Mixed feeling about this. He was doing a great job with the national team, so it's unfortunate that he's leaving so soon... on the other hand, this could work for Real Madrid, as he knows the club, all of the Spanish players and Casemiro (coached him at Porto).
Anyone who has read my posts about la Roja here knows I'm a fan of his work... he did a fantastic job coaching the U-19s and U-21s, and has now successfully rebuilt the senior team, earning great results in the qualifiers and displaying some really nice and intense football. He's still unproven in big competitions, but alas, he just hasn't had the chance yet as the WC hasn't started. I really hope this doesn't cause distraction in the team.
The only bad thing is that he failed in his only club experience, at Porto. Obviously coaching a national team and a club is very different, but I hope that now that he's more experienced and knows the club and players of Real Madrid, he will be able to coach is with similar success to the one he has been achieving with la Roja. Honestly, I think I prefer him over Pocchettino given the circumstances (Lopetegui is very close to many of our players, etc), and most of the other top managers weren't really viable options anyway. And of course, this is way better than Guti or Míchel, which I hope the press was trolling when they were saying they were candidates.
Whatever, I'm confident. It will be really hard to replace Zizou ofc, and I can't say I expect Julen to deliver the same kind of results, but I believe he will do a decent job. With a bit of patience I'm sure he can bring success.
¡Bienvenido de vuelta a casa, Julen!