José Mourinho walked into Real Madrid’s Valdebebas training centre on Friday, a full three days before the squad’s official pre-season medicals, and immediately cast his return in the language of a crusade. “This is like a mission,” he told the club’s in-house television channel, his first public words since succeeding Álvaro Arbeloa in June. “I am not worried about myself, or if I will win a lot or a little. I am here to help everyone to be better — players, staff — to create a culture of work, responsibility, ambition.” The 63-year-old, who led the club to a Liga title and Copa del Rey between 2010 and 2013, had already been working remotely with the sporting structure, he said, and arrived to “control everything done and pending.”

Viewed from Madrid, the appointment is a direct response to a dressing room that unravelled across two trophyless campaigns. Xabi Alonso departed the bench in January, and in May a training-ground altercation between midfielders Aurélien Tchouaméni and Fede Valverde left the Uruguayan requiring hospital treatment. Neither Alonso nor Arbeloa found a tactical formula that allowed Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Vinícius Júnior to coexist without the side losing balance. Across the Middle East and Africa, the narrative has coalesced around president Florentino Pérez’s attempt to reimpose order, with Mourinho’s first stint — defined by a siege mentality that challenged Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona — serving as the template.

In Portugal, the focus has been on the resources placed at his disposal. The club has already confirmed the arrivals of Marc Cucurella, Denzel Dumfries, Ibrahima Konaté and Bernardo Silva, a quartet the Brazilian press has labelled “new galácticos.” Brazilian forward Endrick also returns from a six-month loan at Lyon. Mourinho will begin work on Monday with a skeleton group: Andriy Lunin, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dean Huijsen, Eduardo Camavinga, Gonzalo and Franco Mastantuono are the only established first-team players available, while Éder Militão, Ferland Mendy and Rodrygo continue rehabilitation programmes. The coach has signalled he will use the window to scrutinise Castilla prospects.

Pre-season friendlies against Fiorentina and in the Teresa Herrera Trophy are already fixed, and Mourinho’s contract runs until the summer of 2029. His first competitive test will be to weld a squad of high-wattage individuals into a unit capable of challenging on all fronts, a task he framed with a characteristic inversion: “It is not about working at Real Madrid, it is working for Real Madrid.”