After some deliberation, it finally feels Arda Güler is coming of age in a Real Madrid jersey. He's gone from a sporadic rotational player to a fully-fledged starter, and it only took one change at the top.
Carlo Ancelotti was obviously a great manager. Heck, he's one of the best to ever do it in the world, let alone at Real Madrid. However, nobody can deny that he was past his best last season and a change of management was necessary.
Xabi Alonso has been a complete breath of fresh air. It's not just the fans that feel this way, but players do too. Aurélien Tchouaméni has already stated how happy he is to be playing under Xabi Alonso.
Arda Güler never had a bad word to say, but he will certainly look back on Xabi Alonso as being the manager who kick-started his career.
Xabi Alonso finally grants Arda Güler's year-old wish
Even when he was struggling for minutes under Ancelotti, he never threw Ancelotti under the bus. He did say that he wanted to be playing more, though.
Speaking to the Turkish media (translated to English), Güler said: “There’s no problem with the coach [Carlo Ancelotti]… Of course I’d like to play every match, but there’s no problem.”
So far this season, Güler has started all three La Liga games. This is a far cry from last season, where he only started 37% of the available league fixtures.
Of course, it's still early days in the season, but it's also early days in Xabi Alonso's reign. The Spanish coach has given Güler no reason to think he's getting dropped anytime soon.
Alonso has proven to Güler that he wants him to achieve success in a Royal White jersey, and he's proven that by giving him three nods of confidence already.
It remains to be seen whether he starts against Real Sociedad today for his fourth start, but he's certainly likely to.
When Jude Bellingham returns from his injury, which might be sooner than first expected, there is a question to be asked about which player will be dropped. One thing's for sure, Güler has made every case in the world that it won't be him.
We can't speak for the future, only the present. What we can say right now is that Güler is living out his dream of playing every match in realtime, and he's making the most of the opportunity.