Alvaro Arbeloa believes the door is still open for Jose Mourinho to one day return to Real Madrid as Coach.
The Portuguese managed Los Blancos between 2010 and 2013, winning a La Liga title and Copa del Rey, before ending his reign on a trophyless note, and the full-back is of the opinion that his former boss has unfinished business at the Santiago Bernabeu, despite his recent struggles at Chelsea.
“[On Mourinho’s first year at Madrid], he was like a bullet-proof vest for the players. If someone was picked on by the critics he was the first to defend him,” he told the Independent.
“He fought against the fixture list; against the kick-off times if he thought they went against us; or against a referee if he thought he had been unfair to Real Madrid.
“He fights for the interests of the team without bothering about the fact that in the end his image is damaged because of it – he gets labelled as the moaner.
“What no one takes into account when they judge Mourinho’s time in Spain is that perhaps if he had not come to Madrid when he did, [Pep] Guardiola would have kept on winning [with Barcelona].
“We were up against a team that a lot of people talk about as being, if not the best, then certainly one of the best in history.
“And he was up against a Coach like Guardiola who could have been at the club for 25 years like [Sir Alex] Ferguson at [Manchester] United.
“That’s how perfect a fit he was for the club, but Mourinho was capable of bringing them down from the mountain. He doesn’t get enough credit for that.
“[On Mourinho’s final year], seeing how hard it had been to get the better of Barcelona and to win La Liga and to then, in a sense, give it away so quickly, Jose didn’t take it at all well.
“He demanded all the time more from us. And when there are a lot of demands, and when in the end there is friction, it wears down the dressing room a bit.
“I used to see him with dark rings under his eyes and thinking: ‘this guy is not sleeping, he is not relaxing’.
“We should be able to cope with the maximum being demanded of us. If us players burn out in the third season I don’t think it’s Mourinho’s problem.
“I’ve been asked before and I always say: ‘yes, why not [in reference to Mourinho returning]?’ He is very direct and he tells people straight and that upsets some.
“There are a lot of people that are waiting [for him to fail] but there are a lot more people waiting to see him turn things around. I don’t think the door at Real Madrid is shut to him.”