THE REDEMPTION OF CARLO ANCELOTTI
Things unravelled for the Italian legend after he led Real Madrid to La Decima, but Everton’s seven wins in a row at the start of the new season provided early signs that he hasn’t lost his touch. Can he guide the Toffees back into Europe?
Football management is a job for life. The locations might change, the demands, expectations and pressure will ebb and flow, but there are always fresh challenges waiting around the corner. Carlo Ancelotti knows that better than anyone, having won trophies and suffered sackings in a 25- year career that has taken him to five different countries. The Italian’s achievements need little introduction. Champions League titles made up two of the eight honours that his star- studded Milan side lifted, while further success followed him with a league and cup double at Chelsea. At Paris Saint- Germain he collected the customary Ligue 1 title, before later winning a hat- trick of trophies in charge of Bayern Munich.
But arguably his most memorable moment was clinching Real Madrid’s long- awaited Decima in 2014, ending the Spanish giants’ hysterical 12- year wait to be crowned kings of Europe for a 10th time. When the full- time whistle blew on Los Blancos’ 4- 1 victory over city rivals Atletico in Lisbon, however, little did Ancelotti know that it would be his last major success story for some time.
There have been trophy wins since then, sure – just not in quite the same way. Mainly, there has been mutiny in Munich, nastiness in Naples and a snub from Arsenal... yet none of it matters now. Instead, five and a half years of toil after that historic night led him to Everton, where the task of turning a tanker was daunting and few gave him much hope.
After a fast start to the season, though, he showed signs of his class. Will Goodison Park be the venue for a redemption story?
CAN’T BAYERN ME LOVE
It’s tempting to view La Decima as the peak of Ancelotti’s coaching career, considering its historic significance and pivotal point as the moment his difficulties began.
A year on from that triumph, Ancelotti was dismissed by Real Madrid. His side had been knocked out by Juventus in the Champions League semi- finals, finished two points off Barcelona as La Liga runners- up and lost to Atletico in the last 16 of the Copa del Rey. For crow- like club president Florentino Perez, all that glitters is all that matters.
“The demands here at Real Madrid are very high,” sniffed Perez. “The affection that the players and supporters have for Carlo is the same as the affection I myself have for him.”
The Italian departed a popular figure with fans and players alike – a recurring theme of
Ancelotti’s career – and his final Real media briefing concluded with a standing ovation.
With lots of goodwill and a smarting sense of injustice in the air, it was easy to assume something better was on the horizon. Even the man himself would have figured as much, explains former team- mate and Milan player, Alessandro Costacurta.
“Carlo’s biggest quality was to always make disappointments acceptable, because he always saw the glass half full,” the Rossoneri stalwart of 21 years tells Fourfourtwo. “Even in particular moments [ like his 2001 sacking by Juve], or further ahead when we didn’t reach certain targets, he managed to make us see the positive aspect of any situation.”
Sure enough, the offers came in after his unceremonious sacking. He had the chance to make an instant return when his former employers at San Siro rang, but he decided against it. “It was tough to say no to such a beloved club,” he said. “But I needed rest.”
The Italian took some time off and had an operation for spinal stenosis, but it wasn’t
long before his name hogged the headlines again. At the end of 2015, it was announced that Ancelotti would take charge of another European superpower: Bayern Munich.
Pep Guardiola’s departure from Bavaria was confirmed six months before the end of the 2015- 16 season, and with it the news that he would be replaced by the Italian for 2016- 17. It was just as well Ancelotti had recharged his batteries: not only was he walking into one of the most demanding jobs on the continent, but he was Munich- bound to succeed one of few coaches who could challenge his stellar record of success.
Journalist Raphael Honigstein was following events closely, and recalls high anticipation around the new Ancelotti era.
“There was a lot of enthusiasm at Bayern when they got Ancelotti, as they thought he was the perfect successor of Guardiola,” he explains to FFT. “Pep had brought the style, the tactical sophistication, but of course he didn’t deliver the Champions League during his three seasons. Ancelotti being this star whisperer, who turns up and makes everyone feel really good – everyone thought he was the ideal manager at the time.”
There was certainly no shortage of stars to aim those whispers at. The Bayern team that Ancelotti inherited might have failed in its objective of winning the Champions League under Guardiola, but many of the players who had last achieved that feat in 2013 were still there, and had reached three semi- finals in a row since then.
The ability to effectively communicate with the world’s best players is widely considered
“BAYERN WERE DRILLED TO PLAY LIKE A MACHINE UNDER PEP, BUT UNDER CARLO THE PLAYERS FELT THEY WEREN’T TRAINING ENOUGH”
one of the 61- year- old’s great strengths as a manager, and with good reason.
“It’s one of his best qualities – I saw it when he was assistant manager [ to Arrigo Sacchi] at the 1994 World Cup with Roberto Baggio, when he hadn’t quite managed to explode,” recalls Costacurta. “At Milan, he developed this ability with Andriy Shevchenko during the moments of difficulty he had off the pitch. The team wouldn’t accept his behaviour, but Ancelotti brought him in front of us all and said, ‘ He’s a champion who’s going through a hard time, so we must help him’.
“He probably didn’t need to do it with Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid, given that he never had a bad game. But he did it with Sheva and Kaka – players who alternated extraordinary displays with ones where they were seemed more distracted.”
It came as a shock, then, that the unhappiness of his players ultimately proved to be Ancelotti’s downfall in Munich.
Things started well, with eight straight wins in all competitions.
Die Roten showed promise, and a freedom of expression that led pundits to think the side was being allowed to work off the template in a way it never was under Guardiola.
By the end of the Italian’s opening campaign in charge, though, not much had changed. Bayern were Bundesliga top dogs once again – a fifth consecutive title – after finishing 15 points clear of RB Leipzig, but they had been eliminated by Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter- finals and lost to Dortmund in the German Cup semis.
Cracks began to appear from within, as the players gradually grew frustrated by the less intense style of play, less detailed pre- match preparation and, above all, training sessions that were a far cry from the intensity of what they had become accustomed to under Pep.
“The problem for Ancelotti at Bayern was that two things happened: firstly, the more passive approach created a situation where the players stepped back and found it tough to create the same kind of aggression, focus and relentlessness that marked them out as being such a great team in the first place,” explains Honigstein. “They lost part of their USP, what made them such a special team. The other thing was that the players started believing that both the physical preparation and training regime left a lot to be desired.
“I think a lot of players or teams would have said, ‘ You know what, this is Ancelotti – he knows what he’s doing and it’s not down to us to criticise him’. But Bayern had been drilled to play like a machine under Guardiola, and even before under Jupp Heynckes had developed a winning mentality – going out of their way to win games that weren’t really that necessary to win before big Champions League ties, for example.
“The players started moaning to some of the bosses, saying, ‘ We’re not doing enough here: we’re just jogging in training, we’re just relaxing, there’s no structure and we’re not learning anything. He’s just relying on us to use all the knowledge we already have, and there’s no input’.
“They really looked at the fitness coach in particular, Giovanni Mauri, and thought, ‘ This guy simply isn’t up to the job’. Things came to a head when he quite famously smoked during one of Bayern’s endurance sessions in Qatar. They were doing laps and had to run through these big clouds of smoke while they were exercising, thinking, ‘ This can’t be right – something is really wrong here’.”
A slow start to his second season in charge ultimately led to Ancelotti being sacked by Bayern in September 2017. A 3- 0 Champions League defeat against PSG proved the final straw, coming after the manager left key players like Mats Hummels, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery on the substitutes’ bench, and Jerome Boateng out of the squad altogether.
“He didn’t just leave out all of these players – he never communicated to them why they were left out,” reveals Honigstein. “He famously just left the starting line- up on a piece of paper and didn’t say anything to the team. That, combined with a sense that he wasn’t really doing enough in Bavaria, meant that the players began to feel like he was almost holding them back. Inside the club, it eventually reached the point where Ancelotti had universally lost the backing from his superiors.”
Ancelotti left Germany with another league title to his name, as well as a pair of German Supercups – the fifth country in which he had won silverware. However, his 14- month spell in charge won’t live long in the memory.
“I think people are still puzzled about why it went wrong for him at Bayern and how he managed to rub players up the wrong way in the end,” says Honigstein.
This time, Ancelotti’s sabbatical from work was a little less voluntary.
CARLO IN THE MIDDLE
Italy’s humiliating failure to reach the 2018 World Cup in Russia under Gian Piero Ventura led to rumoured interest from the Italian FA, as they sought more experienced hands to guide the Azzurri away from the wreckage. Former Manchester City and Inter manager Roberto Mancini was eventually appointed to the role in May 2018, but only nine days later, Ancelotti’s return to the touchline – and his native land – was triumphantly announced by ambitious Napoli.
Much like with Bayern, the Partenopei had turned to the seasoned Italian as a big- name coach who could ease the worries of fans and players at the end of a successful era.
This time, Ancelotti was stepping into the shadow of Chelsea- bound Maurizio Sarri, who had built an extraordinary team during three seasons at the Stadio San Paolo. Under Sarri, Napoli played the best football that the city had seen since Diego Maradona inspired the club to two league titles, and came close to matching those feats. In his third and final season, Sarri’s outfit racked up a remarkable 91 points – but it still wasn’t enough to take the Serie A title off Juventus on 95.
Ancelotti’s appointment after nine years away from Serie A felt like a natural match; one that could even take Napoli to the next level. After all, despite Sarri’s dazzling football and table- topping bouts with the Bianconeri, he left the club without a trophy to his name. His successor’s task was to turn a talented team into a winning one.
Instead, the similarities with his doomed spell at Bayern continued back home.
Ancelotti oversaw a campaign of continuity rather than revolution, as Napoli once again finished runners- up in Serie A – this time 11 points behind Juve – and tumbled out of the Champions League in the group stage. Having finished level on points with eventual winners Liverpool, they fell into the Europa League on goals scored. Quarter- final exits in the Coppa Italia and Europa League against Milan and Arsenal respectively meant there was plenty of room for improvement as Ancelotti went into the 2019- 20 season.
But it wasn’t to be: history repeated itself again, as a second season turned sour for the veteran boss. It wasn’t as sudden this time, but it was no less dramatic. After a 2- 1 loss at Roma in November, Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis was angry at the team’s poor form and sent them into a ritiro – a common sanction for underperforming Italian teams, in which they live and work at their training ground for a set amount of time.
“GOING TO EVERTON WAS HIS GREATEST GAMBLE – IT’S A BEAUTIFUL CHALLENGE TO REVAMP THEM, AS THEY’RE A BIG TEAM ON AN ECONOMIC LEVEL THAT CAN IMPROVE”
The decision, announced through the press rather than directly to the players, didn’t go down well with the squad. Ancelotti himself said that while he respected De Laurentiis’ wish, he didn’t agree with it. Midway through the week- long camp, Napoli hosted Salzburg in a group game that could have guaranteed their progress to the Champions League last 16. But after a disappointing draw, Hirving Lozano cancelling out an early penalty from Erling Haaland, all hell broke loose.
The team decided they’d had enough of the training retreat and refused to return to their accommodation. An altercation between De Laurentiis’ son Edoardo and senior pros was said to have become so heated that it nearly came to blows, and the players went back to their homes. Ancelotti, stuck in the middle of an impossible situation, respected the club’s decision: he and his staff went back into the
ritiro alone, without the squad.
Former Napoli striker Nicola Amoruso, who played under Ancelotti at Juventus, believes his handling of a tense situation proved the beginning of the end.
“The players thought Ancelotti was part of the group, but he stayed between them and the management,” he tells FFT. “That wasn’t very good for anyone. He wasn’t in a happy situation and the players judged his position badly; they thought he was on their side, but Ancelotti was stuck in the middle between the team and president, trying to mediate.”
De Laurentiis reacted by threatening legal action against his own players, while the fans were enraged by a team they perceived to be work- shy: a banner was promptly hung outside the San Paolo that read, “You have chosen a bad path... Respect those who love this shirt and pay you!”
Costacurta was stunned by how quickly the situation in Naples fell apart.
“For me, the biggest surprise of his career was his last year with Napoli,” admits the five- time European Cup winner. “Despite the skills as a mediator that he’s always had, he created a fracture that, for the first time in his career, he couldn’t mend.”
Napoli’s next game, a drab 0- 0 draw with Genoa, was described by Corriere della Sera as “the ugliest game of the last 10 years”. De Laurentiis went away during the subsequent international break to consider his response.
Ancelotti’s dismissal came a month later, in December 2019. The timing was a surprise to some – he had just overseen a 4- 0 win at home to Genk to seal the club’s progress to the Champions League last 16 – but when the coach departed, his side were languishing seventh in Serie A, 17 points off the summit.
“Honestly I don’t think he made any big mistakes at Napoli,” says Amoruso. “Coming in straight after Sarri certainly didn’t make it easier for him, because everyone expected great things, but it takes time. Relationships between big characters don’t always work out, and it didn’t work between Ancelotti and De Laurentiis.”
Not everyone agreed. Ancelotti was criticised for failing to impose a tactical identity in Naples, with his attempts to transform Sarri’s fluid 4- 3- 3 system into a flexible 4- 4- 2 rarely convincing. His team lacked balance and players were frequently played out of position.
As always, though, he remained popular as a person. His affable manner – including the episode when he helped a fan to fix his bicycle before a pre- season training session – ensured that while his work wasn’t always appreciated, his character was.
But nice guys sometimes finish last.
GWLAD YOU CAME
Despite back- to- back spells he would have rather forgotten, Ancelotti still found himself a man in demand upon his departure from Naples. The only problem? His options were now rather narrow.
The Italian was soon linked with vacancies at Arsenal and Everton, but with the Gunners deciding to go with Mikel Arteta instead, he was eventually seduced by an offer from the Toffees that would secure him passage back to the Premier League.
On the plus side, and unlike the teams he had inherited at both Bayern and Napoli, Ancelotti would have struggled to perform worse than his predecessors. Everton had failed to finish in the top six since 2013- 14, and come 11th, 11th, 7th, 8th and 8th in the subsequent five seasons. They also had a reputation for haphazard spending after several costly, unsuccessful transfer windows.
So he started simple. A team that had won five of its first 18 league games of 2019- 20 before Ancelotti’s arrival beat Burnley 1- 0 on his debut, and then lost only six of their next 20 league fixtures. Everton finished 12th, but Ancelotti’s pulling power became evident in a summer transfer market that resulted in James Rodriguez, Allan, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Ben Godfrey agreeing deals.
One player already at Goodison Park when the Italian rocked up was frontman Dominic Calvert- Lewin, whose 10 goals in the Toffees’ opening seven games of this season turned heads and earned him an England call- up. Ancelotti even mentioned the 23- year- old in the same breath as former Milan marksman Filippo Inzaghi, who Costacurta played with at San Siro for six years.
“I’ve followed Calvert- Lewin, yes – people have spoken very well of him for several years now,” admits the Azzurri legend. “Teaching Inzaghi- style movements to another forward is impossible, though. Calvert- Lewin has good movement inside the penalty area, but still doesn’t quite have the ability to get free from defenders yet – that was one of Pippo’s best skills. Instinct is something you can’t train, but if you look at Calvert- Lewin’s goal against Liverpool, there were movements he made that he wasn’t doing before Carlo arrived. If he trains that skill, we’re surely talking about the next England forward.”
With his own new boys in place supplying Calvert- Lewin with regular ammunition – not least the glorious James, himself with a point to prove – Ancelotti’s charges flew out of the blocks in 2020- 21, winning their first seven games in all competitions to mark the club’s best start to a season since 1894.
“Going there was his greatest gamble,” says Costacurta. “I think that, as he’s shown this year, Everton can spend money to get closer to the bigger teams. Carlo is also in love with England – he’s loved it since his first day at Chelsea in 2009. In my opinion, it’s a beautiful challenge to revamp Everton, as they’re a big team on an economic level that can improve on the last few years.”
If that improvement can result in a return to Europe, Ancelotti’s love for England will be repaid in full – and some – by the blue half of Merseyside. Some may say he’s already there.