Arbeloa seemingly perfect fit in Real Madrid hierarchy

Only at Real Madrid can you beat Barcelona in La Liga and be fired nine games later.

Only at Real Madrid can you go from Manager of the Month to cleaning out your office in the space of half a season. Only at Real Madrid can you post the best defensive record in the division, lead it for 10 of 19 weeks and be sacked for underperforming. Only at Real Madrid…

To say the standards are a bit different in the Spanish capital is a massive understatement. Xabi Alonso, who won the title, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League at the club as a player, knew this better than most when he was named its head coach back in June. It didn’t matter.

You see, those famous standards, those almost impossible measures that have made Los Blancos the record Spanish and European champions, apply to much more than the standings and stat sheets.

It’s taken for granted that Real Madrid should win each match it plays. A defeat is a shock to the system, and therefore inexcusable.

While it’s winning, the squad must also provide entertainment, and the lineup should include some of the best players in the world. Naturally, the names of those players matter more than their suitability to the team — see Michael Owen, Kaká and Eden Hazard.

That it is the job of Florentino Pérez to recruit those players that makes the president the most important figure at the Bernabéu.

The second-most important figure, or rather the next 84,000 most important, are everyone else inside the stadium, among whom are the socios who own the biggest club in the world. Then come the analysts at Marca and the other media mouthpieces, and then the players.

Finally, you get to the manager: the 85,001st-most important person at Real Madrid, or thereabouts.

In other words, he is disposable; another massive understatement. That is, disposable as a coach.

Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane were able to thrive at Madrid because they were savvy to this reality. Both were hired twice, and never because the team required their technical guidance or tactical nous. They were diplomats, first and foremost, and brilliantly man-managed their squads as well as the suits that paid their transfer fees.

That doesn’t mean they weren’t good coaches. They were, and are, among the very best in the sport. But they also understood that statistical analysis, training drills and in-game schematics could be outsourced to their assistants, and that such minutiae was perhaps of less importance at Valdebebas than elsewhere.

Álvaro Arbeloa knows this, too, which is why he’s now in charge while Alonso is not.

Alonso, of course, was hired based on the incredible work he did at Bayer Leverkusen, which went unbeaten in winning the Bundesliga the season before last. It was a team without a bona fide superstar, and it secured a league and cup double by pressing hard within a rigid, aggressive system and playing selfless football.

Hindsight being what it is, such an approach was never going to work at Real Madrid.

By the time Alonso coached his final match on January 11, Jude Bellingham was noticeably underperforming, Fede Valverde was visibly frustrated and, crucially, star winger Vini Jr. — out of contract in 2027 — seemed destined for Saudi Arabia.

Now, fast-forward to this week Tuesday, when Arbeloa said this: “I think both Kylian [Mbappé] and Vini are putting in the effort, but I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t think they should tire themselves out behind the midfielders.”

Then he added that the players had welcomed him “warmly” and were “helping” him. Well, no kidding.

If any proof was needed that the mood had changed in the dressing room it was delivered that evening in the form of a 6-1 dismantling of Monaco in the Champions League, a rout that featured goals from Bellingham, Mbappé and Vini.

By Wednesday, Vini’s agent was in Madrid to discuss a contract extension. In Pérez’s view, Alonso’s sacking paid off the moment that plane hit the tarmac.

By Saturday night, Real Madrid could be back atop La Liga. Barcelona hosts Real Oviedo on Sunday (9:15 a.m., TSN2), so a Madrid win or draw at third-place Villarreal (2 p.m., TSN+) would at least temporarily take them to the summit.

In his pre-match remarks, Arbeloa has reiterated that “winning is the most important thing here, regardless of formations.”

It’ll have been music to the ears of his players, to those 80-odd-thousand others, and to Pérez.

Only at Real Madrid does the manager put those voices, and their preferences ahead of his own. Only at Real Madrid…

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