Arbeloa will never forget his debut on the Bernabéu bench as Madrid coach. Just the event itself is already one of the most important episodes of his professional life, but the context also made it special. An enraged Bernabéu, which even came … to ask for Florentino’s resignation and who did not stop whistling even when his team was two goals ahead, with Vinicius at the center of the crowd’s anger: «I have always respected the Santiago Bernabéu a lot, from my time as a player. They have also whistled at me a lot, and that demand also makes the club great. We have to take what the Bernabéu asks of us well. “We have to be at the level of Madrid and we are the ones who have to give them much more than what we have given this week,” Arbeloa explained.
There were up to four questions about the Brazilian’s whistles. Except for Gonzalo, Asencio, Mbappé and Courtois, they all took the anger at the Bernabéu, but the ‘7’, and also Bellingham, focused the attention of the stands: “I don’t think Vinicius will be whistled in the majority. The Bernabéu wants the best version of him and everyone. Let’s not forget that Vinicius has given us two Champions Leagues. He is not afraid of failure, he has character, he defends the shield, he has led the way in bad moments as a kid… He has done what many players have not been able to do in the history of Madrid. He is going to continue giving us many titles and what I am going to demand from his teammates is that they give him the maximum number of balls, because he is one of the most unbalanced players in the world. “My job is for him to return to his best version.”
Arbeloa, perhaps tired of so many explanations about how the Bernabéu reacted, ended up saying that the whistles were not just for Vinicius, Bellingham or Huijsen, but for everyone, including him, because “he is the leader of the team”, and highlighted the guts of the players in such an uncomfortable situation: “The players are going to understand the whistles, for sure. Everyone wanted the ball, and today it wasn’t easy. I have had eleven brave men. To play here you need technical and physical conditions, but also mentality and heart.”
You also have to be very good to be considered the best president in the club’s history. That happens with Florentino, at ease with Bernabéu, but a part of the stadium also showed their anger towards him for the team’s current moment. Arbeloa came out to defend the president from some chants of which he has a very specific reading: «I know where the whistles come from. The campaigns are not from people who do not love Florentino, but from people who do not love Real Madrid. They’re not going to fool me. All Madrid fans are aware of how lucky we are to have Florentino as president and what he has done for this club. “The most important leader along with Santiago.”
Apart from the coach, no one else spoke. Not at least in a mixed zone. Yes, Asencio did it in the RMTV microphones: “Today was a very important day for our fans, we all wanted to turn the situation around,” acknowledged the player, who did not avoid the painful cup defeat against Albacete. “Something happened that shouldn’t have happened,” he admitted with self-criticism.
