José Mourinho on Tchouameni and Valverde's Transformation

José Mourinho insists he has not had to play peacemaker between Aurélien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde, despite the bad blood that scarred their relationship last season and left one of them in hospital.

The pair clashed twice in May, one incident ending with Valverde suffering a head injury and a night under observation. At that point, their partnership looked broken beyond repair, a fault line running straight through Real Madrid’s midfield.

Summer changed everything.

Tchouameni signed a new contract. Valverde took the armband after Dani Carvajal’s departure. The hierarchy shifted, the dressing-room chemistry with it. On the eve of Madrid’s meeting with Rayo Vallecano, Mourinho painted a picture of a squad that has rebuilt itself from within.

“Look, I haven't done anything. They've done everything themselves,” he said, almost amused at the idea he had to intervene. He spoke of empathy, of friendship, of players furious at being substituted yet still roaring on the teammate who replaces them. “The group is fantastic.”

From friction to embrace

The truce wasn’t just a line for the cameras. It played out on the pitch in Europe.

In Madrid’s recent Champions League win over Inter Milan, Tchouameni made his first appearance of the season after returning from World Cup duty. He came on late, replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold, and when the final whistle went, he went straight to Valverde. The two men embraced. No theatrics. Just a quiet, public confirmation that the feud had been buried.

Mourinho admitted he had prepared himself for the opposite scenario when his internationals returned.

“If I knew nothing, if I walked into the dressing room without knowing anything about the situation, I'd think they were great friends,” he explained. After the World Cup, he watched them closely, ready to step in if old tensions resurfaced. “I was obviously paying attention to see whether I needed to act as a peacekeeper, but I didn't have to do anything.”

The coach who built a career on controlling every detail has, in this case, simply stepped back and let the dressing room govern itself.

Mourinho’s shield around Vinicius

With the midfield storm apparently over, Mourinho turned to another recurring Madrid storyline: Vinicius Jr. and the scrutiny that follows him.

The Brazilian ended a summer of speculation by signing a long-term deal through 2032, a contract that underlined his status as one of the club’s pillars. The start of his season, though, has been subdued. One goal in five games across all competitions is a modest return for a forward of his stature and past impact.

Questions have followed. Mourinho is having none of it.

“The best Vinicius is coming soon,” he insisted. He evoked last season’s version, the one who turned a nervous Bernabeu night against Benfica into his own stage, the one who decided ties on his own. “The Vinicius who won matches single-handedly hasn't arrived yet. But he will.”

The coach leaned on numbers, but not in the usual sterile way. In what he called an era of data and statistics, he argued the underlying signs are already there. Vinicius, he said, is running faster, harder, smarter.

“He's very close to his top speed. He's broken his records for high-intensity sprints, records for ball recoveries, for ball recoveries in the final third... He's coming.”

The message was clear: judge the process, not just the goals column.

“You only throw stones at trees that bear fruit”

The tone sharpened when Mourinho addressed the criticism pouring in from parts of the Spanish media. He bristled at the idea that a player who has already shaped an era at Madrid should be dissected so aggressively after a quiet month.

Vinicius is 26 and already owns three La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues and two FIFA Club World Cups with Madrid, alongside a stack of other honours. In Mourinho’s eyes, that level of success inevitably attracts fire.

He reached for a phrase from home to make his point.

“In Portugal there's a proverb, I don't know if it's the same in Spain, ‘you only throw stones at trees that bear fruit.’” Then he turned the saying directly onto his No 7. “What has Vini done here in recent years? How many Champions Leagues has he won? How many goals has he scored? He's a tree with plenty of fruit. And people throw stones because they want fruit.”

The line landed like a challenge as much as a defence. The internal conflicts are cooling, the captain’s armband has a new owner, and Mourinho is standing squarely in front of his star forward.

Now it is up to Vinicius, and this newly united dressing room, to show just how much fruit is left on that tree.