For months, many Real Madrid fans have carried this media driven narrative with them that Vinicius Junior is a coach killer and responsible for the firing of Xabi Alonso. There is this bizarre attack on Vini's character, despite years of being an unselfish superstar for Real Madrid who works hard on both ends of th epitch and kisses the badge, that he went into business for himself and got a young manager fired.
Everything we know about Vinicius flies against the face of that. He never went against Karim Benzema when the Frenchman insulted him during a Champions League game and told Ferland Mendy not to pass it to him. Instead, he showed the ultimate respect to the striker and became his partner during that historic 2021/22 Ballon d'Or and Champions League triumph.
VInicius Jr. also showed the utmost respect to Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti. And when the Santiago Bernabeu would boo or jeer him, VInicius Jr. would, almost like a Cristiano Ronaldo lite, would respond in kind by turning up his performances instead of avoiding the reckoning.
Florentino Perez doubted Xabi Alonso
The reality is that Xabi Alonso was fired because Real Madrid management did not believe in him. Florentino Perez lost faith in him, the club's style of play was poor, they were getting embarrassed in big games by clubs like Liverpool and Atletico Madrid, and they could barely beat the likes of Alaves and Girona in La Liga. The football was bad, Alonso was not the tactical genius people hyped him up to be, and the locker room didn't respond to his style of coaching, which had also rubbed Bayer Leverkusen players the wrong way in his second season.
Now, a report from ESPN's Rodra has surfaced, via the Madrid Zone, stating that Florentino Perez was indeed a doubter in Xabi Alonso, as were many in the board. It was CEO Jose Angel Sanchez who was actually the main driving force behind the Alonso hire. He was sold on Alonso, but the other key decision makers disagreed, believing that he was the wrong profile for Real Madrid (a sentiment club icon Gareth Bale would later echo on CBS Sports about his inability to manage big personalities).
Alonso was, per Rodra, not undermined by the players but by management. These initial doubts about Alonso expressed to JAS started to rear their head during the season, and it was Perez who reportedly doubted Alonso first. And we all know that once Perez doubts someone, the moment they struggle, it's over. The big man won't hesitate to pull the plug, and that's what happened to Alonso; it was not Vinicius Jr.. It was Flo.
Add us as a preferred source on Google