"What worries Real Madrid the most is the situation of refereeing in Spain." The basketball pavilion at the Valdebebas sports city hosted yesterday the classic Christmas meeting between the Real Madrid officials and the media. An event that landed in the midst of the first team's sports news, immersed in a crisis of results, timidly softened after the triumph at Mendizorroza, which has Xabi Alonso on the ropes.
Monday was lived with a certain tense calm and with many doubts within the white team, awaiting the results against Talavera in the Copa del Rey and against Sevilla in the last match of the year at the Santiago Bernabéu, to decide what to do with the Basque coach. The last seven days have been frantic in Chamartín, with the defeat against Celta, the meeting at the stadium after the match, the warning from the management to the players about their attitude, the 1-2 against Manchester City and the balsamic victory in Vitoria as a continuation of a strange situation in Valdebebas. No one dares to predict.
"Anything can happen," is one of the responses coming from the Madrid sports city's field, where no one really knows what to expect in the coming days. Alonso seemed more out than in after the match against Celta, but the improvement in intensity against City gave him some breathing space until Mendizorroza, where his team added three points that calmed the waters a bit.
Florentino insists on Negreira
Still, the feeling within the Madrid organization is that a stumble against another inferior rival (City was not considered as such) would end the Basque's journey on the bench. Some voices, however, trust that Real Madrid will take off in January and that the solutions on the table to replace Alonso, which are currently Solari and Arbeloa, would not change the current perspective of the white team too much.
During the lunch with the media, Florentino Pérez avoided mentioning the name of his coach in the speech he gave for five minutes to the press. The president of the Madrid team focused his efforts on the Negreira Case and on the mistakes that, according to him, the referees who have officiated the last Madrid matches have made. "Against Alavés, we were refereed by an official who threatened us before a Cup final. It seems that the tackles on Rodrygo and Vinicius are not penalties. It is possible that some club has been relegated victim of the Negreira case, our football's image has been damaged, and justice must be served. The judge defined it as systemic corruption and said they were convenient payments, why?" Pérez reflected.
Beyond the referees, nothing. Not a message of support or a warning to his players or coaching staff. Nothing. The Madrid president and the rest of the white team's officials are now waiting for events, with the cup match against Talavera and the league match against Sevilla as the next touchstones. That is the near future of the club, the only one that exists right now. Then comes the Supercopa de Arabia, a competition that last year did a lot of damage to Carlo Ancelotti by losing the final against Barça 2-5. No one wants to look that far ahead because right now at Madrid, "every match is a world," as acknowledged internally. No one dares to say he will be the coach there.
There is no deadline for Alonso, for now, all are. The relationship with the squad, at least publicly, has improved after the club's warning to the players, and the hugs from Rodrygo and Vinicius in the matches against City and Alavés have reflected that change in tone of the team, but internal problems remain similar. The team is not playing well, depending on the individual quality of its forwards, the midfield pieces do not fit, with Alonso looking for new solutions every day, and the players' physical condition is far from the best.
Tense calm, and with many doubts, before the Cup and the League. That is the Christmas reality of this Madrid. One that can change at any moment.