🚨 El Clasico: Arbeloa opens up on row between Valverde and Tchouameni | OneFootball

Real Madrid coach Álvaro Arbeloa spoke to the press this Saturday in a press conference ahead of Sunday’s (10) clash against Barcelona, El Clásico.

And, as expected, the fight between Valverde and Tchouameni was one of the most talked-about topics.

The coach gave his version of the controversy involving the teammates, who were punished and fined by the club.

"Valverde and Tchouameni deserve for us to turn the page, to give them a chance to keep fighting for this club. I am very proud of them. I will not allow this to be used to cast doubt on their professionalism: it is a lie that they are not professionals or that they disrespected me... it is absolutely false," the coach stressed.

Arbeloa himself used a "curious" example involving a golf club, from a teammate during his playing days, to illustrate that cases like this "have always happened in football."

"I once had a teammate who grabbed a golf club and struck another player. What happens in the Real Madrid dressing room should stay in the Real Madrid dressing room, and that is what hurts me most. These are situations that have always happened in football — which does not mean I am justifying it, far from it. It was an incident and we were unlucky that Fede ended up with a cut. It had more to do with the unfortunate nature of the moment than with the seriousness of the situation itself."

On top of that, Arbeloa assured that Tchouameni will be in the squad for El Clásico and said he is "very happy with the work of his four captains."

Controversies involving Carvajal and Mbappé

The coach also denied reports about problems with some players, such as Carvajal. "It is a lie that any of them are not playing because of problems with me or because of their life outside Real Madrid. I am the first person responsible for the fact that the season is certainly not up to standard. But I have been here for four months and I am very proud of my players."

"What I am not going to do is burn them at the stake in public, because they do not deserve that," Arbeloa stressed, also saying that he sees a "healthy dressing room."

About Mbappé’s attitude, the coach was direct: "Anyone who wants to take out of context the fact that a player leaves a training session smiling is distorting things. I can only vouch for him, for his work and for the way he treats me. When he played, it was because he deserved it, and when he did not play, it was because someone else deserved it more."

Betrayal and leaks

Finally, Arbeloa did not hold back in criticizing the reports that came out of the dressing room: "For things that happened inside the dressing room to be leaked seems like a betrayal of Real Madrid and its badge."

"I am not accusing my players, or anyone. There are a lot of people at Real Madrid and I am not here to point the finger at anyone. What happens with my players will stay between them and me," he concluded.

Sunday’s El Clásico will be played at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, with kickoff scheduled for 4 p.m. (Brasília time).

Barcelona come into the match as clear leaders with 88 points, holding an important advantage at the top of the table.

Real Madrid are right behind them in second place with 77 points.

With only four rounds left in the championship after this weekend, the match at the Santiago Bernabéu is the last big opportunity for Los Blancos to cut the gap and reopen the La Liga title race.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.

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