The eternal contender. Raúl González Blanco, a legend at Real Madrid, has been coaching Castilla, the club’s reserve team, for a long time, waiting for his chance. This summer, with the change of coach at the Santiago Bernabéu and speculation about an interim manager taking charge of the team, the club chose Solari over the reserve team coach, leading many to speculate about his departure from the club.
The coach has been enigmatic when talking about his future. For the moment, Raúl has not confirmed that he will continue at the helm of the reserve team and has said that he is “ready for any challenge” on the bench. “It’s been a great year. In every way. It’s not easy to be last on matchday 10, almost last on matchday 20, and now we’re almost in the promotion playoffs. On a personal level, every day I feel more confident and prepared for any challenge. Any challenge is any challenge. And that’s what’s on my mind,” he said at a press conference.
“The future is the future. And I can’t predict it. Now we have one game left on Saturday and we have to prepare as best we can. Then it will be time to make decisions, talk and see what happens in the future,” said Raúl, who has come close to playing in the promotion playoffs with the Whites’ reserve team, which will continue in the Primera RFE next season.
Raúl spoke about the future coach, although he did not want to mention the name of Xabi Alonso, who will arrive at Real Madrid to replace Carlo Ancelotti, when asked which players from the youth team he would recommend for his project. “I still don’t know who is coming, although we all have our guesses. And if that’s the case, he has the ability and knowledge of what this club is all about. He will know exactly what to look for,” he said.
In recent months, there has been talk that Arbeloa, who has been very successful with the youth team, was looking to make the jump to Real Madrid Castilla, which left Raúl González Blanco’s future up in the air. We will have to see what happens next week when the season officially comes to an end and decisions have to be made. The Castilla coach has had suitors in recent seasons looking to make the leap to managing a team in the top flight.