Perfetto, the Return of Carletto! - Benvenuto Carlo Ancelotti

I think Florentino during 2014-15 and Bayern management/players had issues with Carlo's archaic training staff. Flo is evidently a huge fan of Pintus ever since ZZ brought him to RM. Right now Carlo Pintus duo seems like the perfect mix for RM just like with ZZ.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/8gV875cgK3U?feature=share

 

A tactical dinosaur would not have beaten and out scored PSG, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool .
This same tactical dinosaur, as you called him, also trashed Pep’s Bayern in 2014.
I honestly feel that the people who don’t appreciate Carlo and how his teams play are people with very simplistic views about football.

 

People seem to think that good coaching entails frantically signaling and shouting at the sidelines while drawing complex geometry on the white board.

Look no further than on the tactical adjustments he made during the Liverpool Final. Klopp's team couldn't keep up.

If Carlo was like that, his teams would never have done remontadas after remontadas this year because the team would panic.

Phil Jackson, arguably the GOAT NBA coach has a similar in cool demeanor to Ancelotti.

 

It seems so as they’ve only been able to win the CL with a German coach.

 

I am currently reading one of Ancelotti's book. I have an interesting insight of players' career. His life could have gone in different directions if certain things did not happen the way it did.

Sacchi wanted Ancelotti to join AC Milan from AS Roma in 1987, but the medical staff found out that he had knee problems. He was also 28 years old. They advised the club not to sign him, but Sacchi insisted. As you all know, he went onward to become a popular player at the club. After he retired from playing, he got his first coaching job in Reggiana because he was a hometown hero and the club needed something to appease the fans at that point in time.

Because of Reggiana, he got moved to Parma, which was next to Reggio Emilia. Again, he got his second job as a hometown hero. He did good enough over there and earned the job in Juventus. In Turin, he only finished second twice in Serie A, which was unacceptable for Juventus. He was also an ex-AC Milan player in which the fans never accepted him. He was fired after his second season. So he became a jobless coach with a poor record from his time in Turin. However, Parma offered his job back and he accepted it. On his way to sign for Parma, he was called back by AC Milan. AC Milan just fired Fatih Terim soon after the season started in 2001. They immediately asked for Ancelotti largely because he was one of their ex-players and he was a popular figure within the club. Ancelotti wanted to honor his "agreement" with Parma, but being an ex-Milan player, he took the job in Milan in 2001. If AC Milan decided not to sign Ancelotti the player in 1987, he would never become a Milan manager. That's fate. He probably would have gone back to his hometown and coached Parma. Of course, the book did not talk about Parma, but I remembered what happened to Parma.

From 2001 to 2004, Parma enjoyed some successes on the field. No one could predict what they could have done with Ancelotti, but their parent company Parmalat collapsed in 2003. But with some luck, Ancelotti avoided the situation, and instead, he won two Champions' league with AC Milan. basically, without his Milan career, he might never end up in Madrid. He might have retired from coaching after Parma collapsed

 

The book is "Quiet Leadership" by Ancelotti.

Previously, I finished "Carlo Ancelotti: The Beautiful Game of an Ordinary Genius" probably around 2017. It was his autobiography up until 2010. Then, immediately, I bought "Quiet Leadership", which talked briefly about his career, but mainly his managing and leadership style. I did not finish it because it went into subjects that I did not care at the time. It was published in 2017. But I started to reread it again earlier this month. The book had a different perspective after the 2021-2022 season. I know the man much better. He did go into his stint in PSG, which offered some insights about things over there. The topic became more interesting because of our feud with them. And what he did with Juventus, AC Milan and Chelsea say alot about his last season in Madrid

At the time of writing, I am halfway done. There are a few things I wanted to talk about Ancelotti and my own reflections.

-- Ancelotti was forced to take Ray Wilkins as his assistant in Chelsea. They got along well. In the 2013-2014 season, I often wondered about his feelings about taking Zidane as his assistant. Zidane afterall was projected to "take" his job eventually. It turned out that Ancelotti did not mind about taking strangers into his inner coaching circle. I do not know if he would talk about Zidane later in the book. Zidane was his players in Juventus, a fact that I forgot.

-- Ancelotti said that he had no coaching style. It was a topic we previously discussed here. I did not know what to say about his style. He adapted his style to the cultures of the club. In Paris, it had no culture, but he saw himself as a long term project. So he did things differently. In Madrid, he did not expect to last long. In fact, he had no opinion of Odegaard when Madrid signed him. He would be long gone before the kid started for Madrid. He was focused on the offensive side of the game in Milan, but he was different in Turin. He was using 4-4-2 in Parma, and turned down Baggio because he refused to change his style. A few seasons later, he switched a new formation because Zidane was playing in Juventus. Then, he learned to adapt, which might be the season why he did so well here. Perez is going to sign players and he will learn to use them.
-- In Milan, he had Kaka, Pirlo, Seedorf and Rui Costa(I think it was him). He knew that he could not start everyone. He knew his job was to make everyone happy. and found a way in to play everyone. He mentioned it many times. In Madrid, we would have the same issue. Last season, I often wondered if he could make everyone happy. He answered it in his book by his examples in Milan(when he wrote the book he finished his first stint here).
-- Both Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic wrote a chapter for him. I did not know Ibrahimovic adored the man and he would follow anywhere Ancelotti goes.
-- Ramos, Pepe and Ronaldo were his leaders in his first stint.

 

I really hope Florentino Perez gets Carlo Ancelotti all the players he wants. He deserves to have all the backing he needs to get the job done upcoming season.

 

Is Carlo even requesting for players?

 

Carlo Ancelotti announces he will retire after current stint at Real Madrid.

https://en.as.com/soccer/what-did-carlo-ancelotti-say-about-real-madrid-retirement-n/

The man has won everything there is to win at the club level. He'll leave as a legend.

 

So much for our Carlo-Zizou coaching rotation plan.

 

I have a feeling Carlo is behind this 'no reinforcements needed' policy and not Florentino. Our coach has always been notoriously reluctant to use a full rotation, and now that he won the double last year, he's even closer to the players core and doesn't want to disrupt anything even if it means increased risk of injury/fatigue. He forgot that it was exactly this approach that cost him his job in 2015.

 

Or no? This is what the club has been doing for years now. Out or the last ten years or so I can remember we went out and spent money only on one summer and that was when Zidane came back.

With the way the market is and how teams are overpaying mediocre players I like our strategy. At least the player we overpayed was supposed to be world class and we're not giving 80m for ********ing Cucurella ffs. Or like united doing giving us money to retire our players.

 

Except that the previous seasons it was because it would have put the club finances in danger with Covid etc. Now we're clearly in the green, we let go of deadwood that was eating up the salary, made big money sales. There is no excuse for allowing the team to become thin.

Also this notion of 'overpaying mediocre players' is such a false premise but people keep using it. You can also underpay great players. Or you can actually pay players accordingly. It depends on whether you have done your homework, which is player assessment and enquiry/negotiation. The talent pool out there has never been bigger and with some guile you can exploit it to perfection.

Anyway maybe its far fetched that Ancelotti is behind the strategy, but he's definitely complicit given his record.

 

“Complicit” makes it sound like some criminal conspiracy!

Liverpool are in exactly the same boat having followed exactly the same strategy. They target areas they want to spend on. They then get the best available player for that position, and if that player isn’t available they will wait until a player that is good enough to start and who fits their profile is available, in the meantime relying on their existing squad.

They pursued Van Dijk, didn’t get him so waited until they got him the next year. They could have signed an interim starting defender as a panic buy, but they didn’t.

They got Allison for big money, having given chances to Mignolet and Karius. Once they know they couldn’t rely on either, they spent big money on the best player they could get for that position.

At right wing the club (Madrid) aren’t signing depth. They are looking for a starting level player for Real Madrid. They targeted Mbappe, didn’t get him and now are obviously waiting to see what the market offers in future, whilst giving chances to the existing squad players.

At CF the club are banking on Karim. I am sure they would have signed Haaland if they’d known about Mbappe, but we are where we are. It’s not unreasonable to bank on Karim and hope a new superstar emerges either at the World Cup or elsewhere in the next couple of seasons.

I know that whoever we get this summer, we are screwed if Modric or Karim (or Courtois) get injured at a vital point. So panic spending on “depth” where the players aren’t starting level is money down the drain as far as I’m concerned, unless the player is someone the club already planned on getting. We already got “depth” in Asensio and Mariano, I don’t want any more of that kind of depth.

So yes, whether it’s Ancelotti or Florentino, they get a pass from me for this transfer window. I rate it as 7.5/10 for getting Tchouameni. Would have been 10/10 if we’d got him and Mbappe.

 

If that is true, then we are not really counting on Rodrygo to make the big step this season. I operated (and still do) under the assumption that this is the case.

You mention Liverpool, but they are a lot more animated in the transfer market. In the end they find their player, but they are not scared shitless of making an error. They usually have a shortlist of players who they are tracking, out of which ultimately one finds agreement with the club and is available for his real price. Actively showing interest and pursuing plays a huge part in this. We don't do any of it.

And lets be real here - Asensio and Mariano are not Real Madrid level depth players. I don't want that kind of depth either. But spending somewhere in the 40-60 million range on a 'depth' player (loosely defined as not a regular starter) on this market cannot constitute a panic buy, because there is a lot of quality players now for that price. Diaby or Schick are good examples.

But I'd go further and say that spending 100+ million on say Rafael Leao or Osimhen (instead of Mbappe/Haaland) is also not a panic buy because these are wordclass talent beyond any doubt. Leao is on the Balon Dor list and Osimhen would have been too had he not missed games last season due to injuries/covid. If we needed/could fit Mbappe or Haaland on this team then there shouldn't be a problem about other worldclass talent players.

And this is where the fanbase is just too magnanimous towards the club's transfer policy. We can do better. A 'pass' grade for a transfer window is not Real Madrid level. Our best attacker is 35 years old. We apparently don't have a starting RW. The term complicit may sound funny to you now, but it would be truly criminal if the season ends in shambles because of injuries, and Carlo would be part of that conspiracy due to his aversion for rotation. I thought he had overcome it last season, but the success made him once again too chummy with the first teamers.

 

The look of a man who knows this is his last rodeo