Real Madrid’s players must now be at Valdebebas a full hour before every training session, and anyone who misses that window is sent to work alone in the gym rather than being fined. It is one of three tightened protocols Jose Mourinho has reportedly introduced since arriving in July, and every squad member is bound by it regardless of profile.

The Portuguese coach was reappointed on 11 June 2026 in an official Real Madrid announcement, 13 years after his first spell ended, and joined the squad when preseason opened on 13 July.

Three rules, no exceptions

According to Sports Illustrated, Mourinho has introduced a set of non-negotiable standards covering nutrition, punctuality and recovery.

The club’s nutritionist now sets the menus for breakfast and the afternoon snack. Player choice is gone. Injury rehabilitation must be carried out at Valdebebas under club medical staff, closing off the private clinics and external specialists that had crept in.

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The third rule replaces the traditional fine for latecomers with something more public: no team session for the offender, only a solo workout inside the facility while the rest of the squad trains together.

‘The atmosphere is very, very good’

The response inside the dressing room has been warmer than expected, according to reporting picked up across several outlets.

“The atmosphere is very, very good,” one source told Sports Illustrated, describing a group that has been pulled closer by the tightened routine rather than pushed apart.

A separate account from Roundtable’s Joshua Waite, citing club insiders, added that Mourinho “wants to strengthen team spirit and unity, and it is going in a way that is generating excitement.”

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The club underlined the point by having the entire squad and staff photographed eating together, a scene that had not been part of the Real Madrid routine in recent seasons.

Back at Madrid, 13 years on

Real Madrid open their LaLiga campaign at the RCDE Stadium on Saturday, 22 August. Kick-off is at 9:30pm local time, with the schedule confirmed by the club last month. The scheduled matchday-one fixture against Real Sociedad was pushed back because of World Cup commitments, making Espanyol Mourinho’s first competitive game of his second spell.

The backdrop is heavier than a routine season opener. His first Real Madrid era, from 2010 to 2013, produced a record-breaking LaLiga title but ended in bitter feuds and dressing-room fractures. He arrives now to a club that Al Jazeera describes as being on a two-season trophy drought, with the reset already visible in what the players eat and when they turn up.

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