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| In It, to Win It? | 20 February 2026 |

· Yahoo Sports

The Daily Merengue is a place where you can feel free to d all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name! Shoutout to the mods who do a fantastic job, Ezek, Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Kung_Fu_Zizou

Arby’s Team ?

Arbeloa has been quietly going about his business while praising the players relentlessly in the media. The current run of results will boost confidence though given the season we’ve had thus far.. what’s in a mirage? The team has looked good t times, average at others and just unwatchable at others. The hope is that Arbeloa has found a balance for his approach.

Chaos

And out of the chaos..order emerges. This tends to be the story of our club. Right now, the drop in form from Barcelona has given Los Blancos a sniff. It has given that environment something for the players to cling to. They’re in a title race if they want it. There are 3 months left to play in the season. Everyday brings us closer to success or closer to failure. The players will have to decide. Not Arby.

Bosses In the Dressing Room

There are it seems, bosses in the dressing room. There will have to be bosses in the dressing room. Leaderless teams do not win. The senior players must stand up to be counted. This is not merely by age but more importantly by longevity of tenure at the club. The ones who must be the example. If this does not happen, the team will continue to crumble against formidable foes. Unfortunately we do not know when this maturity will come. We do not know when players will realise what it all means to be a leader and not merely liking the sound of it.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

When Xabi was sacked or even before he was sacked. I lamented that the players behaved like losers despite having shared the dressing room with class acts for years. I said this despite my criticism of Xabi and even finding nuance for the friction between Xabi and the players.
I stand by all that. The players got a good manager sacked even if Xabi himself should have done better in his approach to the dressing room. I hope he does so in future because he’s obviously a very talented manager.
Now, if we don’t win any silverware I’m still blaming Vinicius. The fact that he had the support of the dressing room over the manager says a lot about how his teammates see him and should remind us that he’s not some snot-nosed island trying to play Big man.. The players still look to him as some kind of reference even if not in the loud way that a Jude is talked about as a leader.

If we win silverware many will see it as vindication against Xabi but for me, the players simply have zero excuses. Can’t go through managers when you should be winning trophies. I said that if we’re gonna win trophies, it will be Vini stepping up. This is true even though Kylian is the better player. The simple reason being that even with Kylian playing well, we still need Vini. That is once Vini plays well, we look like winning titles whereas Kylian plays well all the time regardless. Same with the defence, when they play well, we look formidable. If they’re poor, then it doesn’t matter how well the forwards play. We will know we’re not winning anything this season.

Immaculately Articulate by Vincent Kompany

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