Xabi Alonso’s spell as Real Madrid manager was dominated by one singular moment: Vinicius Junior’s outburst during El Clasico. The Brazilian winger’s fury at being substituted during the victory over Barcelona dominated headlines, and it drew into focus a bigger issue, which was the former Bayer Leverkusen head coach’s lack of control in the dressing room.
This was one of the reasons why Alonso agreed to terminate his Real Madrid contract after the Spanish Super Cup final defeat to Barcelona in January. His relationship with some of the bigger personalities in the squad was not great, and this was especially the case with Vinicius – which the player himself admitted to months later.
That moment during El Clasico was infamous, but it was not when the relationship with Vinicius and Alonso started to deteriorate. Rather, that happened during last summer’s Club World Cup, when the latter had been in the door for only a matter of weeks.
According to Paco González of COPE (via MD), the problems between the two started in the lead-up to a Club World Cup match. It’s claimed that Vinicius blew up at the prospect of being benched in favour of Kylian Mbappe and Gonzalo Garcia starting together in attack, which prompted a change to Alonso’s plans as he ended up going with the Brazil international.
Real Madrid have struggled more since Alonso’s exit
Alonso was far from perfect during his time as Real Madrid manager, but since his departure, there have been even more struggles. Under the guidance of Alvaro Arbeloa, Los Blancos have drastically fallen away in the La Liga title race, while they were also dumped out of the Champions League and Copa del Rey by Bayern Munich and Albacete respectively.
Alonso will have learned plenty of lessons during his time at the Bernabeu, particularly when it comes to managing big personalities. He will fancy himself better prepared for when he returns to football in his next job.
