No Retreat, No Surrender - El Espartano Alvaro Arbeloa Manager Thread

This is what Barca fans post on Twitter. What are we doing man?

 

Stooges in Spanish media turned on Xabi as soon as Florentino did lol. Shows Xabi was a private person with no influence during his playing days as Spanish NT starter.

See how much Spanish media backed Raul when he was struggling and getting booed by Bernabeu from 2004-06. That's influence.

 

Dunno what's in his mind. I'd love to see Klopp vs Flick competing for La Liga title though.

 

Well that guy is literally Vinicius on RMBS.

Also he would be a barca fan and not Madrid if the trophies the clubs won were flipped.

 

I understand the idea Arbeloa thinks he’s pushing, but his George W. Bush–style “with us or against us” nonsense just underlines that he’s barely a week into being a professional coach.

In his world—and that of his grand puppeteer—only the Lyra choir and the (undertoe) bootlickers are real "Madridistas". The rest are framed as anti-regime militia agents and inflitrators funded by anti-Madrid interests.

 

pic.twitter.com/UDc5bMjhwh

— follow@Alaadin32 (@followalaadin32) January 19, 2026

 

Did you listen to Mbappe's Press conference today? He basically said the same thing. That 10% of what is said in the press is true and that 90% of it is all invented and that is what is influencing the Madridismo to boo and react in this way.

It would beneficial for some of you to have more of a cynical view of the press and be more aware of their agendas. The Anti-Vini has been going on for a while. Pro-xabi can be explained easily. Anti-florentino within the madrid press is a big thing also with La ser, La cope, Inaki angulo etc etc.

Some of our friends here on this board are influenced too much by this in my opinion.

 

It was good PR from Mbappe, but him, Arbeloa, and ignorant analysts are being incredibly disingenuous acting like they don’t understand why those particular three players were booed instead of the whole club. It’s not because they were playing the worst, or showing the least effort on the pitch, because that’s not true, it was entirely due to the reporting that they complained about and undermined Xabi to Perez, with Vini being the worst about this specific issue and therefore receiving the worst booing.

 

100%. Impressive how he is able to express himself in a foreign language so easily.

I like it when he said "we need to make sure Vinicius isn't alone in confronting this and it isn't just everyone against him, we need to protect him". TEAM / LOYALTY / UNITY

I also loved it when he confronted La Cope journalist in a very polite educated way asking "where did you hear that from, who told you that?" The implication being that all this info is all fabricated and exaggerated.

 

Let's see if Arbeloa keeps speaking like that when there's fire under his own ass. If he does, at least I'll respect the fact he genuinely believes this is the best approach.

 

For the same reason Mark Antony singled out Brutus explicitly and repeatedly while only alluding to the others in his funeral speech.

 

They saw Vini's terrible antics during Clasico. Overshadowed the win with his negativity.

 

In addition to the clasico outburst, as other mentioned, since the boos appeared to be from people attune to the reporting, the reliable reporting was that Vini said he wouldn't renew unless Xabi changed his approach, which (IMO) is more insubordinate than any other reported behavior from any player, as it is effectively saying to Perez, "It's me or the manager, your choice."

I didn't hear booing for Huijsen nearly as much as the others, if there was some, I can only speculate it was general frustration from some fans with how poor he has been defensively, lacking any aggression other than pulling back attackers when he knows he can never catch up with them.

 

🚨 JUST IN: A source close to Real Madrid’s daily activities says:

“There is a good feeling between Arbeloa and the players. He is pushing them hard, but they are accepting it well.” @MarioCortegana pic.twitter.com/Ks7qw45aGm

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) January 19, 2026

 

Some of you might think this is ascribing too much "3D/4D Chess" to Arbeloa, but he is surely fully aware that the players (and board) have and will continue to receive the majority of the criticism from media and fans for a stretch of time, and therefore he has nothing to lose by shamelessly going over the top with "taking blame" and lavishing praise on his players, at least trying to shield them from criticism. Even if it is ineffective, looks a bit foolish, and is purely performative, it can reinforce loyalty from the players. Like I said, he doesn't really have anything to lose with this strategy.

That is where I see some shades of Mourinho in him, just in the form of strategic and performative press conferences, not being afraid to say things that he knows look a bit foolish to the public.

 

On the other hand it could very well be that Mbappe, Perez and "others" actually support Vinicius and can see his side of things and do in fact feel bad that he's is taking the blame for the direction the team has gone in just a year when most of it is not his fault (other than the fact that yes years and years ago he did express some interest in possible playing with Mbappe someday circa 2021 befora he became a mulitple CL/La Liga double winner himself playing as the teams star left winger).


In summary maybe Perez and Mbappe realize now that even though they both wanted the transfer to happen by pursuing it and neglecting other areas of need it had a negative effect on team's balance and performance which eventually caused negative morale (AND they think it's unfair that Vini invited alot of ciriticism onto himself by trying to be the FACE and leading VOICE in the FIGHT AGAINST RACISM and they have a bit of a guilty concience stemming from the fact that as a result of the TARGET of racism on his back he's taking the brunt of the abuse for their peragotive).

 

I wouldnt be surprised if Arbs didn't trot out some personal anecdotal evidence including the Mou Mutiny when a similar player uprising unfolding midseason but the team responded by uniting and winning the coveted La Decima.

Arbs might add that he was one of the one's insisting there were good people on both sides and wanted peace, but in the end it was true that Mou's attitude and tactics were wack compared to what Ancelotti was able to deliver and that he thinks he was maybe on the wrong side of that but hey at least his press conference game improved under Mourinho.