Анчелотти поддерживает Моуринью в решении проблемы отсутствия мотивации у игроков Челси
- He backs Jose Mourinho to sort out Chelsea's motivation-lacking players
- Having left Real Madrid, Ancelotti would like to work in England again
- However, the five-time European Cup winner did not talk with Liverpool
- While at PSG, Ancelotti kicked a box into Zlatan Ibrahimovic's head
- He wants to take over at a club this summer for a shot at European glory
Dinner with Carlo Ancelotti in London this week. He makes a reservation at Quattro Passi in Mayfair. He orders in Italian in conversation with a chef he describes as 'the finest in Italy'.
And he suggests, with that deep, endearing laugh, that we cover the more pressing issues 'before we drink too much wine'.
So we get started before the starters, or rather the antipasti, discussing first if he spoke to Liverpool and then if he would consider a return to Chelsea should Jose Mourinho's second tenure at Stamford Bridge come to an end.
Carlo Ancelotti spoke exclusively to Sportsmail about a range of topics including Chelsea's current situation
Former Chelsea manager Ancelotti is backing current boss Jose Mourinho to turn their sorry state around
Ancelotti poses with Cristiano Ronaldo and Jorge Mendes at Ronaldo's film premiere earlier this week
'I would have no problem with Chelsea,' he says when asked if he could even contemplate a second stint given the nature of his own dismissal — in a corridor at Everton — in 2011. 'But Jose won't be sacked. They already choose to keep him, and I think they made a good choice.'
He appears confident about this. Perhaps because he spent the previous evening at a screening of the new Cristiano Ronaldo film in the company of Mourinho and his agent, Jorge Mendes.
'I didn't get a chance to speak with Jose but we get on well,' he says. 'When we won the Decima (Real's 10th European Cup/Champions League) at Madrid, he sent me a message of congratulations. And he knows better than anyone what is going on at Chelsea.
'Sometimes you can't explain why things happen... what is going wrong. It is a mystery. How did we lose (with AC Milan) in Istanbul when we were three goals up against Liverpool at half-time? You expect the opponent manager to put on a striker but he puts on a midfielder!
'I look from a distance at Chelsea and I think they won the title easily last year and I don't think they are so motivated this year.
'It's true that the manager has to be able to motivate players but the manager cannot motivate a player if the player is not self-motivated. It's impossible. They have lost something and it's difficult to change like a switch. You have to work slowly to change.
'But Mourinho is one of the best managers in the world, no doubt. I look at his body language and he's OK. He is not so worried. He has confidence. During the Dynamo Kiev game the supporters were singing his name. He'll sort it out.'
The former Chelsea manager says the players at the London club do not look motivated this season
Ancelotti won the double with Chelsea in his first season, sealing victory in the Premier League and FA Cup
The Liverpool job was available after the departure of Brendan Rodgers from Anfield in October, and the one manager to match Bob Paisley in winning three European Cups was widely regarded as a possible alternative to Jurgen Klopp.
'I would like to come back to work in England,' he says. 'I love the football here, I still have a house in London, and I would like to be with a team that is competitive in England and in Europe.
'I think Liverpool are a good team. They have some really good young players — Coutinho, Firmino, Benteke. If they can find an experienced player like Gerrard or Carragher — an example to the squad — I think they can be really competitive. But I did not speak with them. If I spoke with them I can say "yes", but no, I did not.'
Did his advisers, perhaps? 'No,' he says. 'They made the right appointment in Klopp. He is a good manager. With the best managers you see their identity in their team. Klopp's Dortmund team had a very strong identity.'
Ancelotti had a strong identity with his players at Real Madrid, and it is still with some sadness and disappointment that he reflects on his departure from the Santiago Bernabeu back in May.
'To be sacked is part of your job,' he says, 'but if you ask me about being sacked by Real Madrid I tell you that it was not right.
'I was really, really unhappy because I had a fantastic relationship with the players. I really enjoyed training this team. They were really serious, really professional. More than Chelsea I was disappointed.'
Ancelotti has coached some of the finest players in the world but Ronaldo, he says, set new standards of professionalism.
Mourinho has the backing of the supporters at Stamford Bridge, and Ancelotti says he is destined to stay
He compares Chelsea's bizarre decline to that of his AC Milan side when they lost to Liverpool in Istanbul
'Truly, the most,' he says. 'I watched the film and it was good but it did not show how professional he is. We would sometimes return from a European game. It could be three in the morning but Ronaldo would be the player who did not go straight home. Instead he would go to the training ground for the ice bath, to help with his recovery from the game.
'As a group they were very professional, though. Casillas, Modric, Bale also. It was a little more difficult with Bale because I was used to speaking to the players in Spanish, but he is a nice guy.'
Ancelotti was dismissed by Chelsea a year after winning a Premier League and FA Cup Double; by Madrid after clinching the Decima.
'Listen, you are judged on the results,' he says, 'but you cannot win every single year. Certainly not in Spain where you have the best team in the world in Barcelona. You have a third team, in Atletico, that is also very competitive.
'Madrid was the hardest job. More pressure even than Milan. Was losing to Liverpool in 2005 my worst experience? Try losing 4-0 in the Madrid derby. That season we had a run of 22 wins in succession but it was all forgotten on February 7 when we lost 4-0 to Atletico.
Jurgen Klopp was appointed as Liverpool manager last month, and Ancelotti was not approached for the job
Ancelotti says Ronaldo, who he worked with at Real Madrid, set new standards of professionalism in his work
If the manager doesn’t win at Madrid he is sacked. Had I not won the Decima I would have been sacked a year earlier but I knew this when I took the job. I could have decided not to sign but Real Madrid is the most important club in the world.’
He was sacked at the training ground in Valdebebas. ‘The president and the general director came to see me but I knew it was coming,’ he says. ‘They had not been talking to me about the future. I could sense it was coming.’
As upset as Ancelotti was, he remained calm. ‘I don’t ask why, but then that is how I am,’ he says. ‘I like to be calm.’
It is how he has always been as a manager. ‘I never use the whip,’ he says. ‘I have had problems with players. I had players who told Paul Clement, my former assistant, to **** off but my response is to tell them they no longer play for me; that they need to ask the club to leave.
‘I am a coach. A teacher. And working with the players is the best part of the job but I was a player, too, and I remember.
‘I am still the manager and they are players. And I have power. If I say we have training at 6am they have to be in but if people think that means I have to be up here and they have to be down there, I don’t agree.
The Italian coach won Real Madrid's 10th European Cup in 2014 but was sacked just 12 months later
Ancelotti praised Real's professionalism and says that Gareth Bale was a 'nice guy' despite language issues
‘In the relationship I like to be at the same level as the players. Of course, I have authority but after a game we lose I might still say tomorrow is free, and at some clubs this has been taken as a weakness.
‘They have said you have to use the whip. I say find another manager. I never use the whip. Not as a manager and not as a father. I have lost my temper, of course. At Paris Saint-Germain we once lost to Evian in the cup and I was so angry I kicked a box and it hit Ibrahimovic on the head. It was more or less the same as Ferguson and the boot with Beckham — but we laughed about it afterwards.
‘I never used the whip because in my life nobody ever used the whip against me. Not my father, not my school teacher, not my manager. I don’t believe in it.’
He believes in something he describes as ‘quiet leadership’. Indeed it is the title of a soon-to-be-published book he has written with a professor of sports business from the University of Salford. It follows a more technical book he wrote two years ago, only in Italian, about the development of tactics and training in football over the past 20 years.
‘It is about leadership but my starting point with football is that it is only ever sport,’ he says. ‘You either win, lose or draw. Nothing worse. There are more important things in life.’
His calm demeanour has been clear through his career, even when assistant Paul Clement was told to 'f*** off'
Ancelotti recalls a tale to Sportsmail of how he kicked a box at Zlatan Ibrahimovic's head while angry
This week Ancelotti dines with Sir Alex Ferguson ahead of facing him in a charity match at Old Trafford
His life right now is divided between Vancouver, where his second wife Mariann is from, London and Italy, where he has his first grandchild.
He is also pleased to report that he has recovered from surgery on his neck to correct ‘two hernias’ that were causing him terrible pain down his right arm during his second season in Madrid.
At 56 the desire, as he says, is to return to management but not until the summer. ‘I had some offers around the world (a return to Milan being one option) but in the end I prefer to stay off for a year,’ he says. ‘I had three experiences. At Juventus I start in the February, Milan and PSG in November, and all three of them were not good.
‘So I prefer to stay one year off. If I’m lucky to find a club in the summer, then great. If it doesn’t happen then maybe I have to consider taking a job during the season, but not now.’
Ancelotti is holding back a bottle of wine given to him by David Moyes to celebrate another European win
With three Champions League titles to his name, Ancelotti is only matched by Bob Paisley in Europe
Would he ever consider the Italian national team? ‘In 2030,’ he says, again laughing. ‘There is this 12-year pattern with Italy, that goes back to 1970. In ’70 they lost the final, in ’82 won, in ’94 lost the final again and in 2006 won. That means Italy will lose the final in 2018 so I will take charge for 2030. Maybe England will win again in 2066.’
What he wants is a club job. He looks forward to managing a team against Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford this weekend for UNICEF. On Friday he will have dinner with Ferguson in Manchester. But another crack at the Champions League is what he craves.
‘David Moyes bought me a 1959 Rioja — the year of my birth. I am keeping it, to open maybe when I win a fourth Champions League. I would like to win another.’
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