It's official now. Real Madrid has confirmed the news advanced on Sunday night by Cadena SER. Ancelotti returns to Real Madrid to replace Zidane. It will be the second stage of the Italian, who in the first, from 2013 to 2015, won four titles: a Champions, a Cup, a European Super Cup and the Club World Cup. The Italian coach sign for three seasons and the settlement that the white club has had to pay to Everton has not transcended, as it had a contract there until 2024. Ancelotti was earning in the Premier 12 million euros per season.
The negotiations between Real Madrid and Ancelotti have been carried out in a lightning way, in a few hours. It was the only name that had not appeared in the pools, and once the transfer was completed, perhaps the best solution that could be for Real Madrid, since Ancelotti has the same good image before the fans as Zidane himself. And the players, in the same way, respect him for everything he has won and what he means in the world of football.
It was not Ancelotti, of course, the first option that Madrid considered in case Zidane left. Not even the second. First on the list was Allegri. The former Juve returned to Vecchia Signora against all odds when everything was ready for his hiring, he left Madrid standing, and that has caused the white entity to go through several days of tension and uncertainty. It was then when, to maintain the initial idea that Raúl would continue in Castilla and have that network if the new project did not work (Florentino wanted to keep that Plan B active for longer), several alternatives began to be moved.
Conte was contacted because he had just left Inter. But in Madrid this idea was soon abandoned. Conte's methods are too abrupt and do not match the philosophy and methodology of Madrid. Pochettino was seen, then, as the main candidate. José Ángel Sánchez started talks with the Argentine, according to what this newspaper has learned, that he said he was willing, but everything was at the expense of him being able to dissociate himself from PSG.
Madrid was not going to take the first step with the Parisian entity because it does not want to antagonize PSG just when it has to start the negotiation for Mbappé. Madrid began to hastily manage the hiring of Ancelotti once he learned from Pochettino himself that it would be impossible for him to leave PSG. The team from the capital of France did not see any technician of their liking in the market and did not want to let him go. Then Madrid activated the Ancelotti Plan and the Italian put all the facilities in the world.
REALMADRID.COM (DAILY AS)
The best choice
Ancelotti distinguished himself at Real Madrid for being a winning coach and for having a really offensive system. He made Real Madrid work with Modric, Kroos and Isco in the center of the field, and he alternated James in that position with that of Arroyo de la Miel. Above, the BBC was in force in its prime. The players defended themselves until the last moment when Florentino Pérez decided to do without him in that first stage.
After managing Real Madrid, Ancelotti began a fleeting spell at Bayern Munich and then at Naples. Now he was about to start his third season as Everton coach in which, with a mediocre squad, he was not doing too well. He finished the last Premier tenth. The Italian coach always wanted to return to Real Madrid beyond what could have been the end of his first experience. He will come, as on that occasion, with a great team of 15 people behind him, but this time without one of his best friends and colleagues, the coach Giovanni Mauri, already retired.. In this facet he will be accompanied by Pintus, who already marked an era in Zidane's first great Madrid.