Real Madrid must rue Mourinho mistake as Mbappe antics show club remains in turmoil

/ Football News / LaLiga News Real Madrid must rue Mourinho mistake as Mbappe antics show club remains in turmoil Real Madrid pinned their hopes on Jose Mourinho restoring harmony to a fractured dressing room. It has not worked as Kylian Mbappe’s latest mis-step proves…

Real Madrid moved for Jose Mourinho over the summer when all conventional logic suggested the 63-year-old was over the hill, spiralling downwards towards retirement.

His swagger had gone, the air of invincibility acquired during his early years at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan long since evaporated. Yes, he had won trophies elsewhere – the League Cup and Europa League at Manchester United and the Conference League at Roma – but he was no longer challenging for the game’s major prizes.

There was a sense he sought the big jobs more than the big jobs sought him.

And then, seemingly from nowhere, in stepped Real Madrid. The Portuguese’s previous spell at the Santiago Bernabeu was largely underwhelming. It was the first club at which Mourinho had arguably failed given the resources at his disposal.

In three years, he managed one La Liga crown and one Copa del Rey with his side playing second fiddle to Pep Guardiola’s bewitching Barcelona. As is often the case with Mourinho, his spell in the Spanish capital ended in acrimony, unloved by the players and the media while he played the victim.

It was an inglorious exit in 2013 and, bar one successful season on his return to Chelsea, the subsequent years have demonstrated a coach in decline. While the likes of Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Luis Enrique revolutionised, Mourinho remained married to his method of pragmatism.

Real Madrid needed a leader, just not Mourinho So, why did Madrid chief Florentino Perez bring him back? The answer lies in a dressing room dynamic that saw off the rising star of European coaching, Xabi Alonso, and his successor Alvaro Arbeloa during a turbulent 2025/26 capmpaign.

Both men tried and failed to control a squad where egos and personal ambition ran rampant.

That was brought into sharp focus when Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde came to blows at the club’s training ground while the Madrid rumour mill went into overdrive dissecting the broken relationships between other talented, young millionaires.

Perez thought Mourinho would bring discipline, order and mutual respect. He was lauded as the man to restore integrity to a club that has always viewed itself as above all others.

Five weeks into the Liga season and it has not panned out that way.

A report this morning from Cadena Ser confirmed what many had long suspected: all is not well at Valdebebas. According to the respected radio station’s Anton Meana the situation has not improved one iota.

He said: “The atmosphere in the dressing room is still as icy as it was five months ago.

“This coldness in the dressing room, which even Mourinho’s intensity hasn’t managed to dispel, combined with the turmoil surrounding the Kylian Mbappe affair, has created a tense climate, far from ideal for approaching this crucial month of October.”

The ‘Mbappe affair’ refers to the continued insubordination of the France captain and Real Madrid striker.

Mbappe injured his knee playing for Les Bleus in their opening game of the international break and, although it was a relatively minor issue, the club expected him to undergo his rehabilitation in private, ensuring he’d be ready for the league resumption against Villarreal this weekend.

The 27-year-old is set to be declared fit but the reaction of the Bernabeu could be revealing after Mbappe was pictured at a Parisian nightclub and cycling in the Swiss Alps before returning to Spain.

It is not the first time the former PSG man has taken his own path when injured. Last season, he went on holiday to Sardinia rather than work on his recovery from a hamstring injury in Madrid and subsequently missed the Clasico defeat at Camp Nou.

His dedication was questioned by then boss Arbeloa with the two trading barbs in the media. It was unbecoming and a fitting end to a throughly joyless season for Madrid.

Perez’s vision was that Mourinho would eradicate the tension, bring back a hierarchal system that put the team first and, from there, the results would follow.

Madrid have lost two of their first seven league games, are fourth in the table and already six points behind a Barcelona side seemingly on course to win the title for a third year on the trot.

Barca have their issues – the Negreira case continues to cast a dark shadow over the league – but, on the field at least, they are everything Madrid aspire to be.

And in Hansi Flick they have a coach whose thoughtful approach is mirrored by a group of players that play and behave in a joyful, respectful manner.

Mourinho’s return appeared a mistake at the time and there has been no evidence to suggest it’s not a mistake now.

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