On the eve of the trip to Betis Seville, Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa wanted to turn the page on a trivial controversy.
A simple heart on Instagram, and all of the White House ignites. By liking a post about a possible return of Jose Mourinho to Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappé inadvertently sparked tensions in a tense locker room. Facing the press, Alvaro Arbeloa chose to dodge the issue with humor: he doesn’t care, he said, whether his striker likes Mourinho “or Julia Roberts.”
A departure at the end of the season?
The statement was meant to be self-deprecating. Nevertheless, it speaks volumes about the prevailing discomfort. The French forward, already criticized for his lack of defensive involvement, finds himself once again at the center of debates. The timing is particularly delicate. Real Madrid approaches this clash against Betis from a less than glorious position: second in the standings, trailing nine points behind an FC Barcelona sailing towards the title. The season looks bleak, and the question of the coach’s future is stirring up the corridors of the Bernabéu.
In this context, Mourinho’s name doesn’t appear randomly in the Spanish press. Other possibilities are starting to circulate quietly. Arbeloa may downplay Mbappé’s like: now it’s his own seat that is shaking.
