Alvaro Arbeloa breaks silence on his Real Madrid experience | OneFootball

Real Madrid endured quite a turbulent 2025-26 season, which saw two beloved former players take the job on the Merengue bench, only to leave only a few months later, without winning any major trophy.

Xabi Alonso arrived to take the reins of the team with very high hopes during the last summer. However, things just did not go well with him, and he had to leave the club only half-way into the season, during the month of January. Los Blancos replaced him with Alvaro Arbeloa, who was in charge of one of the club’s youth teams at that time.

However, the former fullback was also unable to turn things right at Real Madrid, and problems, both on and off the field, continued to haunt the team. His time on the Merengue bench also did not last long, as he was dismissed at the end of the season.

Still, despite his underwhelming stint in charge of the Real Madrid first team, he was quick to find a new club during the summer, as he joined the Premier League side Fulham. As things stand, he has already led the London team in two games this season, the first ending in a 3-2 defeat against Chelsea in the Premier League and the second ending in a 3-0 win against AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup.

As Diario AS has reported, the Spaniard appeared in DAZN’s Premier Corner by Guinness, and among other things, also talked about his stint on the Merengue bench. Despite not having achieved the required results, the coach took this as a learning experience, and was grateful to his former club for having given him this opportunity:

“Coaching Real Madrid has been a tremendous learning experience and a great experience. I wish it had gone better, for the club and the fans, but things happened the way they did. I will always be grateful to Madrid.

I am a Madridista and always will be. Even more so now that I have a friend on the bench managing the team. Madrid is the club of my life. I will follow all their matches. I am here thanks to Madrid. I have been involved with this club for more than 20 years, and it is something I will always carry with me.”

There is no doubt that most fans would have been saddened with how his time turned out at Real Madrid. However, he is now facing another major challenge in his budding managerial career, and as his love and commitment to the Merengue club remains beyond any doubt, one cannot put it beyond him to return to the Spanish club at some point in the future if he proves himself to be capable enough during his time in England.