Carlo Ancelotti has just one game left before he bids farewell to Real Madrid and possibly club management altogether.
The 65-year-old Italian has won a record five Champions League titles as a manager and remains the only coach to have won all of Europe’s top five domestic leagues.
He also leaves as the most decorated manager in Real Madrid’s history, with 15 major honours across two spells.
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On the latest episode of The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast, Michael Bailey, Michael Cox, Mark Carey, and Liam Tharme reflected on Ancelotti’s remarkable legacy and discussed what has made him so successful across his managerial career.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast feed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Michael Bailey: In Phil Hay’s piece on The Athletic last week, he said, “Unlike several of his peers, Ancelotti didn’t create a movement. There is no School of Ancelotti and no wave of disciples behind him. He wasn’t the founding father of tiki-taka or the architect of Total Football. He wasn’t defined by gegenpressing, and he didn’t perfect the parking of the bus like Jose Mourinho.” Does it matter that Ancelotti has not been part of a movement? Or is there a way you could describe Ancelotti’s legacy?
Michael Cox: No, I don’t think it matters. We probably focus on it too much. Ancelotti was the assistant to Arrigo Sacchi, and Sacchi is always mentioned between Total Football and Pep Guardiola as the most influential coach who changed things. But he didn’t win much. The only major trophies he won were one Serie A title and two European Cups. Ancelotti has won a lot more than him. So why we always focus on Sacchi so much, I don’t know.
Ancelotti has continually won things over a very long period with different clubs in different leagues. He has continued to taste success despite not being associated with any particular style of play, to his credit. We should also say that the last Champions League he won with Real Madrid shows how he’s really bounced back.
With respect to Everton, he was managing a mid-table club and looked to be on the way down, similar to how Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho have got lesser jobs as they’ve gone on. So for Ancelotti to get the Real Madrid job and win the Champions League again is seriously impressive. He did exactly what he always does with really good young players, such as Jude Bellingham, taking them and saying, ‘We’re just going to play you in the zones where you can do damage’.
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At times, they didn’t have a shape and structure, but it was good enough to win the Champions League.
Mark Carey: Many of the most renowned managers burnt brightly then fell away, and didn’t have the longevity and the trophy haul that Ancelotti has. Ancelotti’s soft skills, the social intelligence to manage up as well as manage down, are key parts of his success.
When you also think about some of the environments of the clubs he has managed, they can be difficult to navigate. You think of the boardrooms at Real Madrid, Milan, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain, these are huge clubs with so much pressure on them from above and from the fan base. He makes sure the players feel empowered to perform on the pitch, and deals with these very difficult social situations from the higher powers that be.
Creating harmony at a club is not to be underestimated, and it’s a key reason certain managers can fail.
Liam Tharme: There is probably a bit of a virtuous cycle where he’s way more likely to get jobs in top teams because he’s done it before, and he doesn’t have to go and prove himself again. So you could say, ‘Well, you should win the league with PSG with the resources you’ve got, or with Real Madrid’. But both things can be true at the same time, you can be a really good manager while also having all the materials that you need.
Despite the lack of elite head coaches in the professional game who have been influenced by him in some way, he’s a really great role model for youth coaches. There is a bit of a worry, especially in England, that things are over-correcting. Everyone’s now hyper-focused on the Guardiola style — building up in that same structure, playing through the thirds and controlling the game through territory. We’ve started to like those patterns and shapes because we recognise them and they’ve become familiar. They might not always be good for what the game needs, but we still say, ‘I see the back three in build-up, I see the winger high and wide and the striker dropping in’. But Ancelotti’s focus on it being a players’ game is still really important, and it’s probably why he’s been so successful for all these years, especially on the knockout side of things.
You can listen to full episodes of The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
(Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
