"We didn't create Real Madrid with players who take to the field in tuxedos, but with players who finish the game with their shirts covered in sweat, mud, effort, sacrifice, and perseverance." Interim coach Álvaro Arbeloa said that after Sunday's match. He was talking about his own squad. That's how bad things have got at the Bernabéu.
And in that climate, José Mourinho's name keeps coming up. Not as a rumor someone leaked, not as an agent briefing journalists at an airport. Both Mourinho's camp — through agent Jorge Mendes — and Florentino Pérez have actively encouraged the speculation. That's a meaningful distinction. This is temperature-taking, not tabloid noise.
Why this reunion has legs
Pérez and Mourinho have stayed close since the messy 2013 split, united by what both apparently consider unfinished business. When the president went on television not long after that departure, he defended Mourinho emphatically — spoke of him being "crucified" in Spain, called out the abuse he endured, and said the Portuguese had been "respectful" and "apologized" when he made mistakes. That's not how you talk about someone you're glad to be rid of.
Mourinho's Benfica contract has a mutual break clause this summer. He's available, and he knows the club, the city, and the weight of the job better than almost any candidate.
The squad he'd inherit is a different beast from 2010's, and not necessarily in a good way. Kylian Mbappé was photographed larking around in Italy while injured. Álvaro Carreras — a loan player — suddenly profiles as third-choice left back. The team has had barely three weeks of preseason training across the last two summers, which goes some way to explaining why they look physically outrun in most matches. Whoever takes charge isn't just picking a formation — they're rebuilding a culture.
Madrid are heading toward a second consecutive season without a major trophy. The alternatives — Mauricio Pochettino, Didier Deschamps — likely aren't available until midsummer. Mourinho is available now, and Pérez has never been known for patience.
The case against — and why it might not matter
Jorge Valdano, who famously described Mourinho's football as "s--- on a stick" and was sacked during his first stint, now argues that what Madrid needs is "stability" and a long-term project — not a personality arriving with a magic wand. He has a point. Mourinho's post-Madrid record includes explosive fallouts at Manchester United, Tottenham and Roma. The chaos-to-trophies ratio has shifted.
But Portuguese journalist Nuno Luz pushes back: "He's got so much personality. He's not the war-like Mourinho who arrived at Madrid the first time."
Maybe. Or maybe the squad's attitude problem — which Arbeloa has now aired publicly, at real personal risk — requires exactly the kind of coach that players can't gobble up in two seconds flat. As Valdano himself noted: "Players only see two things: a weak coach or a strong coach." Whatever Mourinho's flaws, nobody has ever accused him of projecting weakness.
Madrid's title odds for next season will hinge largely on whether Pérez picks continuity or shock therapy. Right now, everything points toward the latter — and toward one man in particular.
