Real Madrid News
Tchouameni opens up on fight with Valverde: ‘The only thing that bothered me…’
Real Madrid’s recent season was a queer one on many fronts, but perhaps the biggest of them all was the constant internal tussles in the dressing room.
At times, it was a rift between the president and the manager, and if not that, it was one between the manager and the players.
To top it all off, there were innumerable instances of players themselves having internal clashes for a plethora of reasons, and one of the instances that best exemplified that gap was the fight between Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde late in the season.
Tchouameni calls out the media for fabricated news
On duty with the French national team, Aurelien Tchouameni was recently reminded of his altercation and clash with Federico Valverde and was asked what his personal learnings were from the entire saga.
Rightfully so, the player first pointed the gun at the media and used the chance to openly call them out for fabricating news to their liking.
“What did I learn from the incident with Fede Valverde? As I said, the only thing that bothered me was the fabricated stories that came out compared to what really happened.”
Elaborating on the damaging effects of the press and how the dressing room situation was very different from what was presented, Tchouameni said,
“That’s something I can’t control, the press is inventing stuff every day. The most important thing is that we keep calm and serenity in the locker room.”
On his learnings from the incident
The player then arrived on the topic of his learnings from the entire saga and how problems are always magnified.
“The lessons? It’s that no matter what’s going on in your life, the problem is never as big as you think it is. Today we’re talking about this, tomorrow we’ll talk about something else.”
He also commented on the chaos that ensued after the event and how he just had to wait for the storm to pass and normalcy to resume.
“You just have to get through those two or three days when there’s a lot of uproar. This story blew up so much that for the first two or three days, we felt like it would never end.”
Finally, the defensive midfielder declared truce with his teammate and stated that he was open to working with the Uruguayan star despite all the recent events.
“I’m prepared to keep working with Fede Valverde and with him until the end.”
Source: L’Equipe
Real Madrid will be looking to pick up their fifth win of the 2026/27 La Liga season when they take on Elche CF at Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero later tonight.
With 12 points from five games, Los Blancos are currently second in the league table, three points below leaders FC Barcelona.
As such, the Spanish capital club will be eager to get the win and close the gap to the top.
Guler starts, Bellingham rested
Ahead of kickoff, Real Madrid have announced the starting lineup that will take the field against Elche, with Jose Mourinho making some important changes.
For starters, Arda Guler is back in the lineup after appearing as a substitute in the win over Rayo Vallecano.
Interestingly, however, he starts in the attacking midfield role, with Mourinho opting to rest Jude Bellingham, who has started all of Real Madrid’s games so far.
That also means that Yan Diomande retains his place in the team, starting for a second time in a row on the right wing. Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr. continue in their respective positions in attack.
Another notable change sees Aurelien Tchouameni make his first start of the season after recovering from injury and making two appearances off the bench.
He replaces Bernardo Silva as Federico Valverde’s partner in the middle of the park.
Meanwhile, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Marc Cucurella come in as full-backs, while Ibrahima Konate and Dean Huijsen slot in at centre-back in front of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
📋✅ ¡Nuestro XI inicial!
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) September 15, 2026
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