7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marked 8.63 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Levante tried to reorganise, Real Madrid did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Kylian Mbappé was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lautaro Martínez provided it, and the 9.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Real Madrid and Espanyol in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Álvaro Carreras has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.55 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Player ratingsBrahim Díaz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Yan Diomandé, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Thibaut Courtois was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
10 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
6 goals in one match, Rodrygo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match10 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Real Madrid. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Kylian Mbappé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Athletic Bilbao made Real Madrid work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
111% of the income goes out in wages at Real Madrid
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nobody at Real Madrid will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Real Madrid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arda Güler is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Real Sociedad will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Real Madrid were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Marked 9.86 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Eduardo Camavinga has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Valencia will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Real Madrid were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jude Bellingham has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Valencia tried to reorganise, Real Madrid did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Real Madrid go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Thibaut Courtois was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniel Bravo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Juan Gil has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergio Sierra has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
8.35. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Real Madrid go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Real Madrid close the window on a squad of their own making
23 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Thibaut Courtois and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
11 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Real Madrid are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $77.3M has been paid because Lautaro Martínez is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Real Madrid asked and Deportivo La Coruña said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lautaro Martínez has just signed for Real Madrid, and for once the answer mattered.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vinícius Júnior. 2‑0 against Elche, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Vinícius Júnior was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.73. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Atlético Madrid on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Javier Montero on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The offer went to Inter this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Real Madrid asked and Porto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Athletic Bilbao wanted more than $20.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Madrid can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Vinícius Júnior was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.98. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The chase for Dani Vivian ended with $52.9M changing hands and Athletic Bilbao out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Real Madrid have gone to Benfica with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Real Madrid asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Real Madrid have gone to Athletic Bilbao with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dani Vivian is living that version at Real Madrid, and it tends to show in the first month.
Kylian Mbappé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Como keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Add another name to the list: Sevilla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dani Carvajal. The answer from Real Madrid has not changed — yet.
Real Madrid have gone to Athletic Bilbao with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Real Madrid asked and Athletic Bilbao said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Real Madrid heard it as anything else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Federico Valverde and Real Madrid agree another 5 years.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luken Flores has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
SquadReal Madrid are still strangers to each other
Transfer targetsA loan move for Jacobo Ramón is in the works
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Raúl Asencio
Real Madrid have gone to Inter with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Real Madrid go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Valencia for Vinícius Júnior was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The phone has started ringing about Eduardo Camavinga again, and this time the name on the line is Bayern Munich. Real Madrid are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thibaut Courtois and Real Madrid agree another 3 years.
Kylian Mbappé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.