"It's not about working at Real Madrid, it is working for Real Madrid." José Mourinho said that at the start of pre-season, sternly, in a short in-house clip with no press pack in the room. After what Madrid endured last season, that tone is exactly what Florentino Pérez wanted to hear.
The chaos was real. Xabi Alonso was sacked in January. Álvaro Arbeloa took over and watched the club continue its collapse. Federico Valverde ended up in hospital with stitches after a physical altercation with Aurélien Tchouaméni. Madrid conceded the league title to Barcelona in the clásico. An online petition demanding Kylian Mbappé's exit hit 30 million signatures. The club finished the season without a trophy. Pérez has seen enough — he went and got the law-and-order manager he trusts most.
The Mourinho Reset
Mourinho started work a month before his contract officially began. No fanfare unveiling. No world tour of glamour friendlies. Just a series of low-key matches across Europe, a Netflix documentary for the soundbites, and a clear message: the circus is closed.
The most important piece of business? Vinícius Júnior has signed a six-year extension, ending months of Arsenal-linked speculation. Without that, none of the rest matters much. With it, Mourinho has a genuinely frightening attacking unit to work with — Vinícius, Mbappé, and Jude Bellingham all in the same system. Whether he can build a structure that gets the best out of all three simultaneously is the season's central tactical question, and one worth watching closely when Madrid's title odds get posted.
The new galáctico is Yan Diomandé — a £115m winger who was playing for Leganés B in Spain's fifth tier just over a year ago and made his La Liga debut at the Bernabéu in March 2025, aged 18. "Who makes their debut at 18 against Real Madrid? It was a dream. And then it was a nightmare," he wrote in the Players' Tribune this summer, in a raw piece dedicated to his sister Roxane, who died aged 15 after her drink was spiked at a party, weeks after his debut. He then shone for Côte d'Ivoire at the World Cup. The trajectory is extraordinary — the pressure now is enormous.
Marc Cucurella, Ibrahima Konaté, Denzel Dumfries, Bernardo Silva, and striker Carlos Espí complete a squad rebuild designed to fit Mourinho's defensive discipline. A £129m move for Julián Álvarez was rejected by Atlético, so the striker depth question lingers. Barcelona, meanwhile, look more likely to land Rodri from City.
Barcelona Still the Benchmark
Hansi Flick's side remain favourites. Lewandowski has followed Griezmann to MLS, and there's no convincing No.9 in the building yet. Anthony Gordon has come in on the left to compete with the injury-prone Raphinha. But the spine is intact, Lamine Yamal returns from the World Cup as a 19-year-old world champion, and Flick is chasing a third consecutive La Liga title — something only Pep Guardiola has achieved in the modern era. The first clásico is at Camp Nou in late October.
Elsewhere, Diego Simeone begins his 15th full season at Atlético with Lee Kang-in arriving from PSG in Griezmann's No.7 shirt — a statement of intent, even if replacing Griezmann's output is a multi-year project. Manuel Pellegrini remains at Real Betis. Villarreal, in the Champions League, have appointed Iñigo Pérez after his work at Rayo Vallecano. Edin Terzic becomes Athletic Club's first German coach since Jupp Heynckes in 2003 — Heynckes told him before he took the job: "Athletic is the only club where a handshake is more important than a signature."
Racing Santander are back in La Liga for the first time since 2012, as are Deportivo and Málaga — both having dropped to the third tier since their last top-flight campaigns in 2018. Depor's statement signing is a 37-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Sergio Canales, 35, has returned to Racing, the club he left as a teenager to join Mourinho's Madrid in 2010. Full circle doesn't quite cover it.
Because of extended World Cup involvement, none of Madrid, Barcelona, or Atlético feature on the opening weekend. Instead, Getafe host Alavés on Saturday evening to kick things off. Mourinho's return to La Liga has generated enough anticipation that even the season's first act feels like it belongs to someone else. He'll be fine with that. He's done this before.
