Mauricio Pochettino is on the list of Real Madrid coach candidates next season

JAKARTA - Real Madrid has included Mauricio Pochettino in the list of candidates to replace Alvaro Arbeloa next season.

The LaLiga giant has begun to look for a coach ahead of the summer, which is expected to be marked by major structural changes. It is predicted that this can affect several parties responsible for the transfer market.

Los Blancos announced the signing of Arbeloa to replace Xabi Alonso on January 12, 2026, but it was never explained how long his contract was.

The former Real Madrid and Liverpool player is highly regarded at the Santiago Bernabeu for his work with the academy side, but ESPN report he was never really considered a long-term solution.

Real Madrid have failed to turn things around in Arbeloa's first few months as coach and he needs a miracle or Champions League win to have any chance of remaining on the bench next season.

Real Madrid could even offer him another position to stay at the club and even give him the option to return to his old role as Castilla coach (reserve team).

ESPN further said that Real Madrid is evaluating various candidates to lead the new project and Pochettino is one of the coaches highly valued by President Florentino Perez.

He has been heavily linked with a move back to Spurs this summer despite his former side having endured a poor season and being in the midst of a relegation battle in the Premier League.

The current coach of the United States National Team (Timnas) - whose contract runs until the 2026 World Cup this summer - has previously been linked with a job at Real Madrid after leading Tottenham Hotspur to the Champions League final in 2019.

Pochettino, who knows LaLiga well from his playing days, has experience coaching top players during his time at Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain, and Chelsea.

However, one of the points most valued by Real Madrid is that he coached Kylian Mbappe for two seasons in Paris.

Pochettino won three titles with Mbappe at PSG - Ligue 1, the French Cup (Coupe de France), and the French Super Cup (Trophee des Champions). However, he failed to win the Champions League, losing in the semi-finals to Manchester City in 2021 and in the last 16 against Real Madrid in 2022.

Arbeloa's position is not the only one under threat at the club ahead of what is expected to be a very busy summer at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Real Madrid invested more than 170 million pounds during last summer's transfer window after a trophy-less season, but some of the players recruited have not reached the level of performance required.

In this case, ESPN wrote that Real Madrid's talent scout, Juni Calafat, was another person whose position was questioned.

June was previously praised for recruiting young talent such as Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo, Eder Militao, and Jude Bellingham. However, it is still unclear how the performance of last summer's recruits - Franco Mastantuono, Dean Huijsen, and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Perez and the Brazilian head of talent scouting have a very good relationship, but this will not be enough to ensure the continuation of his career at the Santiago Bernabeu if the team returns without a title for the second consecutive season.

Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp, Unai Emery, and Massimiliano Allegri have also been linked with Real Madrid by several Spanish media in recent weeks, not least the return of Zinedine Zidane who is reportedly still Florentino's biggest desire.

However, Zidane is rumored to have agreed to take over the French National Team (Timnas) after the 2026 World Cup.