Alvaro Arbeloa: the big gamble

Will betting the house on the Spanish World Cup winner pay off for the Khans?

Credit: IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire

Nearly a month after the first rumours surfaced, Fulham decided that 11:45 pm on a school night was a good time to announce Àlvaro Arbeloa as our new manager.

Peculiar timing, but it probably indicates just how much of the major decision-making is actually conducted over in the USA, with Khan’s advisors probably closely scrutinising every word of that final press release before giving the go-ahead to the UK to publish.

Obviously, it is just a relief to have somebody through the door. This saga (and it was a saga) had dragged on far too long and there is no doubt that appointing a manager with so much of the summer already wasted will mean that the club has some serious catching up to do.

From the moment that this appointment was first rumoured, I have expressed concern at this decision. The reason is pretty obvious. Is a six-month glorified caretaker spell at Real Madrid enough senior experience to lead a team in the inferno of the Premier League?

Jack Collins made the point that if you appointed an equivalent manager from England there would likely be uproar. Swap the name Real Madrid for, let’s say, Manchester United and change the name Alvaro Arbeloa to let’s say Matt Upson, would we be as quick to accept this? Probably not.

To clarify, I don’t care about ‘Premier League’ experience, but it’s a long time since any of our competitors made an appointment like this where there is almost no body of work to judge previously. Keith Andrews was at least very familiar with the Brentford set-up and your Hurzelers and your Iraloas had several years of experience abroad under the belts. Arteta had worked for several years as Guardiola’s assistant.

Of course, every manager has to be given their first chance by somebody. If Arbeloa was appointed by a La Liga, a Ligue 1 or a Bundesliga club, nobody would bat an eyelid. It’s just that gambles like this don’t get taken very often in the English top flight.

There has been a lot of time since that first rumour to do some digging and get some other perspectives on Arbaloa. Highly respected Spanish journalist Guillem Balague wrote a fantastic long-tweet explaining Arbeloa’s philosophy.

I’d highly recommend giving it a full-read, but Guillem explains how Arbeloa wants to give youth a pathway and also he wants his teams to have a clear identity of “possession, high pressing and intensity”.

Also, Real Madrid fans speak highly of Arbeloa and don’t seem to necessarily pin blame on him for what happened in the latter part of last season. I always find hearing from fans of previous clubs to be a useful barometer and this Reddit thread on the Real Madrid sub-reddit was a particularly interesting read, I’ve screenshotted a couple of my favourite responses below.

Experience is obviously the box that Arbeloa doesn’t tick, but promoting youth and playing entertaining football is definitely two big boxes that are important. For all the talk of Oliver Glasner and Thomas Frank, their identities are a complete overhaul from the style we played under Marco Silva.

Already, links are being made with Real Madrid players that Arbeloa wants to bring to the football club. According to Nizaar Kinsella, he wants to bring in 18-year-old winger Franco Mastantuono on loan, as well as full-back Fran Garcia and forward Gonzalo Garcia on permanent deals.

Clearly, having Arbeloa is going to mean a direct line to the Bernabéu. ‘We’re Not Real Madrid’ is how the song goes, but maybe it’s not so true anymore.

All in all, this is a big gamble - there’s no other way to dress this up. Shahid Khan and Tony Khan clearly must have been impressed by Arbeloa’s vision during the interview process, but it is surprising to see them bet the house in such a big way, which hasn’t tended to be their modus operandi in recent years.

At least if we can record a win against Chelsea on matchday one, it will be a gamble with an instant pay-out.