"A player like Mbappé who has scored nearly 50 goals? There is no debate." Fernando Morientes didn't come to bury Madrid's season — he came to put some of the hysteria in context. And on the way, he said quite a lot about who should be cleaning up the mess.
The former Real Madrid striker weighed in on the Mourinho rumours with the kind of nuanced take you rarely get from ex-players doing the media rounds. He doesn't love the idea of recycling managers. He'd have preferred Raúl. But he's not pretending the situation at the Bernabéu is normal, either.
"Jose Mourinho has already managed Real Madrid and has experience at other clubs. What he brings is experience and character," Morientes said. "Personally, I have never been a big fan of second chances with coaches who have already been at the club. I prefer new options. But right now, what Madrid needs is someone with that profile: personality and character to handle a difficult dressing room."
Why Raúl was always the first name on the list
Morientes was clear about his preferred candidate: Raúl, for the same reason Zidane, Del Bosque, and Ancelotti worked — they understood the institution from the inside. "My first choice has always been Raúl because he has a similar profile to what has worked at Real Madrid," he said. Didier Deschamps was his second option before Mourinho entered the thinking.
But with Mourinho reportedly on the verge of signing, Morientes made his peace with it. "If it were Mourinho, he does seem to have the right profile for what Madrid needs right now: someone with authority and strong character." That's a reluctant endorsement, but an endorsement nonetheless.
For anyone tracking Madrid's pre-season or early-season odds next campaign, the manager appointment matters enormously. Mourinho tends to set teams up to be hard to beat first, expansive second — which could shift expectations around goals markets and clean sheet frequency in the opening months.
Mbappé's season, and the noise around it
On Mbappé, Morientes was dismissive of an online poll apparently naming the Frenchman as a flop. "70 million, you said? In an online poll? That is not credible. Not at all. Anyone can click: Barcelona fans, Madrid fans, people who hate Mbappé. It is all part of the circus around football."
Nearly 50 goals in a single season is hard to argue with. The fact that Madrid won nothing amplifies individual criticism — that's always been the Bernabéu's way — but Morientes refuses to let the team's collective failure become Mbappé's personal indictment.
He also issued a pointed warning about the consequences for Florentino Pérez if things don't improve. "In his first spell as president, something similar happened. There were a couple of bad seasons and he himself decided to step down." Morientes stopped short of calling this season a disaster, preferring "disappointing" — but the implication was clear enough. Madrid don't get many more of these.
