Steve McManaman knows what a winning Real Madrid season is supposed to feel like from the inside. He was in the dressing room for the Galácticos titles, alongside the names that still get recited on anniversaries. So when McManaman was asked at a LaLiga press conference this week what José Mourinho has been hired to do, the answer came back in one sentence and no hedging.
“He needs to win. It’s as simple as that. He needs to beat Barcelona. He needs to win the league,” the former winger said, in quotes carried by Managing Madrid. “I don’t necessarily think he needs to win the Champions League, but I certainly think he needs to finish above Barcelona.”
McManaman on the job description
Now a LaLiga ambassador and ESPN pundit, McManaman framed the appointment as a correction rather than a project. “He’s been brought in because the last two years have been disappointing,” he said. “Real Madrid can’t go three years without winning anything. And your nearest and dearest rivals are in Barcelona winning everything. So Jose has to hit the ground running and he has to be successful straight away. That’s what he’s being brought in for.”
The framing is his; the ledger is harder to argue with. Los Blancos finished 2025-26 without a trophy for the first time since 2020-21, Barcelona took the league and the Supercopa, and the Champions League ended at the quarter-final stage against Bayern Munich. Mourinho arrived in June on a contract to 2029 and was finally presented to the fans by the club on Tuesday.
The Makelele gap he keeps pointing at
Asked about a squad as talent-heavy as the one he played in, McManaman went straight past the famous names to the one nobody puts on a poster.
“When we won all those titles with the names you mentioned, we had an incredible number six in Claude Makélélé who really helped the midfield,” he said. “Real Madrid this year have tried to rectify that. I think they were weak defensively last year. He was the most important player in our team. Forget about Figo, Zidane, Raúl, Ronaldo. Zidane said the most important player was Makélélé.”
“Have tried to” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and Madridistas know exactly why. The summer’s designated fix was Rodri, and that pursuit collapsed before it properly started — the Manchester City midfielder ended up at Barcelona. What Madrid have instead is a rebuilt pivot rather than a signed-and-sealed holding midfielder: Bernardo Silva expected to start the season there, Tchouaméni back in the squad picture, and Fede Valverde reportedly earmarked for the deeper role. Whether one more arrives before 31 August is still, at the time of writing, the only file open at Valdebebas.
On Vinicius, and getting him to fit with Mbappe
McManaman was rather more relaxed about the summer’s other running story. “To be very honest, I never ever thought he would leave Real Madrid. I really didn’t,” he said of Vinícius Júnior. “I know there was a lot of stories in the English newspapers about Arsenal, but if you see Vinícius Júnior at Madrid, I thought most people think he was never going to leave. I don’t think he was ever going to go to Saudi Arabia. That didn’t make any sense at all for me. So his home is Madrid.”
He got his wish. McManaman referred to a new six-year contract, and Real Madrid’s renewal with Vinícius to 2032 was reported earlier this month by Fabrizio Romano and The Athletic’s David Ornstein; Mourinho’s own part in getting it over the line was not a small one. McManaman’s remaining question is the one every Madrid manager since 2024 has been handed. “The most important thing is for Vini and for Kylian to play in the same team, but each finds a role where they’re very comfortable in, and drive Madrid forward.”
On how the midfield actually balances, he was refreshingly honest: “The answer is I don’t know, because it’s hard to balance them out.” Nobody outside Valdebebas does yet. The first evidence arrives at Espanyol this weekend — and on McManaman’s terms, the marking starts immediately.
