is created from the top. Not the bottom. I’m pretty confident that anyone who has worked in a corporate environment or for any large company or has managed people, will completely understand this concept. The CEO sets the tone for the company ethos. The board is a beacon against a raging sea. It isn’t the individual employees or at a sporting club like Real Madrid the kitman, players, or the bus driver. It’s the President and the board. The board gives mandates on what type of behavior and performances are acceptable. The board defines what a Real Madrid player is. The board empowers what voices should be heard and silences those that they do not see as fitting the Real Madrid model.

And I’m here to tell you that on this matter — the board has failed. I know many of you are reading reports of a dysfunctional locker room, Carvajal mocking Trent, a divide between the Spaniards and Arbeloa, Mbappe v Vini / Fede / Jude, or player power v Xabi Alonso, and I understand why many of you are fixated on the particular actors in each situation. But I want you to start focusing on why the true leaders of this institution aren’t involved? Why is this type of rhetoric permitted? Why has calling out our managers become quite frankly more of a norm than an exception (e.g., Vini in El Clasico, Mbappe liking a Mourinho post, Asencio to Chiringuito). These types of matters exist because the board permits them to.

We only have to look at this season and MM’s coined “Great Tantrum of 2025” to have a perfect example of how a vacuum of leadership creates unrest. I’m not really trying to re-litigate this matter but at the end of El Clasico, Xabi Alonso (our manager) chose to substitute Vinicius Junior for Rodrygo Goes (both players with 2 CLs). This substitution wasn’t met with the usual frustrations from a player but a verbal tirade and waltz to the locker room to the point where we spent the rest of the week debating Vini’s actions and his apology letter omission more than the fact that we had beaten our rivals Barcelona and led La Liga by 7-10pts. We then proceeded in anticipation to see if any type of consequences would legitimatize our perception that “our club is bigger than a single player,” but we received no signs of that leadership. Instead, we received reports where the board practically washed its hands of the situation. The board communicated that they didn’t understand the substitutions either and left their manager on a decision-making island. In this moment, Xabi lost the dressing room. In this moment, individuals players and their needs and wants became bigger than the collective.

🚨 BREAKING: Xabi Alonso began definitively losing the dressing room after the club decided to NOT fine Vini Jr. for his substitution reaction in El Clásico. @MarioCortegana@GuillermoRai_pic.twitter.com/74AZFgt1at

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) January 13, 2026

And MM — this mentality has bled throughout everything this season. As we sit here in April, we read reports about our captain Dani Carvajal feeding information to the Spanish media about his disapproval of Arbeloa and actively mocking Trent (who quite frankly needs to also get his shit together) during a televised game. Carvajal sits front row in every match — he knows the cameras are on him. In March, we watched Asencio publicly tell fans to ask Arbeloa about why he isn’t playing. Two weeks ago, Mbappe who is one of the most PR-savvy players liked a post about Mourinho taking over and didn’t even care enough to remove his like days later. I can’t recall the game but we’ve seen other outbursts on the pitch from players who quite frankly haven’t even played enough games to have legitimate egos. Arda Guler in one match screamed and points “why always me?” when getting subbed by Arbeloa. There are reports of Franco Mastatuono getting into a fight with Brahim Diaz about Franco’s lack of play time under Xabi. Ceballos attaches a new farewell song to his IG almost every other week. There’s a lack of respect for the institution that has permeated throughout the dressing room because there is a lack of leadership from the top. And leadership is required more than ever when things are going wrong. When you’re losing.

It’s amazing that we have these examples from just this season, but at Liverpool, their club legend Mohammed Salah (who we can debate but imo is more of a Liverpool club legend than Vini is a legend at Real Madrid) openly criticized the manager for his lack of play time. And what was the result? He has since been suspended for two crucial games, and has now announced that he will depart Liverpool this summer. Why did this occur? Because immediately Liverpool as an institution recognized that although Arne Slot is barely a reputable manager, the institution could not accept that behavior. And when the initial Salah suspension occurred, it was properly communicated that Liverpool made the decision. It wasn’t Slot’s cross to bear. It wasn’t the board washing their hands of actual action. It was a joint collective action to place the collective above the desires of a legendary individual.

🚨 JUST IN: Real Madrid will NOT punish Vini Jr. for his reaction after he was subbed off in El Clásico.

The club believes that it’s a matter between the player & Xabi Alonso.

The two will have a conversation and the decision will be Xabi’s. @ellargueropic.twitter.com/VHAAMwV5QM

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) October 27, 2025

🚨 Liverpool management and Arne Slot, together in deciding for Mo Salah to be out for ‘short period’ after strong quotes.

Liverpool approve Slot’s position on this case in order to mantain situation under control.

Salah trained this morning and will do so after Inter game. pic.twitter.com/2UgNpUdOuu

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 8, 2025

And I’m running out of time so I’m just going to be a bit quick in this final point. Now I’m not asking for our board to become some Draconian institution that silences all criticism and internal disputes. In a high-intensity environment, these things will happen. However, there needs to be a standard of what we accept and what we do not. If we as fans accept thatReal Madrid is simply players looking out for themselves and publicly yelling “I might as well leave” then so be it. If that’s what we want, then so be it. But that ethos isn’t going to win much. I think we’ve seen over the past two years that it can’t.

Cheers,

J