Sid Lowe

in changing the culture at Real Madrid, how closely connected he was to Mourinho at a time, and I'm sure a lot of our viewers will remember this, in which, actually, Real Madrid became quite divided in terms of the relationship with Mourinho.

And there were some within the squad who very much weren't on his side and some who very much were, and Abelard was at the front of that.

And so I think in that sense, it was Mourinho essentially saying, as he says quite clearly there, you know, this is Real Madrid, a club of whom he's still very fond.

This is Arbeloa, someone of whom he's very fond.

And he mentioned Chendo there, who of course is the matchday delegate at Real Madrid, a former player, a former fullback, who's still on the bench at Real Madrid.

And so I think Mourinho was right to say sorry.

And I suppose, as Stevie says, in a way, there is a reason to say sorry, because no one likes to see the other manager do that.

But to be perfectly honest, I think he's also right to say that Arbeloa would have understood it.

Because when your goalkeeper scores in the 97th minute, of course you're going to go a little bit crazy.

Yeah, and I think you have to look at Arbaloa's comments in that context as well.

Of course, Arbaloa is a coach who's taken over from Xabi Alonso and the Xabi Alonso era partly went badly because there wasn't really a connection with the players.

And I think Arbaloa has been very, very conscious that one of the things he has to do is effectively put himself at the disposal of the players, is effectively protect the players at all costs.

And so that's why you see him after the defeat at Albacete and the defeat in Lisbon say, it's my responsibility.

And yet it's also why when they go and win Villarreal and play pretty well, he says, these are the best players in the world.

These guys were well up for it.

They were really good today.

They're the best.

And, you know, we're just trying to get the kind of the environment right.

And so I think his message has to be seen, I think, in that context of who it's been consumed by.

And it's been consumed by the public, of course, but it's also been consumed by his own players.