Alvaro Arbeloa defends Real Madrid players after fights in training: ‘I am not going to burn them at the stake’

Alvaro Arbeloa has defended the conduct of his players in the aftermath of Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni’s fights this week and said he will not “burn them at the stake in a public square”.

The head coach also confirmed that Tchouameni will be in the squad for Sunday’s Clasico, which could decide the La Liga title, and said his dressing room “of course” is healthy.

“I am very proud of the decisiveness and the transparency with which the club acted,” Arbeloa said on Saturday ahead of their trip to Camp Nou. “Second, the players have apologized to the club, to the fans, and to the other players. What I am not going to do is burn them at the stake in a public square. They have shown me what it means to be a Real Madrid player.

“It is a lie — absolutely a lie — that they have disrespected me or that their private lives somehow reflect behaviour that should not happen.”

Arbeloa, who took over from the sacked Xabi Alonso in January, said that “if you want to blame someone, blame me”.

“I once had a teammate who had a golf club and hit another teammate with it,” he continued. “What happens in Real Madrid’s dressing room should stay in Real Madrid’s dressing room. These are situations that should not happen, but they always have. I’m not justifying it, but of course I have experienced situations that were almost worse.”

The Spaniard also cited Juanito, who played for Madrid for a decade between 1977-87 and won five La Liga titles as a model player for the club.

“Did Juanito never make mistakes? And he is the only player, I think, that we still sing about. So how could I not make mistakes myself?” he said.

Valverde and Tchouameni were each fined €500,000 (£432,100; $588,520) following a dressing-room fight on Thursday which resulted in Valverde being taken to hospital to undergo assessments after sustaining a head injury, according to sources briefed on the incident, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships.

The La Liga club confirmed on Thursday Valverde had been diagnosed with “cranioencephalic traumatism” following tests by their medical team, and that he would be required to rest for 10-14 days, ruling him out of Sunday’s El Clasico.

It was the second altercation between the pair, following their first on Wednesday. The incidents came amid growing tensions in the Madrid camp, with Kylian Mbappe involved in an angry flare-up with a member of Madrid staff last month, after Antonio Rudiger apologised for his involvement in a heated argument with a team-mate.

Madrid head to Camp Nou on Sunday eleven points behind Barcelona, who will win the league if they pick up a point.

How did Arbeloa handle his most important press conference yet?

Arbeloa walked into what was probably the toughest press conference of his coaching career so far – and not because of tomorrow’s Clasico.

Instead, the session quickly became dominated by questions about the reported altercation between Valverde and Tchouameni, against the backdrop of a growing sense of tension around Madrid.

To the surprise of many in the room, he did not attempt to shut the discussion down. If anything, he expanded on it more than usual, delivering several answers with a strangely sarcastic edge.

That looseness (perhaps a consequence of a season now largely devoid of meaningful stakes) occasionally pushed him into uncomfortable territory. Most notably when he brought up Juanito, the emblematic Madrid figure of the 1980s whose legacy was shaped as much by his fierce personality as his football. Given Juanito’s tragic death in a car accident years ago, the reference felt unnecessary and oddly timed.

Arbeloa has long projected a casual, almost sitcom-like public persona — comparisons with Michael Scott from The Office are not uncommon — and Friday offered another example of why. Asked whether this was the worst dressing-room incident he had witnessed, he recalled seeing one team-mate hit another with a golf club. (Who that might have been was left unsaid.)

As usual, he also defended the institution itself, praising the club repeatedly while accusing whoever leaked the story of having “betrayed” Madrid.

He promised changes would come and, notably, positioned himself as the only person responsible — both for the altercation and for the way the season has unravelled. Yet even in that apparent act of accountability, the sarcasm never fully disappeared. And in trying to protect the dressing room, he may ultimately have revealed who stands most exposed by Madrid’s current crisis.