Alexander-Arnold among Real Madrid stars dreading Mourinho return | OneFootball

Jose Mourinho is said to be Florentino Perez’s first choice to manage Real Madrid next season and the old fella might not be as barmy as he appears.

Alvaro Arbeloa has failed to convince anyone that he’s deserving of the manager’s job beyond the end of another trophyless season, so Real are on the hunt for another new boss.

Apparently, president Perez has pulled rank and it will be him leading the recruitment process, having unsuccessfully delegated it a year ago when general manager Jose Angel Sanchez hired Xabi Alonso.

All the noises suggest Perez has been looking for an experienced coach with the gravitas to command a dressing room full of egos.

AC Milan’s Max Allegri was said to be on Perez’s radar but The Athletic have firmed up reports that a reunion with Mourinho is the president’s preferred option.

We’ve certainly become invested in the prospect of Mourinho going back to the Bernabeu to shake things up, and La Liga probably needs the 63-year-old to liven it up a bit.

The instinctive assumption is that the Real dressing room won’t much fancy life under Mourinho. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. ‘

Kylian Mbappe is among those said to have approved the appointment, while others, like Thibaut Courtois and Dean Huijsen, have positive experiences of playing previously for Mourinho. And then there are plenty more who have been wanted by manager while he has been in charge of his many other clubs.

There are a few, though, who will be rather more wary of Mourinho’s return…

Vinicius jr

Awks. It’s been barely two months since Mourinho was accused of ‘gaslighting’ for his response to Vini Jr’s claims of being racially abused by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni.

Mourinho got it wrong. He felt the need to defend his player, a natural instinct for many managers, but using attack as a form of defence in that particular situation was, as Vincent Kompany put it, a ‘huge mistake’.

Mourinho later changed his tone somewhat, claiming it would be ‘over’ between him and Prestianni if the player was proven to have racially abused Vini Jr. Handily, in the meantime, UEFA have found a broom to sweep all that unpleasantness under the carpet.

Prestianni received a six-game suspension but for homophobia, not racism. Half of that ban is suspended, with one knocked off for time served.

Which feels like a massive fudge, but one that Mourinho can live with if he has any intention of building a working relationship with Vinicius Jr. Which, quite possibly, he won’t.

Trent Alexander-Arnold

Few players split opinion quite like Alexander-Arnold. Unfortunately for the right-back, we suspect we know what side of the divide Mourinho will position himself.

Like many conservative coaches who’ve ignored Trent before, we just cannot see Mourinho assessing the creative reward of playing with the 27-year-old and accepting the defensive risk that comes with it.

Worse still, after an inconsistent first season in Madrid, Alexander-Arnold looks primed to be Mourinho’s performative sacrifice, the player jettisoned for a new manager to demonstrate his authority.

Alexander-Arnold might find it lonely out in the cold, since it seems not many of his team-mates would inconvenience themselves to back him.

Club captain Dani Carvajal was seen openly mocking the intensity of Alexander-Arnold’s recovery stroll in the draw with Real Betis on Friday.

Though Carvajal has problems of his own…

Dani Carvajal

The Real captain is out of contract at the end of the season but reports suggest the club, out of respect for the service the defender has given them, will leave a renewal decision up to the player.

If Carvajal had any intention of extending his 13-year career at Real, then he would have been chuffed to see Arbeloa ushered towards the exit.

The pair have not seen eye to eye, largely because Arbeloa has made Carvajal sit on the bench more often than he would have liked.

But his history with Mourinho is worse. Mourinho did not think Carvajal was ready to step up to the Real first-team and sold the then-20-year-old to Bayer Leverkusen, the defender only returning after a change of manager.

Mourinho claimed the move was necessary for the full-back’s development but it was not lost on Carvajal that it would be used as vindication had he struggled in Germany. He branded the manager ‘opportunistic’.

Mourinho, though, did acknowledge his error of judgement while congratulating Carvajal and Spain on their Euro 2024 triumph. So maybe there is hope for Carvajal, especially since his attributes appear closer to that of a Mourinho right-back than Alexander-Arnold.