Mourinho says ‘spoilt’ Real Madrid players sparked dressing-room conflict

Jose Mourinho has revealed that what he considered a privileged attitude among some Real Madrid players helped trigger the dressing-room conflict that overshadowed his first spell at the club.

The Portuguese coach, whose appointment as Real Madrid manager was confirmed in June this year, is returning to the Santiago Bernabeu after a first tenure marked by intense disputes with several senior players, most notably the club’s legendary captain Iker Casillas.

Mourinho’s return has revived memories of the tensions that fractured the Spanish club during his third season in charge, when Casillas lost his regular place in the starting line-up despite his status as one of Real Madrid’s most important figures.

Casillas made 725 appearances for Real Madrid over 25 years, winning three UEFA Champions League titles and five La Liga championships. However, his role diminished during the 2012-13 season, as his relationship with Mourinho became increasingly strained.

“The relationship between Jose and me was extremely cold,” Casillas said. “In those years, I genuinely believe things eventually reached the point where the rope snapped.”

The dispute went beyond the manager and goalkeeper, with former Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira saying it affected the mood of the entire squad.

“Iker is a legend at Real Madrid and is loved by every supporter of the club. Mourinho put him on the bench, he did not speak to him and he even spoke badly about him in the media; so the dressing room became a nightmare, honestly,” said Khedira.

“After that, Jose’s relationship with many players deteriorated, such as Cristiano and the Spanish players, Casillas and Sergio Ramos. Those players were hugely important to the atmosphere in the dressing room.”

Khedira’s account underlined how individual disagreements developed into a wider breakdown in trust between Mourinho and several of Real Madrid’s established leaders. The atmosphere was among the factors that affected Mourinho’s third season, when the club failed to match the success achieved in the campaigns before it.

Mourinho’s account

Mourinho has offered a very different explanation for the deterioration in his relationship with Casillas and the Spanish players. His version of events features in a new Netflix documentary series about his managerial career.

The 63-year-old believes Casillas’ early interactions with him as captain revealed an attitude he was unwilling to accept within the squad.

“In the first three times I spoke to Casillas as captain, the first thing he said to me was: I want to ask for more holidays for the national team players,” Mourinho said, in comments reported by BBC Sport.

“The second time he spoke to me, he said: I would like to ask you to delay the training sessions by one hour, because traffic in Madrid is very heavy at the time you had scheduled training.”

Mourinho continued: “The third time, he said: We do not want to go to the hotel; we prefer to meet on match day and go directly to the stadium to play the game.”

Those exchanges led Mourinho to believe that some members of the Real Madrid squad felt their status entitled them to special treatment, something that conflicted with his demanding approach to management.

“Within a short period, I realised they were spoilt players,” he concluded.

The disagreement between Mourinho and Casillas was also shaped by the historic rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona. During Mourinho’s time in charge, the competition reached one of its most hostile periods, with the rivalry between Mourinho and Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola intensifying as El Clasico encounters became increasingly heated on and off the pitch.

The tension also affected relationships between players in the Spain national team, where several Real Madrid and Barcelona stars played together. Casillas said he had another disagreement with Mourinho over the manager’s attitude towards his Spain team-mates who represented Barcelona, adding another layer to their already difficult relationship.

Mourinho made it clear that he was not prepared to soften his stance in the rivalry between the two clubs, even when the players involved were international team-mates.

“There are things I do not accept and will never accept, and when someone does not respect me, that is a problem,” Mourinho said.

“I say: this is the conflict between Barcelona and Real Madrid. When you join the national team, you can kiss each other, but not now; here, it is like war.”

The dispute between Mourinho and Casillas consequently became one of the most controversial episodes in Real Madrid’s modern history, combining selection decisions, management disagreements and the fierce rivalry with Barcelona.

Now, as Mourinho begins a second spell at the club, those memories have returned to the spotlight. The Portuguese manager starts his new tenure fully aware of the challenges ahead and of how strongly that turbulent first period remains in the minds of Real Madrid supporters.