Twenty minutes, then fifteen, then thirty
That is all Yan Diomande has played since arriving at Real Madrid. Three appearances, 65 minutes in total. For a transfer worth around 140 million euros, that is already raising eyebrows in the Spanish capital.
Jose Mourinho has heard the chatter. On Sunday night, after the 4-0 demolition of Malaga, the Portuguese coach shut it down in his press conference.
“Calm down. He has to move forward step by step.” The message was clear.
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A coach who refuses to read the price tag
Mourinho said something few coaches will ever admit in public. He refused to look at the transfer fee.
“I cannot look at his transfer price. I have to look at a young player with huge potential, who has only had one season at the top level in the Bundesliga with Leipzig,” he said.
The logic stacks up. Diomande is coming off just one full season in Germany. One. And he has walked into a dressing room where trophies are expected before lessons. The coach also had a word on the Ivorian’s attitude: he works hard, listens, is open and humble. That is not throwaway praise when it comes from him.
The trap of record fees
“Usually, when you talk about a fee that high, you are talking about a player who arrives and blows everyone away from day one. That is not the case here.”
That is the line that will stick. Mourinho laid out the gap between the price tag and the reality on the pitch, and he did not try to dress it up.
He added that Diomande was too young and still too naive. Two words that sting in the moment. Two words that, at a club where patience is measured in weeks, also work as a shield.
Bellingham and Mbappe are in the way
Real are rolling for now. Bellingham and Mbappe are leading the Madrid attack and did the damage against Malaga. Diomande waits behind them, getting longer cameos, but nothing decisive yet.
Whether Mourinho was protecting a teenager or buying himself time is the question nobody in Madrid will drop.
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