Xabi Alonso is a great manager who simply did not work out at Real Madrid, because it is hard to ignore the fact that he led Bayer Leverkusen to their first ever trophy with a historic, unprecedented undefeated Bundesliga season to break up the Bayern Munich hegemony of the title.
At the same time, Alonso was a failure at Madrid, and his team ended up performing worse the longer his tenure went on. He somehow alienated the team's best players towards the fan base, pitting beloved icons of the club like Fede Valverde and Vinicius Junior as villains without coming to their support, leading to an acrimonious and nasty fallout with some poor football on display.
Meanwhile, Alvaro Arbeloa has come in and stabilized the club. Real Madrid are stil not the best team in Spanish football, but they are growing and were able to weather the storm without key players like Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham. Vinicius and Valverde are back to being superstars under Arbeloa, and the overall vibe of the team and fan base is a lot healthier now.
Eduardo Camavinga told the truth
Speaking in an interview with rising star journalist Alexis Nunes of ESPN FC, Eduardo Camavinga agreed with her proposing the notion that at Real Madrid, it is best to give superstars like Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior more freedom.
Camavinga said of the situation of the dynamics of coaching Real Madrid, “These type of players have been playing at a high level for a long time now so you don’t really need to focus on them, just make them happy and then it’s easier to play because when they have happiness and freedom in their mind, then their feet will do whatever you want.”
Reading that response from Eduardo Camavinga, you can't help but feel that, whether intentioned to or not (and given how sweet natured Cama's disposition is, it almost certainly was not intentional), you can't help but read that as a subtle dig at Xabi Alonso.
Like Rafael Benitez, Valentino Luxemburgo, and many of the other failed managers of Real Madrid's past, Alonso came in with a bit too much ego and not enough man management skills, perhaps owing to his lack of experience managing players like these. And since Vini and Valverde were stars of not one but two Champions League winning sides, they really didn't need to be like this.
It's like Julian Nagelsmann once put it about coaching Robert Lewandowski. You don't need to tell Lewandowski how to score. That's stupid. (You don't need to tell Luka Modric to stop doing Trivelas, right Rafa Benitez?) No, what you do is ask him how you can help him score more goals. That's the difference between the mentality of Alonso and that of Arbeloa.