The bonds that tie Arbeloa and Alonso - and why they call each other 'Truffles'

Anyone who’s studied Alvaro Arbeloa’s career closely probably imagined he’d be a shoo-in for the Fulham job almost immediately after Xabi Alonso moved to work for Chelsea in west London.

The former Deportivo La Coruna, Liverpool, Real Madrid, West Ham United and Spain defender has made a distinct habit of following his close friend’s footsteps.

To Anfield three seasons after Alonso, first capped for Spain when Alonso had played for La Roja, as the national team is known, nearly 50 times - then consecutively into the Real Madrid academy coaching system (two years after his pal) and the first-team hot seat when “Los Blancos” sacked Alonso as first-team coach last January.

Watch Arbeloa's Premier League highlights

Probably the only times Alonso had to do the reverse and study Arbeloa ahead of him was when he was several days later in signing for Madrid and also when they both decided to make a weekend of running the "La Behobia to San Sebastian 20km race” in November 2017 and Fulham’s new manager crossed the line in 1:16:53, almost nine minutes faster than his friend’s 1:25.41.

It’s a friendship which can be measured by much more than the fact that they share a semi-derogatory nickname for one another (“Truffles” - but more of that later) because it has endured through tough times.

So it feels like destiny that their first match as Premier League managers will come against each other on Monday 24 August, as Arbeloa's Fulham host Alonso's Chelsea in a west London derby.

Nobody should think that 43-year-old Arbeloa is Boy Robin to Alonso’s Batman.

Fulham have hired a tough, diligent, intelligent and characterful man.

He’ll win matches and he’ll win admirers. And he’ll ruffle feathers.

The media will notice that this is a guy who’s studied journalism and knows how the media functions.

You’d be a fool to show anything other than respect for someone who played in all three of Spain’s record-breaking Euros-World Cup-Euros run of trophies between 2008-2012. But there were hints in Arbeloa’s career about how absolute diligence, intensity of preparation and the need to complement innate ability with earned experience might translate into an ability to coach.

His time at the Madrid academy marked him down as a good teacher of promising talents and someone that the demanding, dominating football corporation marked down as a shining prospect.

Yes, he won trophies. But while that’s not as straightforward as it sounds, given that Madrid’s youth system isn’t as all-conquering as one might suppose. His “Juvenil” (youth) team won the treble of available trophies (going unbeaten the entire league campaign); it was only the second time the club had ever achieved that.

In the latter stages of his youth team coaching career, he often, although not exclusively, used a 4-3-3 formation while, in charge of Madrid’s senior team, Arbeloa variously used 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 - top dog he wants to be, dogmatic he is not.

For those who want to extrapolate conclusions from Arbeloa’s work, first with the earliest youth levels, then the under-15s and then under-17s then the B team at Madrid, I’d argue it’s better to look at the footballing health of the pupils he brought through rather than simply the wealth of trophies won.

Two good, but under-the-radar examples are Nico Paz and Jacobo Ramon, who jointly played over 70 times for Cesc Fabregas’s Como this season in Serie A, helping to take the Italian club to the UEFA Champions League for the first time ever. Both Paz and Ramon worked under Arbeloa’s tutelage while in what Madrid call “La Fabrica” (their youth system, or “The Factory”).

It’s extremely noteworthy that on taking over from Alonso, Arbeloa became responsible for the greatest influx of young talent into Madrid’s first team in living memory.

Los Blancos’ first team was suddenly populated by a clutch of home-bred teenagers: Thiago Pitarch (18 years old), Dani Yanez (18), Jorge Cestero (19), Victor Valdepenas (18), Diego Aguado (19), while Cesar Palacios (21) and Manuel Angel (22) were also hauled up from the B team and given debuts.

What stood out was how “ready” they all were. Football mature, calm, confident in their use of the ball and far from cowed by the always fervent but, at that time, fevered atmosphere around Madrid’s Valdebebas training centre and match nights at the club’s imposing Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

After his kids contributed to a big win over Elche in LaLiga, Arbeloa told Real Madrid TV: “For someone like me, who came up through Madrid’s youth system and reached the first team, I think I can die happy thanks to a night like this!

“After the match I was talking to Yanez and Aguado, who were the first players I began to coach in our Academy - when they were 13 or 14!

“To be able to give them their chance at the Bernabeu is a dream come true for me.

"Add to that ….Thiago, Cesar, Gonzalo... the feeling is almost indescribable. I'm so happy and proud. It's not just about putting them in, but how they played!

“It seems I've taught them well, because they've shown so much talent, quality, and personality.”

A couple of those kids produced important roles in the four big wins of Arbeloa’s short reign at Madrid - defeats of his mentor Jose Mourinho and Benfica in the Champions League, plus the stellar knockout of Manchester City by a Madrid side which had been chaotic in the weeks prior to those high points.

Was his time in charge perfect? Absolutely not - but he showed managerial nous and was running the first team at one of the most difficult, febrile points in recent decades at the club.

Arbeloa won his three national team trophies in a side with Fernando Torres up front, and the two men did their coaching badges simultaneously under the control of the Spanish FA and UEFA. But did that prevent them clashing pretty ferociously when respective coaches of Atletico and Real Madrid's youth teams?

No, there was no love lost - just as there isn’t between Arbeloa and either Gerard Pique or Iker Casillas.

But the elite coaches aren’t in the game to make friends - although it’s pretty likely that the bond Arbeloa and Alonso enjoy will be stretched, but unbroken, when Chelsea and Fulham meet on the opening weekend of this season.

“Truffles?” I hear you ask.

It comes from when Alonso and Arbeloa were doing a passing drill at Liverpool and the Basque Alonso yelled at his pal Arbeloa about what “Trufas” he was sending him - literally "Truffles" but a very colloquial way of saying, ‘You’re sending me garbage passes!”

When Alonso took the Madrid job last summer the nickname saw the light of day when Arbeloa posted on X: “Congratulations, Truffles. You’ve only just begun, and you’re already making history. Your home awaits you.”

It didn’t work out - for either of them really - but life, and football, has served them up a similar road towards their destinies, again.

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