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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/ASuarezMascareno on 2026-01-13 15:29:01+00:00.

Without paywall: archive.is/…/dia-xabi-estallo-salto-aires-sabia-v…

Translation:

“Xabi Alonso was dismissed in January, but the coach had already begun to drift away from Madrid in early November. By then, the rift between the squad and Xabi Alonso was already evident behind closed doors. A growing estrangement that daily life at Valdebebas kept pushing to the limit. Until it finally blew up. ‘I didn’t know I was coming to coach a nursery!’ the coach exclaimed during a training session.

It was not the typical warning meant to grab the players’ attention, nor a momentary outburst at work; it was a cry of desperation, of exhaustion, and almost of boredom. Xabi had been irritated for some time because his players were not matching the level of demand he wanted to impose in each and every training session—especially in tactical terms. Long faces, lack of attitude, whispering… until he could take no more and uttered a sentence that marked the beginning of the end. He said out loud what he had been thinking for some time and opened a wound with the squad that would never heal.

Tactical overload and too much information

The players felt that the training sessions were excessively heavy from a tactical standpoint and also complained about receiving an overwhelming amount of information. Xabi’s overzealousness in tactical work, attention to detail, and constant corrections extended to his assistants, who were also singled out by the players—most notably Sebas Parrilla, his deputy. Having so many people giving instructions and monitoring every detail made the footballers uncomfortable. The day-to-day working environment was poor, and the wear and tear gradually took its toll.

Xabi, however, thought exactly the opposite of his players. First the Club World Cup and then a rushed return to competition, with hardly any preseason, left the coach with no margin to work on the footballing ideas he wanted to implement at Real Madrid. In his view, there were many things to change and correct, and he needed every last minute of each training session to impose them on the team. Xabi knew the team was far from what he wanted and that the process had to be accelerated. But that work rate and the assimilation of new concepts clashed head-on with the squad. They were not moving in step, and daily life became increasingly difficult. Xabi was unhappy with his players, and the players were unhappy with Xabi.

Arbeloa’s name in the dressing room

As if that were not enough, rumors involving Arbeloa began to circulate in the dressing room. The name of the man who months later would become Real Madrid’s new head coach started to be viewed by the players as a possible solution. Arbeloa became increasingly present around the first team, either because the club was already floating his name to test the waters or because the players themselves had taken note of the coach, who, as Castilla manager, was a regular presence at first-team training sessions.

Amid all this tension came the results crisis. Madrid lost what little stability it still had, and the crisis kept growing. It is true that when things turned sour, the squad pulled together to try to get through the situation and avoid Xabi’s dismissal, but something had already broken. Doubts and unrest within the squad spread to the club’s upper echelons, and there was no turning back. The Super Cup was the final straw—but a shout was the beginning of the end.”