Former Real Madrid youngster compares coach to Pep Guardiola, backs him to replace Carlo Ancelotti | OneFootball

In recent days, it has come out that Iker Bravo will not be staying at Real Madrid beyond his current loan spell, which expires at the end of this month. Los Blancos had the opportunity to sign the 19-year-old striker on a permanent basis from Bayer Leverkusen, but they have opted against triggering the buy clause in their loan agreement with the Bundesliga champions.

Bravo has spent the last two seasons at Real Madrid, although neither campaign proved to be overly fruitful. 2023-24 started with promise, but earlier this year, he was demoted from Castilla to the U19s, having been unfancied by Raul Gonzalez.

Bravo did thrive in the U19s, and he developed a great relationship with his head coach, Alvaro Arbeloa. The teenager believed that Arbeloa has the potential to be Real Madrid manager in the future, as he told Marca.

“Arbeloa knows a lot about football. To make you understand and without comparison, he is a bit like Guardiola, in the sense of being a football ‘madman’. He understands tactics very well, knowing how to press and looking for ways to attack depending on how the opponent plays. Above all, that emotional intelligence of knowing how to manage players, a dressing room like that of the first team would lead it to perfection. And he also knows the club very well. Right now Ancelotti is doing very well, but in a few years I see him in the first team.

“I would like to thank Arbeloa in capital letters for everything he has done for me. He wasn’t going to teach me how to shoot, but he was going to teach me how to handle frustrations, how to handle myself in a locker room or how to act.”

Arbeloa is rated very highly within Real Madrid, and he is sure to have a realistic chance of being first team manager in the future. It may not come when Ancelotti steps aside, as the expectation is that Xabi Alonso could be arriving from Leverkusen, the opposite route that Bravo will take this summer.