Real Madrid fell to Barcelona on Sunday night in El Clasico, relinquishing the Liga title for another year, and bringing the curtain down definitively on a season to forget at the Santiago Bernabeu. The question being asked in the Spanish capital is what will President Florentino Perez change ahead of next season.
That starts with the manager. Alvaro Arbeloa is not expected to continue, and what was a rumour two weeks ago now seems to be the only logical conclusion to their hunt for a new manager. Perez has decided that Mourinho is his priority to take over this summer, seeing him as the ‘only viable option’, and is expected to inform the rest of the Real Madrid board of his plans imminently.
While Mourinho has continued to deny direct contacts with Real Madrid – conversations may be taking place between agent Jorge Mendes and Los Blancos – all reporting claims that the two are already in talks over his return. Diario AS say that Mourinho has made two demands clear to Real Madrid in order to green light a second stint at the Bernabeu.
The first is that he wants a say over which positions are strengthened this summer in the transfer window, if not strictly which players come in. The second is that Mourinho is give power to impose discipline on the players, without his authority being questioned. This tallies with prior reports on Mourinho’s conditions to return to Real Madrid, which also state that he only wants to answer to Perez, rather than other figures at the club.
Given the manner of Real Madrid’s demise this season, it seems likely that Perez will look to shake things up in the transfer market. That potentially includes some sales that may not have been considered before. It will be interesting to see how many players Los Blancos want to bring in though, as until now Perez has been relatively austere in the transfer market. Until last summer, Real Madrid were only spending big on one or two younger players per year, Kylian Mbappe notwithstanding.
