Real Madrid fans have grown tired of opening up their laptops and finding the latest news about the team to be inundated with anonymous quotes of players attacking managers or anonymous sources spreading dubious locker room interactions and incomplete stories to reporters, which then leads to media mistrust because the media has to report these stories because their bosses will want them - and because they technically do serve a public interest.
Although Florentino Perez attacked the media at his recent press conference, most fans are not upset with the media, per se, but with the players and other individuals who are spreading these stories with another agenda in mind. Real Madrid themselves have been on the hunt for the mole, and while Perez said in an interview with Josep Pedrerol that they did indeed find this mole, Madridistas are still reading the negative stories - and really, there are probably many moles out there.
Well, it must all just be a mere coincidence, but not but a day after Kylian Mbappe publicly tore into Alvaro Arbeloa and even insulted his teammates after the manager dared to bench him to ease him back after an apparent injury, another negative story is in the media. Except this time, the attack is on Arbeloa.
Alvaro Arbeloa is under attack
According to a report from Diario AS, via the Madrid Zone, Arbeloa apparently told Real Madrid left back Fran Garcia in January, “With me, you will not play a single minute.”
And the funny thing is, just about no Real Madrid fans believe this quote at all. Because not only did Arbeloa come in and behave with grace and kindness to all the players upon his arrival and has continued to do so, even with Mbappe despite the personal attacks, but he has also treated Fran Garcia quite well.
In addition to starting Fran in El Clasico, Arbeloa was starting him months ago against Manchester City in the Champions League, too. Now, Fran was getting starts because of the injuries to Alvaro Carreras and Ferland Mendy, but he also started when the others were healthy. If Arbeloa had such an agenda against Fran, he wouldn't have played him at all when he had other options, including just a few days ago in El Clasico, nor would Fran be in a position where he made the preliminary Spanish World Cup squad over incumbent starter Alvaro Carreras.
It's still unclear who the moles are, but most people aren't buying this story that suddenly sprung up at a moment when Arbeloa is under attack. These are the kinds of quotes nobody can prove but sew doubt and undermine figures, because there are always going to be cultlsts who hate someone and want to believe this. And after it was Kylian Mbappe who went after Arbeloa and even seemed to make up a quote of his own by saying Arbeloa told him he is only the fourth choice forward, many Madridistas will wonder if Mbappe and his clan made this Fran remark up, too.
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