Real Madrid 2026/27: Mourinho, Vinicius and a league lost in September
Mourinho and Florentino's Real Madrid are sinking in September: the league is already lost, Vinicius is under fire and the Bernabéu has become a theme park.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Madrid's league is decided in September and the culprit has a name
A goal in the 89th minute. That is the tally from a match Real Madrid had to win and which ended in humiliation. The 2026/27 season kicked off with Mourinho's return to the bench and Florentino Pérez signing off on his last great project, and just a few weeks in the diagnosis is already terminal: the league is settled before the leaves fall. The phrase that sums up the mood came from a fan, without anesthesia: "League over in September." It is not a quip. It is the summary of a club where the narrative no longer hides the numbers.
The immediate trigger was the defeat to Atlético, a match the team only started playing in the 89th minute, when there was nothing left to salvage. The pattern repeats itself: listless starts, players who go missing in the big games and a coach who, according to the stands, took far too long to figure out which eleven he has. Valverde's introduction hugging the touchline and the benching of the untouchables have coincided with the only improvements of the season. Someone put it with dry wit: "If you play with a 9, hungry kids, and put crosses into the box... you win a match." Who would have thought.
Vinicius, the man who changed everything for the worse
There is an uncomfortable consensus running through the whole season: the problem is not tactical, it is the dressing room. **Vinicius** has become the epicenter of the earthquake. His renewal, signed at superstar prices, is now read as the mistake that mortgages the project. "What a mistake with the Rat, what a terrible mistake," sums up a majority current that no longer debates his quality but his fit. A player more focused on his own stats than on the team, arriving to blow up a dressing room that was more or less at peace.
The list of grievances is long and varied. The Ceuta support shirt he refused to wear, the avoidable red card, the clash with the refereeing establishment, the feeling that football stopped being what mattered amid cosmetic procedures, personal crusades and off-field appearances. A diagnosis making the rounds in blunt terms: "For a couple of seasons now he has been better known for what happens off the pitch; on it he has delivered very little, neither with Madrid nor with Brazil."
The sporting result is devastating. With Vinicius out of the starting eleven, the team has won matches that seemed impossible. **Espinete has scored four goals in 43 minutes played**, according to the fans' own calculation. The comparison with the Brazilian has become the most lethal argument against the club's management: "He scores more in ten minutes than the mandela in ten matches." The crowd, which booed the referee but not its own players after the shirt fiasco, is starting to turn its focus toward the directors' box.
Mourinho, a return that cannot hide the institutional decline
The return of **Mourinho** was sold as Florentino's last dance. The reality is less epic. The Portuguese coach has restored some of the team's pulse, has benched the untouchables and has found in **Güler** the most important player in the squad, according to some forum users: the only one who breaks pressing lines, links up the play and delivers the final pass, long-range shots and set pieces. But not even he can paper over a structural problem that runs from the pitch to the directors' box.
The criticism of the president is ferocious and spares no one. "We have a hysterical president who threw a tantrum over someone from ABC and threatened to cancel his subscription, like an old man in the Alcampo queue when a discount coupon has expired." The institution, they say, is in worse shape than the team: players fighting in the parking lot, others brawling with one ending up in hospital, a player caught drunk driving, schemes to leak videos. The club's story as a winning machine has fallen apart.
The recurring argument is that Madrid always competes with what it has and that the problem is not names but divas and hierarchies. "You can be an A-grade team playing A, and very limited playing B or C, or you can be a B-grade team playing A, B, C and D. Madrid has always been the latter. The problem is that now it barely scrapes a pass." With the right players they would reach a good grade. With this squad, a bare pass.
The referee, VAR and a narrative that no longer washes
No Madrid season makes sense without the refereeing chapter, and this one is no exception. Vinicius's red card, the yellow for Konaté, Güler's elbow on Peque that VAR did not review: every play becomes a weapon. Some claim VAR is only used in one direction, "always against Madrid and in favor of Barça," while others respond with data: Barcelona need 16 fouls to get an opponent booked, while Madrid only need 3. A statistical gap that, according to the harshest critics, demands an explanation.
The other side of the debate is the political use of grievance. "Three years of the zaineira hoax now and zero evidence of sporting corruption. Just cheap demagoguery and sociological Madridismo propaganda to indoctrinate the sheeple." The crossfire — some blame Barça, others Madrid, everyone blames the referee — has turned every matchday into a parallel trial where the actual result matters least. Meanwhile, the team keeps dropping points and the league drifts away.
The Bernabéu, a sardine tin without its soul
The fans are also in the spotlight. The stadium, converted into a venue for tourists and *fan boys*, no longer exerts the pressure it once did. "They don't understand Real Madrid's level of demand and act like fan boys of the players." The paradox is that the Bernabéu booed the referee after the disaster, but not Mbappé, Vinicius or Konaté for their role in the shirt affair. The rank-and-file Madrid fans watch in astonishment as their temple turns into a theme park.
The financial balance sheet offers no comfort either. **140 million on Diomande** to sit on the bench, **80 million for Rodri** when the signing was not needed, gold-plated renewals for underperforming players. The transfer policy reads like a flight forward: "This summer they'll sign another winger, another full-back and some old-timer available on a free, another puppet coach and off we go celebrating." Five blank seasons, they warn, is the most likely scenario. This is only the third.
The question nobody wants to answer out loud remains: if the problem is the president, the coach or the players, why does nobody make a move? Florentino's last dance looks less and less like a dance and more and more like a countdown. And the clock, in September, is already striking the final bars.
A goal in the 89th minute. That is the tally from a match Real Madrid had to win and which ended in humiliation. The 2026/27 season kicked off with Mourinho's return to the bench and Florentino Pérez signing off on his last great project, and just a few weeks in the diagnosis is already terminal: the league is settled before the leaves fall. The phrase that sums up the mood came from a fan, without anesthesia: "League over in September." It is not a quip. It is the summary of a club where the narrative no longer hides the numbers.
The immediate trigger was the defeat to Atlético, a match the team only started playing in the 89th minute, when there was nothing left to salvage. The pattern repeats itself: listless starts, players who go missing in the big games and a coach who, according to the stands, took far too long to figure out which eleven he has. Valverde's introduction hugging the touchline and the benching of the untouchables have coincided with the only improvements of the season. Someone put it with dry wit: "If you play with a 9, hungry kids, and put crosses into the box... you win a match." Who would have thought.
Vinicius, the man who changed everything for the worse
There is an uncomfortable consensus running through the whole season: the problem is not tactical, it is the dressing room. **Vinicius** has become the epicenter of the earthquake. His renewal, signed at superstar prices, is now read as the mistake that mortgages the project. "What a mistake with the Rat, what a terrible mistake," sums up a majority current that no longer debates his quality but his fit. A player more focused on his own stats than on the team, arriving to blow up a dressing room that was more or less at peace.
The list of grievances is long and varied. The Ceuta support shirt he refused to wear, the avoidable red card, the clash with the refereeing establishment, the feeling that football stopped being what mattered amid cosmetic procedures, personal crusades and off-field appearances. A diagnosis making the rounds in blunt terms: "For a couple of seasons now he has been better known for what happens off the pitch; on it he has delivered very little, neither with Madrid nor with Brazil."
The sporting result is devastating. With Vinicius out of the starting eleven, the team has won matches that seemed impossible. **Espinete has scored four goals in 43 minutes played**, according to the fans' own calculation. The comparison with the Brazilian has become the most lethal argument against the club's management: "He scores more in ten minutes than the mandela in ten matches." The crowd, which booed the referee but not its own players after the shirt fiasco, is starting to turn its focus toward the directors' box.
Mourinho, a return that cannot hide the institutional decline
The return of **Mourinho** was sold as Florentino's last dance. The reality is less epic. The Portuguese coach has restored some of the team's pulse, has benched the untouchables and has found in **Güler** the most important player in the squad, according to some forum users: the only one who breaks pressing lines, links up the play and delivers the final pass, long-range shots and set pieces. But not even he can paper over a structural problem that runs from the pitch to the directors' box.
The criticism of the president is ferocious and spares no one. "We have a hysterical president who threw a tantrum over someone from ABC and threatened to cancel his subscription, like an old man in the Alcampo queue when a discount coupon has expired." The institution, they say, is in worse shape than the team: players fighting in the parking lot, others brawling with one ending up in hospital, a player caught drunk driving, schemes to leak videos. The club's story as a winning machine has fallen apart.
The recurring argument is that Madrid always competes with what it has and that the problem is not names but divas and hierarchies. "You can be an A-grade team playing A, and very limited playing B or C, or you can be a B-grade team playing A, B, C and D. Madrid has always been the latter. The problem is that now it barely scrapes a pass." With the right players they would reach a good grade. With this squad, a bare pass.
The referee, VAR and a narrative that no longer washes
No Madrid season makes sense without the refereeing chapter, and this one is no exception. Vinicius's red card, the yellow for Konaté, Güler's elbow on Peque that VAR did not review: every play becomes a weapon. Some claim VAR is only used in one direction, "always against Madrid and in favor of Barça," while others respond with data: Barcelona need 16 fouls to get an opponent booked, while Madrid only need 3. A statistical gap that, according to the harshest critics, demands an explanation.
The other side of the debate is the political use of grievance. "Three years of the zaineira hoax now and zero evidence of sporting corruption. Just cheap demagoguery and sociological Madridismo propaganda to indoctrinate the sheeple." The crossfire — some blame Barça, others Madrid, everyone blames the referee — has turned every matchday into a parallel trial where the actual result matters least. Meanwhile, the team keeps dropping points and the league drifts away.
The Bernabéu, a sardine tin without its soul
The fans are also in the spotlight. The stadium, converted into a venue for tourists and *fan boys*, no longer exerts the pressure it once did. "They don't understand Real Madrid's level of demand and act like fan boys of the players." The paradox is that the Bernabéu booed the referee after the disaster, but not Mbappé, Vinicius or Konaté for their role in the shirt affair. The rank-and-file Madrid fans watch in astonishment as their temple turns into a theme park.
The financial balance sheet offers no comfort either. **140 million on Diomande** to sit on the bench, **80 million for Rodri** when the signing was not needed, gold-plated renewals for underperforming players. The transfer policy reads like a flight forward: "This summer they'll sign another winger, another full-back and some old-timer available on a free, another puppet coach and off we go celebrating." Five blank seasons, they warn, is the most likely scenario. This is only the third.
The question nobody wants to answer out loud remains: if the problem is the president, the coach or the players, why does nobody make a move? Florentino's last dance looks less and less like a dance and more and more like a countdown. And the clock, in September, is already striking the final bars.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (6628 replies).
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