Real Madrid: The Secret Meeting That Decided Xabi Alonso's Fate
The hashtag #AlonsoOut isn’t just a digital tantrum; it’s the soundtrack to a crisis. After the Jeddah debacle against Barça, the Bernabéu offices saw lights on until 4 AM. Here is what really happened behind the heavy oak doors of Valdebebas.
My phone vibrated at 11:02 PM last night. A screenshot from a reputable score app. "Xabi Alonso leaves Real Madrid by mutual consent." Three minutes later, the post vanished. A glitch? A hacker? Or—as my sources in the capital suggest—a pre-written draft that someone in the media department triggered a little too early?
Welcome to the paranoia of modern football. While the world searches "Xabi Alonso sack", the reality inside the White House is far more complex than a simple firing. It is a civil war.
The Jeddah Hangover
Let's be clear: losing the Spanish Super Cup to Barcelona is forgivable. Losing it to Hansi Flick's Barça for the fifth time in six meetings? That is a capital offense in Madrid. The mood on the flight back from Saudi Arabia was funereal. Florentino Pérez, usually chatty with the press, stared out the window for four hours.
The problem isn't just the result. It's the method. Alonso arrived from Leverkusen in June 2025 with a reputation as a tactical messiah. He promised control. What we saw in Jeddah was chaos.
"The players don't know if they are playing Xabi-ball or Ancelotti-ball. We are stuck in the middle, and Vinicius is suffocating."
— A source close to the dressing room, 2:00 AM.
The Vinicius Problem
We need to talk about the elephant in the room (or the winger on the touchline). The tactical rigidity that won the Bundesliga with Leverkusen is choking Madrid's stars. Vinicius Junior has been vocal—privately, and increasingly with his body language—about the lack of freedom.
When your Ballon d'Or contender is unhappy, the manager is living on borrowed time. I'm told there was a heated exchange in the locker room at halftime in Jeddah. Not shouting. Just cold, hard facts about spacing. Alonso stuck to his guns. The team lost.
The 4 AM Verdict
So, why is he still in charge this morning? Because Florentino Pérez hates admitting a mistake. Sacking his chosen heir just seven months into the project would be a personal failure for the Presidente.
The board meeting last night concluded with a stay of execution, not a vote of confidence. The mandate is clear: Fix the physical fragility (the injury list is longer than the Magna Carta) and beat Alavés. If there is one more slip-up, the "glitch" from last night becomes an official PDF.
👀 Who is waiting in the wings?
1. Álvaro Arbeloa: The internal favorite. He knows the academy, he knows the politics, and he is cheap. The "Zidane 2016" option.
2. Zinedine Zidane: The eternal shadow. Florentino calls him every Christmas. But does Zizou want to fix a broken engine mid-season again?
3. Jürgen Klopp: The dream. But he is currently enjoying his retirement (and Red Bull role) too much to jump into this fire.
For now, Xabi stays. But in Madrid, "staying" is just a synonym for "waiting to leave." The trending topic isn't wrong; it's just a few days ahead of schedule.
