A lot has changed since José Mourinho was last appointed Real Madrid manager, but a lot has also not changed. Before his first game in charge in 2010, Spain had just become world champions, their extra-time winner in the final scored by a Barcelona player after their opponents, who had been reduced to 10 men, had tried to kick them off the park. Like then, Mourinho’s task is to take down a Barcelona team that have won two La Liga titles in succession.
And like then, he has a host of world-class talent at his disposal. Florentino Pérez is also still around – and he is largely the reason why Mourinho is back. After the chief executive, José Ángel Sánchez, was said to have led the charge to appoint Xabi Alonso last summer, the 79-year-old club president has made the decision his own this time.
He promised Mourinho, who won La Liga with 100 points in his first spell, would return if he was re-elected in snap elections in June and the announcement came, in true Pérez style, on the opening day of the World Cup. Jorge Valdano, the former Madrid player and manager who worked upstairs during Mourinho’s first tenure, was of the opinion that a lot has indeed changed since then. But Mourinho was the outstanding law-and-order candidate.
Even after Alonso’s sacking last January, Madrid’s season continued its descent into chaos under Álvaro Arbeloa. In May, Federico Valverde was taken to hospital for stitches after a bust-up with his teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni. A few days later, Madrid conceded the league title in the clásico and would finish the campaign trophyless.
By then an online petition calling for Kylian Mbappé to leave had reached 30 million signatures. Speculation about the future of Vinícius Júnior, who had 12 months left on his contract, would not go away. Not everything has gone right since – a £129m bid for Julián Álvarez was turned down by Atlético Madrid, while Barcelona look more likely to sign Rodri from Manchester City – but Madrid’s preparations for the new campaign have exuded an air of calm.
Mourinho began work a month before his contract started and has not had an official unveiling in front of the media. The soundbites are limited to his new Netflix documentary. There has been no globetrotting summer tour either; just a series of low-key friendlies across Europe.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
