According to reports from a highly reputable source in Spain, Real Madrid head coach Alvaro Arbeloa is set to leave the club at the end of the season
On Wednesday evening, Real Madrid were defeated 4-3 on the night by Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg, losing the tie 6-4 on aggregate.
Although the performance was certainly much better than the first leg and in recent weeks generally, ultimately it was another defeat and means that Los Blancos have gone four competitive games without a win for the first time since September 2018 under Julen Lopetegui.
He has certainly made mistakes in La Liga, but Alvaro Arbeloa's gameplan for this game was generally fairly good, especially considering that Aurelien Tchouameni was out due to suspension. It was up to the players to perfectly execute it, and they didn't.
Nevertheless, the season now looks it will be petering out, unless a nine point gap can be overturned in La Liga. Therefore, according to Spanish newspaper Marca, Arbeloa will leave Real Madrid this summer.
They report that the club believe he "did not succeed" in turning the season around after Xabi Alonso's departure, and that it would take a "miracle" for him to stay in his post beyond the end of the 25/26 season.
On the face of it, this does seem a little harsh. As mentioned before, the gameplan against Bayern was pretty good. It was a tie that could have gone either way. Whilst the second leg was 11v11, Real Madrid were winning on the night. He cannot be held accountable for Eduardo Camavinga's costly error.
Sure, the domestic form has not been great. But let's look into some of the results a little more. Against Getafe, in the 1-0 defeat, the team had five opta defined big chances, and Getafe had 0. They won the xG battle 1.91 to 0.49.
Against Girona, in the 1-1 draw, the team had two big chances to 0, and an xG of 2.30 to 0.52. At some point, the players have to start taking responsibility instead of just the manager every time.
Not least when you consider that Arbeloa has inherited a very imbalanced squad, with two star forwards who nominally play the same position, and neither of whom track back and help the team out of possession.
If the club can genuinely go and bring in a world class manager, a la Jurgen Klopp or someone of that pedigree, then fine. But if it is going to be a manager like Didier Deschamps, the best move would be to stick with Arbeloa. Let's see.