THE REDEMPTION OF CARLO ANCELOTTI
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
