Real Madrid 2026/27: Mourinho, Florentino and a league lost in September

Madrid lose the league in September and the debate points to Florentino

A goal in the 89th minute. A match slipping away just when the team finally decides to play. Real Madrid's 2026/27 season kicks off with the league already an uphill battle and an uncomfortable certainty settling in the dressing room and the stands: Florentino Pérez's project and Mourinho's return are not working. The discussion about the bench, the squad and the club's management has become the core of a debate that is no longer about football, but about structure.

The league that slipped away before October

The phrase that sums up the mood is one: "League over in September". It is not a quip. The team goes into the big matches with the feeling that the result is already written and that the margin for error has run out. The humiliating defeat at the start of the thread sets the tone for everything that trinc: criticism shifts from the individual player to the club model.

The most repeated diagnosis points out that the problem is not tactical but structural. People talk about a poorly built squad, with hyper-covered positions and glaring weaknesses in midfield. The comparison with other European clubs is constant: while PSG or Barça field midfielders who are not "logs stuck in the middle of the pitch", Madrid keeps betting on profiles that cannot sustain the game. The conclusion that prevails in many posts is that the club does not compete on equal terms in the market and that the academy, with few exceptions, does not fill the gap.

Mourinho, the return that never takes off

Mourinho's return was sold as the last dance, the shake-up a complacent dressing room needed. The early stages of the thread reflect scepticism. His approach is criticised as "shabbier than the worst Ancelotti", and it is pointed out that the team only reacts when the scoreboard tightens. The paradox that keeps coming up: Madrid play better when their supposed stars are benched and hungry profiles are given a chance.

Some argue that the Portuguese coach has been slow to see what the stands had seen since matchday one: that certain names weigh more on the payroll than on the pitch. The management of minutes and the dressing-room hierarchy become the battlefield. The question hanging in the air is whether Mourinho has real room to bench the untouchables or whether his return is an image operation more than a sporting project.

The Vinicius case and the wearing-out of the narrative

The debate over Vinicius takes up a large part of the conversation. Sporting and non-sporting issues are mixed. Some argue that the Brazilian has lost focus and that his performance has declined steadily, while others defend that he remains decisive and that his suspension — four matches, according to one post in the thread — is a disproportionate punishment in a refereeing context considered hostile.

The controversy over his shirt in support of Ceuta and his clashes over racism appears as a breaking point for part of the fanbase. The argument is that the player has drifted onto a path leading nowhere good and that his figure has become a burden for the club. The discussion over whether Madrid should build the team around him or sell him is one of the most heated in the thread.

VAR, the zaineira case and permanent suspicion

The shadow of the zaineira case (the scandal over Barcelona's payments to a refereeing official) and of refereeing runs through the whole debate. People talk about "systemic corruption" and an ecosystem that, according to some participants, systematically favours Barcelona. The arrival of VAR is presented as a paradigm shift that reduces the room for cheating, although not everyone sees it that way: some argue the system remains opaque and that key decisions still lean the same way.

The tone is one of total distrust of the institutions. Tebas appears as a central figure of criticism, accused of running the league for his own benefit and of using the media apparatus to incivil Madrid. The feeling that the club is fighting two opponents — the one on the pitch and the institutional one — permeates many of the posts.

The Ballon d'Or, Mbappé and the media circus

The individual award is discussed as a marketing operation that eclipses the real problems. Critics say the Ballon d'Or has diverted attention from Barcelona's defeats and has become a spectacle that does not reflect performance. Mbappé also appears, somewhere between meme and controversy over his comments about China, which are read as a storm in a teacup amplified by his status as a Madrid player.

The conclusion drawn from these episodes is that the club lives immersed in noise. The spotlight points at non-sporting matters while the team drops points. And that is perhaps the harshest criticism from the stands: that Madrid has stopped being a football club to become an entertainment product.

The academy and the debate over the model

The emergence of academy players in the first team opens a glimmer of hope. People mention a youth player who has scored four goals in 43 minutes and the paradox that the substitutes perform better than the starters. The question raised is uncomfortable: why not bet on them earlier? The suggested answer is that the club prioritises the market and the narrative over grassroots work.

The debate over the nationality of academy players also appears, with irony: "Do academy players have to be Spanish?". The underlying question is whether Madrid has lost the identity that made it recognisable or whether, on the contrary, the global model is the only way to compete.

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The unsettling fact is not a defeat. It is the feeling, repeated in dozens of posts, that the problem will not be fixed with a signing or a change of coach. People talk about "five blank seasons" and a club that has entered a spiral of reactive decisions. The question left hanging is whether Florentino Pérez has a plan or whether, as some suggest, his last dance is really everyone's.