It's safe to say that the Alvaro Arbeloa experiment hasn't been going how Real Madrid were planning. The interim coach has lost four of his first 12 games in charge, and there hasn't been any improvements when it comes to the quality of play on the pitch. Many were scratching their heads when Arbeloa was first appointed, questioning if he was the right man for the job, even just on an interim basis.
And it wasn't just fans asking these questions; former Real Madrid players were also left scratching their heads. One in particular being the early-2000s iconic centre-back Ivan Helguera. The Spaniard pulled no punches towards his former club's decisions, dubbing the recent managerial decisions "a cluster of screw-ups".
Helguera hits out Arbeloa appointment
While speaking on the Bajo Palos podcast (via Samuel Vargas on X) Helguera rained down punches on Real Madrid and Alvaro Arbeloa, with his belief being Arbeloa is not the right man for the job.
"RaĂşl spent many years in the reserves and it never went to his head. Out of nowhere, they promote a guy who's never trained in the first team, which is Arbeloa. And that same day, they'd just lost 4-1 in Primera RFEF with Castilla.Ivan Helguera
It's all a complete cluster of screw-ups. Nothing makes sense. In my view, firing Xabi Alonso made no sense. The situation hasn't changed practically at all—in fact, it's gotten worse.
Firing Xabi made no sense, and if you're going to do it, you need to have a coach lined up who knows how to handle all this, not some guy coming up from the reserves who hasn't trained a senior team and doesn't know how to deal with it.
I think RaĂşl would've handled this better because he's been captain, he's lived through this kind of situation, and he has personality. I don't think Arbeloa was the right guy."
Now while it sounds like Helguera is being overly harsh, he's right. Being the manager at Real Madrid takes a special kind of person, someone who can manage both the game and the dressing room and someone who commands the respect of the players, like we saw with Zinedine Zidane all those years ago.
While Arbeloa was a solid player, he wasn't an all time great by any means, and if the players didn't show respect towards Xabi Alonso, who is an all time great, what made the club think the players would respect someone who hasn't accomplished much? Someone like Raul coming in could have had the same affect Zidane did. Raul is one of the greatest players in Real Madrid history, and brings with him that aura that commands respect just by being who he is.