Jose’s looking for ‘home’ comforts

Posted Monday, July 01, 2013 by The Sun

JOSE MOURINHO’S Chelsea contract starts today — five days after Carlo Ancelotti succeeded him at Real Madrid.

There are interesting parallels between the two.

Ancelotti’s biggest mistake was to go to Chelsea, where he was treated shabbily despite winning the Double in his first season.

Mourinho’s biggest error was to go to Madrid, where his reputation took a battering.

He won fewer trophies than any of the previous seven managers who spent at least three seasons at the Bernabeu.

Quite fitting then that Mourinho went ‘home’ in search of peace as ‘pacifier’ Ancelotti was made to feel ‘at home’ at Real.

Ancelotti’s unveiling last week was more significant than Pep Guardiola’s at Bayern Munich.

The most celebrated manager in football took charge of the best team in Europe on Monday. Yet the biggest club in the world got the best manager they could have hoped for two days later.

Pep’s task is to carry on winning — and the Bayern machine just needs fine-tuning.

Ancelotti has to restore calm after the Mourinho storm.

The pair could not be more different on and off the pitch.

For Madrid, style matters. On and off the pitch. Ancelotti is a perfect fit.

That is what former Real youth coach Rafa Benitez meant when he took a sideswipe at Mourinho by claiming that “with Ancelotti, Madrid have recovered their values.”

Jose’s looking for ‘home’ comforts
IT'S ALL WHITE NOW ... Carlo Ancelotti is happy to be back at Real Madrid

Ancelotti has also signalled a return to Madrid’s traditions of attacking — not counter-attacking — football.

He said: “We will play spectacular, attacking football.”

Asked if, like his predecessor, he will leave the Bernabeu pitch dry before El Clasico to stifle Barcelona, he laughed:
“We want a fast pitch to attack. So... water!”

Ancelotti has won Serie A, the Premier League and Le Championnat. Mourinho has won in Portugal, England, Italy and Spain. Both have won the Champions League twice.

Ancelotti, Guardiola and the Special One will all be bidding this season to win a third European Cup to match Liverpool’s Bob Paisley.

If they avoid each other in the knockouts, Ancelotti and Guardiola will most likely shake hands before kick-off at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon in next May’s final.

With Mario Gotze added to the squad, Guardiola inherits a stronger Munich team than the one that won the Treble under Jupp Heynckes.

Why will Ancelotti succeed where so many have failed in the last 11 years since Real last won Ol’ Big Ears? You only had to watch his first Press conference — calm, collected, with a sense of purpose and the media eating from his hands.

After years of tension, the Ancelotti feel-good factor spread through the Bernabeu like much-needed medicine.

A Real insider said: “The pressure had been lifted. Instead of bickering, posturing and aggression, we had a coach who respects the institution more than his ambition.

“Ancelotti knows that here the most important thing is the ‘senorio’, it’s a club of gentlemen.

“We’ve had controversies but our managers have always been exemplary.”