Xabi Alonso had carte blanche. This is what ensures A.S. in today’s edition. Carte blanche to impose his tactics and his rules on a locker room that needed to be shaken up after the end of the Carlo Ancelotti era. This strategy was shattered by the Spanish coach’s inability to create cohesion with his group, where egos proved too complicated to manage. But it was perhaps even before the start of the season that the Spanish coach’s adventure became complicated, before officially ending yesterday.
As explained A.S.Xabi Alonso called for a recruit to his management: Martin Zubimendi. The latter was available on the market at an acceptable price, between €60 and €70 million. Arsenal had taken a lead in this matter, under the aegis of Mikel Arteta who had also targeted the Basque as the ideal reinforcement for his midfield.
Real Madrid’s guilty hesitation
Xabi Alonso noted that the transfer window, almost unanimously welcomed, by Real Madrid (Alexander-Arnold, Huijsen, Carreras, Mastantuono) lacked a midfielder. A midfielder capable of setting the pace, recovering the balls, initiating plays, thanks to high-level technical quality. Or a successor to Toni Kroos, one of the major gaps already noticed the previous season.
The Madrid club hesitated, not convinced, and when it attempted an approach, Zubimendi, who had nevertheless made Arsenal wait in the hope of seeing Real Madrid come forward, had decided in favor of the Gunners. “His vision of the game was stifled, starting with the conviction that high pressing was doomed to failure with two players like Vinicius and Mbappé, disinclined to reproduce the game of Dembélé at PSG under the orders of Luis Enrique. Conclusion: with the failure to recruit Zubimendi, the project was already doomed to failure from its birth…”writes Tomas Roncero in A.S..
