Real Madrid will miss out on trophies for a second straight season, and yet they will also be looking for a fourth manager. President Florentino Perez made the legendary Carlo Ancelotti his scapegoat after a failed 2024/25 season in which his big signing, Kylian Mbappe, totally destabilized the best team in the world - while the team he left became more unified and won the Champions League. It is a move that has looked even worse since then.
Meanwhile, the manager Perez and Real Madrid desperately wanted the most - their former midfielder Xabi Alonso, who went undefeated with Bayer Leverkusen just two years earlier - got fired within months. And now, Alvaro Arbeloa's days appear to be numbered as Real Madrid manager.
Apparently, per a report from MARCA's Miguel Angel Lara, one of the gripes Perez has with Arbeloa is the fact that he has been benching three of his big signings from the summer 2025 transfer window for academy players. Perez reportedly cannot fathom why Arbeloa is putting so much trust in academy products at critical junctures, and he is concerned that Arbeloa has willingly benched the trio of Franco Mastantuono, Alvaro Carreras, and Dean Huijsen more and more lately.
Florentino Perez doesn't get it
There is so much about this that does not make sense and really shows how low Florentino's ball knowledge is right now. First of all, there isn't an academy player in any of those positions. No left back is getting minutes over Carreras from the academy; it is Ferland Mendy and Fran Garcia. And then at center back, Raul Asencio was already a first teamer, but the player getting minutes over Huijsen is the veteran Antonio Rudiger. Finally, Mastantuono is being picked over Brahim Diaz and Arda Guler, who are, again, established first team players.
Beyond that, the reality is that Florentino Perez and his board are the ones to blame, because Alvaro Arbeloa has been benching Franco Mastantuono, Dean Huijsen, and Alvaro Carreras against Bayern Munich, Manchester City, and other big opponents because they have not proven to be the best options. For all the 150+ million euros that Real Madrid spent on these guys, they have been closer to average than great.
Now, Carreras, Huijsen, and Mastantuono have not been terrible, nor should Real Madrid call them flops in the long term. But Real Madrid are supposed to sign the cream of the crop, and Arbeloa is rightfully showing that these guys aren't at that level, which is why other players in the team are preferred. And in reference to the academy players like Miguel Angel and Thiago Pitarch, those two have shown more effort and quality than even these three, especially Mastantuono, even if they don't play the same positions. So chew on that, Flo.
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