Jose Mourinho, Perez & the many issues facing Real Madrid in 2026-27 | OneFootball

Since club football season ended over a month ago, few, if any, clubs have made quite as many headlines as Real Madrid.

It all started a week before the final game of the season, with president Florentino Perez calling a rare press conference.

Rumours started circulating around that Perez was about to resign. Or so reporters thought.

Instead of addressing the shortcomings of the past two seasons, the 79-year-old went on the offensive- he attacked the press and La Liga president Javier Tebas amongst others whilst calling for a premature election.

It was a move orchestrated to reassert his dominance, at a time when chants and banners calling for his resignation had been seen and heard during games.

This was the first time in 22 years that a candidate emerged to rival Perez for the presidency.

Florentino stood against energy entrepreneur Enrique Riquelme and the two engaged in campaigns that echoed the 2024 U.S. elections- both candidates launched vicious attacks against one another and made big promises, mainly in the form of lavish new signings.

In the end, Perez got just under 65% of the vote, continuing his mandate until 2030. But he now needs to prove his worth to the nearly 12,000 Real Madrid members who have lost their faith in him.

His decisions in this summer’s transfer market will determine whether opposition against him rallies on or shatters completely.

The appointment of Jose Mourinho is perhaps the definition of a ‘hit-or-miss’ move. The elections in June delayed Mourinho’s arrival, resulting in Madrid having to pay 15 million euros to lure him away from Benfica, instead of the 6 million they would have paid had they activated his exit clause before May 26th.

That brings the total to 60 million euros that Perez has spent in hiring and sacking managers in the past year, according to reports.

To some, the idea of Mourinho taking charge of a European giant may feel lackluster. He has not won a league title in over 10 years. This past season marked his first time coaching in the Champions League proper in nearly six years.

But equally, this Real Madrid squad seems to be crying out for a commander. Someone who can navigate the politics in the Spanish capital, assert himself in the dressing room and who already has the respect of Perez. And for good reason.

When the Portuguese manager took over in the summer of 2010, Real Madrid had not made it past the round of 16 in the Champions League in six years.

A lot of money had been spent on the Galacticos, but with little success to show for that investment.

Mourinho managed to break Pep Guardiola’s dynasty, first by beating his Barcelona side in the Copa del Rey final in his first season, then by winning the league in record-breaking fashion, amassing 100 points and scoring the most goals in a single La Liga season.

His final season ended in turmoil, with the Special One falling short in the semi-final stage of the Champions League in each of his three seasons at the Bernabeu.

In a way, Mourinho walked so that Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane could finally bring European glory to the Spanish capital, doing so four times in the span of five seasons.

And when the club was trying to rebuild the three-peat squad, they turned back to Carlo Ancelotti. He was the one who instilled confidence in younger players like Vinicius Junior.

The Brazilians goalscoring numbers pre-and post Ancelotti are night and day.

But Don Carlo could still rely on more experienced players such as Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Dani Caravajal, which helped conquer Europe a further two times. The absence of these players in the dressing room is telling.

Fights breaking out in the dressing room before May’s El Classico and Mbappe telling his teammates not to give Barcelona a guard of honour after losing the Supercopa final have been some of the most notable incidents.

The Vini and Mbappe dynamic

One of the biggest riddles in the squad has been the on-pitch dynamic between Vini and Kylian Mbappe.

The biggest indictment on the partnership is a statistic that outlines how many defensive contributions a player averages per 90 minutes.

Fotmob lists 344 players from La Liga this season on that metric, including goalkeepers, with Mbappe being the bottom-ranked player at 0.2.

That means that the highest earning player in the league contributes defensively on average twice every ten games. Vini Jr can be found only eight places from the bottom, with an average of one contribution per game.

Perhaps certain teams can afford to have one player who cedes defensive responsibility but can they really afford two?

The 3-0 victory in March over Manchester City is a good case study; in a game where Mbappe was absent due to injury, Brahim Diaz took up the striker role.

The Moroccan remained positionally disciplined throughout, applied pressure to defenders and constantly caused headaches for Nico O’Reily.

In turn, that offered Federico Valverde the freedom to take up multiple positions on the pitch, with the pair even rotating at times.

The Uruguayan provided an outlet out wide, doubled up front with Brahim, offered support to Trent Alexander-Arnold and formed a back-five in defence.

His dynamic runs coupled with his excellent technical qualities led to him scoring a first-half hat-trick in what was the most emphatic win of the season for the 15-time winners.

Allowing the opposition to control possession and then attacking in a flash is the type of performance Madridistas first saw when Jose took over.

As he self-proclaimed back in 2018, ‘At Real Madrid I had my best team in direct counter-attack’. The task at hand now will be to turn this frail side into a more cohesive unit, able to impose themselves on opponents without relying solely on transitional attacks.

Perez’s transfer dealings

Perez has already bolstered the squad, aiming to address the chronic squad depth issues Madrid have been facing. Especially in defence.

Antonio Rudiger and Eder Militao, who missed over 25 games last season, are being supplemented with the free agent signing of Ibrahima Konate.

With David Alaba departing, The Athletic reported that Mourinho has asked for an additional centre-back signing.

Left-back has been a long-term issue, with Ferland Mendy expected to be out until next spring with another long-term injury while Angelo Carreras and Fran Garcia are deemed to be unreliable in defence.

The €60million signing of Marc Cucurella from Chelsea is meant to bring stability, as the Spaniard is renowned for his 1 v1 defensive ability along with his overlapping runs and security in possession.

On the other flank, the departure of Dani Carvajal has led to the arrival of Denzel Dumfries. The Dutchman was purchased for €25million from Italian champions Inter, where he racked up 55 goal involvements.

He offers a different profile to Trent, as he provides running power, off-the-ball movements and aerial prowess.

The latest piece of the puzzle is Bernardo Silva. The 32-year-old has been signed on a two-year deal, reportedly ahead of Barcelona, aiming to add new dimensions to their midfield.

The departure of Toni Kroos two years ago was never addressed, with Real Madrid rarely able to play through the middle when facing a low block.

That in turn has restrained Jude Bellingham to play as a number 8, unable to take on the mantle of creativity left by Kroos and Luka Modric.

Bernando Silva will help alleviate that, but the addition of another creative midfielder is needed in order to fully unburden England’s starboy as well as giving more positional freedom to Fede Valverde.

In his first season in the Spanish capital, Bellingham scored 23 goals, as he had the license to make more runs into the box, acting as the team’s main focal point.

These new additions will allow him to add some much-needed box presence to Madrid’s game, as Vini and Mbappe are rarely seen engaging in many duels in the box when facing teams who deny them space in-behind.

Whether Mourinho is up to the task of galvanising this very talented squad and truly nullifying the aforementioned structural weaknesses is anyone’s guess.

If some further key additions are made, then Perez will have finally addressed some long-term issues around the squad and will have finally given a manager the appropriate tools to work with.

If he is not the one to bring Mbappe his long-awaited European crown, then maybe he’ll be the one who lays the groundwork for it. But will the authority of Perez remain intact by that point?