After a highly turbulent 2025-26 season, in which they saw two coaches join and depart, i.e., Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa, Real Madrid have decided to start their next project under the experienced stewardship of Jose Mourinho.
Although there are no doubts about his quality as a manager, there have been some concerns about the Portuguese coach’s appointment, especially as it has been some time since he managed a really top-level team, and won anything notable with it.
It remains to be seen how his second tenure at the Merengue club would pan out, but several commentators are already giving their opinion on how this new association between Mourinho and Real Madrid would go.
In this regard, the latest individual to voice his opinion was the former Merengue winger Gareth Bale. Although he missed out on playing under the Portuguese manager at Real Madrid, joining the club a few months after the coach’s departure, but still got to play under him during his loan spell at Tottenham during the 2020-21 season. Meanwhile, he also perfectly knows the white club owing to the 9 years he spent there.
As Diario AS has reported, the former winger recently appeared in an interview with The Athletic, and believed Mourinho’s return would only lead to good things for Real Madrid:
“Having had an experienced manager like Carlo Ancelotti, I hope José can stabilize the group and get everyone moving in the same direction. He only puts pressure on you to bring out the best in you. He’ll try to understand each player and find whatever is needed to make them perform.
Sometimes that might mean putting pressure on someone through the media; sometimes it might simply mean giving them a hug. He’s been at Madrid before, he understands the dynamics, and he knows how things work there. He’ll come up with a plan to make it work.”
Bale went on to comment on the coaching style of another former Merengue coach, Carlo Ancelotti:
“Carlo was a great man-manager. He understands psychology and the pressures that come with the job. But he builds a relationship with you that makes you feel he genuinely cares about you. Sometimes players aren’t playing, but he knows how to keep them motivated and on his side. At a big club like Madrid, you don’t really need to be a coach in the strict sense. You have to manage egos, and that’s why he’s been so successful at the biggest clubs.”
The Welsh star also commented on how football has evolved over the last few years:
“Especially over the last five years, coaches have become a bit more dominant and the game has become more tactical. Football is no longer an end-to-end game. It’s more like a chess match than a basketball game, which isn’t as exciting.
You don’t see as much dribbling anymore, and players don’t do it as often. Maybe it’s because coaches tell them not to, but there are still a few players who can make you jump out of your seat, like Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, and Vinícius Jr. But perhaps there aren’t as many because they’re not allowed to be.”
Coming from someone who spent almost a decade of his playing career with Real Madrid, there are a lot of reasons to hope Gareth Bale’s prediction about Jose Mourinho would turn out to be true, and the Portuguese manager would get the Merengues back to winning ways after spending the last two seasons without a major trophy.
