Why have Fulham opted for Alvaro Arbeloa?

Jack Stroudley looks at our incoming new manager.

Credit: IMAGO

Well, we seem to have our answer. Fulham look set to appoint Alvaro Arbeloa as manager following Marco Silva’s departure to Benfica, with reports of the Spaniard taking a two-year deal with an additional year as an extension.

There’s been a real mixed bag of opinions surrounding the former Real Madrid man, but what are the reasons that the Khans have landed at this decision?

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While all that matters is his managerial career, I will quickly go over what he did as a player, with the 43-year-old having some real skin in the game.

The full-back is best known for his two stints at Liverpool and Real Madrid in the late 2000s and early 2010s as well as a good international career for Spain, which included winning the 2010 World Cup as well as the 2008 and 2012 European Championships.

As a manager though, he is yet to have as much credit in the bank. Arbeloa returned to Madrid in 2020, where he was initially appointed as their U14s coach before making a step-up to U19 in 2022. He continued to rise through and took over at the Castilla from Raul in 2025.

The Castilla is Real Madrid’s B side, who play in the Segunda Division in Spain, where he was involved from May 2025 to January 2026 before taking over from Xabi Alonso after he was sacked by Madrid.

Arbeloa’s stint at Madrid was a mixed bag, which saw a dominant Champions League knockout result over Manchester City, but also saw a defeat to second-division Albacete in the Copa del Rey.

Madrid also finished off the pace in La Liga, six points off FC Barcelona, and Arbeloa announced he would step down after six months in a role which included eight defeats from 28 games.

How will we play?

As I’m sure many of you are, I didn’t really know a lot about Arbeloa from a coaching persepctive before having a look at writing this article, so I did some research online following his 5-1 win over Manchester City as well as interviews he did with ‘The Coaches Voice’ and analysis of his time at Real Madrid U19 to get a better idea of what Fulham fans can expect, here’s a summary of all three.

• Arbeloa will play a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 variation most of the time, especially during transition.

• He wants to use width as much as possible and is keen on getting crosses into the box quickly.

• Out of possession during that Manchester City game, Real Madrid dropped a 5-3-2 with one of the CMs (mainly Valverde) dropping in to provide additional support.

• He’s often seen screaming from the touchline, demanding his team to press quickly and in numbers to regain possession.

• He has described wanting his teams to be “full throttle”.

• Arbeloa credits Rafa Benitez, Jose Mourinho, Manuel Pellegrini and Carlo Ancelotti for the learning each of them gave him during his transition from player to manager.

All sounds pretty good in theory right?

It didn’t quite work out for him at Real Madrid, and I know there are the sceptics among us (and those scepticisms are completely understandable), but ultimately Arbeloa is a man with pedigree in Europe and while the positives remain that he will try and bring us attacking and exciting football, which tactically doesn’t look too dissimilar from Marco Silva, it does feel like one of those appointments that either goes fantastically, or he’s gone by November.

Did Fulham “really” want him?

Just to play devil’s advocate on this, was this really the plan? Did all roads seriously lead to Alvaro Arbeloa?

I’m not so sure. When speaking to Jack Kelly last week, Tony Khan said that Fulham didn’t really have a contingency plan and expected Marco Silva to stay - when he didn’t (as you will have known from the articles surrounding replacements), it seemed like there was a scattergun approach (which Khan confirmed in his JK interview, stating there were multiple people they were sounding out).

Ben Jacobs reported that “FFC also spoke to Ange Postecoglou, Thomas Frank, Kieran McKenna and Frank Lampard with Ruben Amorim also ruling himself out” and with Arne Slot also rejecting the job at the beginning of last week, that makes it seven managers Fulham publicly spoke to.

Now I’m not suggesting that Arbeloa was our seventh choice on that list, but the sheer contrast in names on there, both stylistically as well as what they’ve done in the game, is staggering.

I want to believe that Fulham really wanted Arbeloa, but I’m struggling. It was reported last week that all of Slot, McKenna and Frank had turned down the job; Ruben Amorim also ruled himself out, and Ange was interviewed alongside Arbeloa - by that logic, he’s at least fifth choice.

It all just seems a bit chaotic from Fulham, and with Arbeloa only being given a two-year-deal, it hardly suggests he has the full trust and support of the board.

We will all obviously back him come August, but the jury is understandably still out.