Xabi Alonso was sacked as Real Madrid coach on Monday, and was replaced by Alvaro Arbeloa, a former player at the club who had previously worked with the youth teams.
The club's decision has caused anger among a large part of the fans, but also strong reactions and criticism from the Spanish media and former Real Madrid players.
Marca, the most widely read sports newspaper in Spain, dedicated a long front-page article to Alonso's departure with the headline: "The day Xabi collapsed and everything went to hell: 'I didn't know I was going to be coaching kindergarteners!'"
This article describes the moment when the relationship between the coach and a large part of the team was finally broken, during a training session in November.
The phrase that changed everything
According to Marca, the rift between the team and Xabi Alonso behind closed doors was already evident. The distance between the parties was gradually increasing, until the situation exploded. During a training session, Alonso lost control and shouted at the players:
"I didn't know I was coming to train a nursery!"
It was not an ordinary warning to shake up the team, nor a momentary outburst of anger, but a cry of despair, exhaustion and frustration. Alonso had long been irritated, as he felt that the players were not meeting his demands, especially those related to the tactical aspect and discipline in training.
"Somber faces, lack of concentration, whispering... until he exploded and uttered the sentence that marked the beginning of the end. He said out loud what he had been thinking for a long time and opened a wound in the relationship with the team that never closed," writes Marca.
Tactical overload and information overload
Players, on the other hand, found Alonso's training sessions tactically difficult and complained that they were overloaded with too much information in too short a time. Xabi's excessive zeal in tactical work, obsession with detail and constant corrections reportedly caused fatigue among his technical staff.
There was also dissatisfaction with the assistants, especially with Sebas Parrilla, Alonso's main assistant. The presence of so many people giving instructions and monitoring every detail made the players feel under pressure and uncomfortable. The working atmosphere deteriorated day by day and psychological exhaustion began to be felt more and more.
However, Xabi Alonso saw things completely differently. The first Club World Cup, followed by an immediate return to the competition, almost without preparation, had left him, according to him, very little space to work on the ideas he wanted to implement at Real Madrid. He felt that there were many things to change and correct and that he needed every minute of every training session to convey this to the team.
"Xabi knew that the team was far from what he had in mind and that the process needed to be accelerated. But this pace of work and the acquisition of new concepts were encountering difficulties in the dressing room. The parties were not on the same wavelength and daily life was becoming increasingly difficult. Xabi was unhappy with the players and the players were unhappy with Xabi," adds Marca.
Arbeloa's name started circulating
As if this situation wasn't enough, rumours about Alvaro Arbeloa began to circulate more and more frequently in the dressing room. His name was seen as a possible solution for the future and his presence around the first team was becoming more and more noticeable.
Whether because the club had begun to test this option, or because the players themselves noticed it, the fact that Arbeloa – as Castilla coach – was regularly present at first-team training sessions added to the uncertainty and doubts.
In this tense climate came the crisis of results. Real Madrid lost the little stability it had and the problems began to pile up. Although in the last moments the team tried to stay united to overcome the situation and avoid the dismissal of Alonso, but something had already broken.
The doubts and unrest in the dressing room were reflected at the highest levels of the club and there was no turning back. The Super Cup became the final straw, but, as Marca concludes, the outcry in training was actually the beginning of the end. /Telegraph/
