Alvaro Arbeloa continues to put out fires before his eventual Real Madrid departure.
The rookie first team coach is set to leave at the end of the season, and while one of his pluses has been player relations, there’s one man he hasn’t got on with.
Captain Dani Carvajal has barely played under Arbeloa and continually made gestures that haven’t gone down well in the media.
If bench-warming wasn’t bad enough for Carvajal, he’s now got to worry about his place in Spain’s World Cup squad, something Arbeloa didn’t appear to care about when asked.
“I have 20 or 23 players,” he said. “I think any Real Madrid player has a chance of going to the World Cup, and I’m going to think about what’s best for my team.”
Those comments unsurprisingly lit a fire and the coach has now responded.
Arbeloa apologises to Carvajal
“My answer the other day was certainly a rather curt and quite serious response to a question I found out of place,” he said.
“It wasn’t a curt response regarding Dani Carvajal.
“You can look at all my answers when I’ve spoken about him. You can ask all my players how I talk about Carvajal in front of the group.
“They’re trying to pin an unjustified role on me with Carvajal.
“We share a locker room and position, and despite what many people say, I’ve always had a good relationship with him, I’ve always treated him with affection.
“Anyone who thinks I make the lineups for personal reasons must be someone who would do that.
“I find it hard to believe that any coach in the world doesn’t make line-ups for footballing reasons.”
Trent still preferred over Carvajal
Yet despite seemingly clearing things up, Arbeloa has still suggested Trent Alexander-Arnold will start over him.
“He’s showing a good level, he deserves to play, his performance is beyond question,” Arbeloa said of Trent.
“Every match is a matter of life and death for me; when I put a player in, it’s because I believe he deserves it and because I think it’s to win.
“I don’t give anyone a single minute [out of charity].”
Leave a Reply