Florentino Perez and Jose Mourinho played key roles in Alvaro Arbeloa becoming Fulham manager | OneFootball

In the last 24 hours, former Real Madrid head coach Alvaro Arbeloa has been appointed as the new manager of Fulham. The 43-year-old landed the job one week after he officially left the Bernabeu, although it had been confirmed weeks prior that he would be replaced at the helm by Jose Mourinho.

Despite a poor four-month spell as Real Madrid manager, during which he failed to win a trophy, Arbeloa’s stock rose significantly, and that allowed him to end up at Fulham, where he hopes to make more of an impression. He did receive some help from his former club to land the position, with Nizaar Kinsella reporting that both Florentino Perez and Mourinho “gave glowing references to Fulham”, with the mutual respect between the trio very much apparent.

During the hiring process, Fulham would have done their due diligence on Arbeloa, and that would have included calling up Real Madrid for a recommendation. The fact that Perez spoke personally shows that he has a lot of respect for the former head coach, who could end up returning to the Bernabeu in the future, depending on how his career goes in the Premier League.

Arbeloa planning Real Madrid raid

Now that Arbeloa is finally installed as Fulham manager, he can get to work on tactics – and also transfers. In regards to the latter, he looks set to raid his former club as part of his efforts to improve his squad, with Real Madrid trio Fran Garcia, Franco Mastantuno and Gonzalo Garcia all wanted, although the defender will not be heading to London as he has agreed to sign for Real Betis.

It’ll be interesting to see how Arbeloa gets on at Fulham. He admitted that he could not implement his desired tactics during his Real Madrid spell, but that will not be the case at the Premier League club.