Can Don Carlo Ancelotti still win the big trophies with Real Madrid?
Anyone who read the Spanish press after Barcelona’s victory in the Super Cup final (the one played in Saudi Arabia) would have read that the Ancelotti-era was over. ’’No more, adios!” were the headlines. And that’s not all: the readers also found out that Don Carlo’s flair no longer works, that Real Madrid is about to disintegrate, that the contracts of the most important players of the last few years are expiring – and in their place it is not known who will come, when and if. The basic accusation was this: Don Carlo Ancelotti is getting older and it’s too conservative and sentimental.
The second-placed team
Here we must stop and seriously ask: so what! Who among us is not, after all, conservative and sentimental in football matters? Who isn’t a child when it comes to football? And, being children, don’t we want the familiar feeling again and again?
The attack on Don Carlo was basically pressure to force a revolution, a change for the sake of changing. Speeding up the future. Modric’s retirement. The retirement of Kroos. The retirement of Benzema. Retiring himself.
To all these aberrations, explicitly or veiledly written, Ancelotti responded by miraculously turning the scoreline around against Villareal in the Cup and winning at Bilbao in La Liga, where every punter knows that 2 rarely, hardly ever comes out.
Real Madrid, under Carlo Ancelotti, are still the favourites for the title, the cup and the Champions League. But we’re interested in La Liga, where Real Madrid are second, just three points behind Xavi’s rejuvenated Barcelona. Right here, in our column, we announced that the future is in Catalunya. The present, however…
is in Madrid. Why is Real Madrid the favourites? Precisely because Don Carlo Ancelotti is an experienced fox and because Real becomes realy dangerous when is in the second place. On Bernabeu, the hunger for results is never satisfied.
History and the magic eyebrow
And clearer still: precisely because Don Carlo Ancelotti is conservative and sentimental, precisely because he doesn’t force a senseless revolution, precisely because Modric can still pass, Kroos has the same game science that made him world champion nine years ago and Benzema keeps scoring goal after goal, precisely because the future – Tchouameni, Camavinga, Valverde, Vinicius, Rodrygo – must be prepared early but carefully. It’s no accident that Real Madrid is the most successful club in European history, and it’s no accident that Don Carlo Ancelotti doesen’t win the Champions League only in years when he doesn’t start.
Elegance, style, class, all come from history. This season, Barcelona have won their head-to-head duels with Real and have clearly prevailed. There’s still a big team growing at the Camp Nou, but it’s still growing, and the way Barca struggled in the last round to pull off a bitter 1-0 home win is a wake-up call.
Meanwhile, in Bilbao, Ancelotti, so conservative and sentimental, raised his eyebrow again and the victory came as if by magic.
