After Jose Mourinho was recruited by Real Madrid for a second spell, Fulham manager Marco Silva replaced his countryman at Benfica, and the Los Blancos coach whom Mourinho took over from, Alvaro Arbeloa, moved to Craven Cottage to replace Silva.
Perfect opportunity for Real Madrid duo
The Spaniard is no stranger to the Premier League, having played for Liverpool between 2007 and 2009, and at West Ham to round off his playing career in 2016/17.
Given that both Harry Wilson and Raul Jimenez left the West Londoners this summer at the expiry of their contracts, one of Arbeloa's first jobs has to be replacing the pair, and with both Gonzalo Garcia and Franco Mastantuano both likely to only be handed cursory minutes across 2026/27 by Mourinho, Arbeloa has seen the perfect opportunity to raid his old club.
Though it isn't clear at this point if Los Blancos would be amenable to such a deal, and they definitely weren't at the start of the year, even if they wanted to retain the players' rights, surely a loan move at worst would be of obvious benefit to all concerned?
From Garcia's point of view, he is hamstrung by having the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr. ahead of him in the pecking order.
Garcia has already shown his goalscoring pedigree
The 22-year-old certainly showed his pedigree a year ago when playing for Real at the Club World Cup.
During that tournament, he plundered four goals to end it as the joint top scorer, despite the Spanish giants being knocked out before the final.
His physicality and positional awareness in the absence of Mbappe were certainly food for thought for the manager at the time, Xabi Alonso, too.
Across the season as a whole, although records will show he made 45 appearances, his cumulative 1,920 minutes were markedly lower than many of his colleagues, and yet his total of 12 goals and four assists were only topped by Mbappe and Vini Jr, who'd played 3,755 and 4,704 minutes respectively.
Best shot accuracy and completion rate
Garcia's shot accuracy of 64.71% and shot completion rate of 30% were actually better than anyone else in the squad, albeit Brahim Diaz's 72.73% shot accuracy would appear to be the best until you realise he only scored two goals across the campaign.
Conversely, a passing accuracy of 81.9% from Garcia was the worst of any outfield player, with only Thibaut Courtois' 77.5% being a worse showing.
A 41.08% one-on-one duel success doesn't sound awful until you realise that it is, again, one of the lower outputs in the squad, which is disappointing for a player with decent physical attributes
One can perhaps conclude that the lack of rhythm that comes with playing regularly could well be the root cause.
Mastantuono has long been tipped for the top
As for Mastantuono, the 18-year-old has long been tipped for the top, and it was only a year ago that Real saw fit to pay River Plate around £38m for his services.
However, like Garcia, the talented teen was never really given a run in the side that his enviable talent arguably deserved.
Of the 35 appearances made, they included just 1,484 minutes of action, one of the lowest amounts in the squad for those players who stayed injury-free and were available for selection.
Three goals is a very poor return on the face of it, and yet it was still the joint-seventh highest in the Real squad. He also hit the woodwork on four occasions, the same amount as Mbappe, and had he scored those chances, his figures would've improved immensely.
Hungry to prove themselves
668 passes attempted were over 200 more than Garcia, and his pass completion of 88.32% was a significant upgrade over his contemporary. Albeit there is still much room for improvement.
A 41.47% one-on-one success is only slightly better than Garcia's, and in a much more physical and aggressive league such as the English top-flight, this would be one area where Arbeloa would need to see better numbers.
What's strange is that when they did play for Real last season, both players looked well prepared to handle themselves physically, though their numbers wouldn't necessarily back that up.
What they would offer Arbeloa, of course, is the hunger that comes with not being given enough opportunities to showcase their skill set.
A learning curve is only to be expected, but there's nothing to suggest that the pair couldn't be a success in West London, were Real to accede to any switch, loan or otherwise.
Assuming they do, both Garcia and Mastantuono have the perfect chance to prove their current employers wrong.
Jason Pettigrove has been the features writer for Flashscore since 2025, utilising Opta data to form the basis of his articles. He has previously worked for high profile football clubs, news and media outlets, both in print and digital, and can usually be found watching FC Barcelona when time permits. You can read more of his pieces here.
