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New York Times
19-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
What will Carlo Ancelotti's legacy be from his club managerial career?
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. Advertisement 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'. Advertisement 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.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Pisa Coach Pippo Inzaghi Defends Simone & Inter Milan: ‘The Criticism I Read Is Absurd'
Pisa coach Pippo Inzaghi feels that the criticism of his brother Simone Inzaghi at Inter Milan is 'absurd.' The coach and legendary former striker gave his thoughts in the Sportweek insert in today's print edition of the Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews. Advertisement Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi has certainly won plenty of praise for the job he's done in recent years. However, at the same time, there has also been plenty of criticism for the Nerazzurri coach. Prominent figures in Italian football such as Arrigo Sacchi and Antonio Cassano, for example, have criticized Inzaghi, for example. Whilst Inter have soared in the Champions League, their performances in Serie A have not always been up to par. Particularly in the last couple campaigns, Inter have been many people's heavy favourites for the league title. Therefore, failure to win it in Inzaghi's first two seasons in charge were the source of criticism. Advertisement And that would certainly be the case if Inter lose out to Napoli this time around. Meanwhile, Inter have drawn criticism for their performances in recent derbies against AC Milan. They have failed to beat the Rossoneri in five separate matches this season. And then, there have been criticisms of Inter's style of play. Particularly the relatively defensive displays they have put in in Europe frequently. Pippo Inzaghi: 'The Criticisms I Read Of Simone & Inter Milan Are Absurd' BOLOGNA, ITALY – APRIL 20: Simone Inzaghi head coach of FC Internazionale during the Serie A match between Bologna and FC Internazionale at Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on April 20, 2025 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by) However, for his part, Simone Inzaghi's brother Pippo Inzaghi doesn't take these criticisms very seriously. Pippo argued that 'Simone is the best coach around.' Advertisement 'And not just now,' he continued. 'He's managed a gruelling season brilliantly.' 'And sometimes I have to read criticisms that are absurd.' 'Inter's progressive growth is a manifesto of Simone's work,' argued Pippo. 'A superlative coach in technical terms, but also a man who's very good at reading the minds and hearts of 25 different guys.' 'The dressing room is a special place,' Pippo commented. 'You have to know how to get inside of it, and handle it carefully.' 'My brother never makes a mistake,' added the former AC Milan and Juventus striker and current Pisa coach.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
🤯 England... 3 finalists still not enough, the RECORD is still ours 📊
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here. England brought 3 teams to the European finals, but the all-time record was not reached, as it remains shared between Serie A and the same English league. And above all, the Premier League will not be able to surpass this year either a record set by Serie A, when the Italian teams won 3 European cups in the same season. Let's go back 35 years, Serie A is among the strongest leagues in the world and the results of the Italian teams confirm it: in 1990, Milan reached the European Cup final, Juventus-Fiorentina is the UEFA Cup final, and Sampdoria plays in the Cup Winners' Cup. Arrigo Sacchi's Rossoneri won the European Cup the previous year and are favorites again in 1990. Indeed, Milan eliminated - with great effort - Real Madrid and Bayern Munich along the way. The final was tough too: 1-0 against Benfica with a goal by Rijkaard, marking their second consecutive Champions League win. The UEFA Cup was an Italian affair in those years: Napoli won it in '89, Inter would win it in '91, and in 1990, Juventus and Fiorentina competed for it. The final was played over two legs: Juventus won 3-1 in Turin, and it ended 0-0 in Florence. It was Baggio's last game with Fiorentina before moving to Juve. The Cup Winners' Cup of the time was even more prestigious than the Conference League: it went to Barcelona in '89, Man United in '91, and in 1990, Sampdoria, led by Vialli and Mancini, claimed it. The match against Anderlecht went into extra time and was decided by a Vialli double. No other country has ever managed to win all 3 major European competitions in a single season. England is the other country to have brought 4 European finalists in the same season, which was the 2018/19 season. However, it should be noted that there were only two available European competitions: the Champions League and the Europa League. The Premier League thus made a clean sweep but could not have reached the 3 Italian victories of 1989/90. In the Champions League, it was Liverpool's year, defeating Tottenham (in their first final in the tournament) thanks to Salah and Origi. That victory marked a turning point for Klopp: it was his first trophy with Liverpool, who hadn't won a cup since 2012, while the Champions League had been missing since 2005. In the Europa League, the clash was Chelsea-Arsenal, a final dominated 4-1 by the Blues coached by Maurizio Sarri. A great disappointment for the Gunners, who have only won one European trophy: the Cup Winners' Cup in 1994. 📸 TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA
The Guardian
05-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Get Real: serial Champions League winners Madrid face fresh threat
Narratives are never as straightforward as they may appear. One era does not yield easily to another. What constitutes an era changes over time. While history is happening it's often hard to make sense of it; patterns seem to emerge that, from the perspective of 20 years later are meaningless, or culs-de-sac. That seems particularly true this season. As the Champions League reaches its quarter-final stage this coming week, it feels that one age has ended and another has yet to materialise. The past was a simpler place. First there was the age of dominance by Real Madrid and Benfica, teams from the capitals of Iberian nations under right-wing dictatorships, packed with great individuals. Then came systematisation, catenaccio and the Italian ascendancy, followed, with a brief period of crossover, by the era of domination by the northern European industrial powers, skipping swiftly over Celtic and Manchester United to the Dutch and Total Football and then Bayern Munich. Then came the long period of English superiority before the Heysel ban, after which everything gets more complicated. There were the one-off champions – Porto, Steaua, PSV Eindhoven, Red Star Belgrade, Barcelona and Marseille – around the mighty Milan of Arrigo Sacchi, who in 1990 were the last side successfully to defend the title for 27 years. As the Champions League began, and began making the rich richer, the nature of the pattern changed. As increasing number of sides were admitted from the bigger leagues, so the level of competition increased. It became harder and harder for one club or one country to dominate. There was a period when it was clear Italian sides were the teams to beat, but that resulted in more defeats in finals for Serie A clubs than successes. Then Real Madrid won three titles in five years. Porto beating Monaco in the 2004 final in 2004 felt like the end of an era, the last time a team from outside the big four European leagues won the competition. What has followed has been the era of the super-clubs, 20 years in which the prize has been passed around nine teams from four countries. Include losing finalists and you only add five more clubs and one country. Real Madrid, with six titles in that time, have clearly been the dominant club, while the Premier League, with six titles shared out, has probably underperformed given its financial dominance. This is not about the domination of a single country but the domination of capital. Finance is all. Beyond that, it's very hard to isolate more precise themes, although there is a clear irony in that the spell from Pep Guardiola's Barcelona beating Manchester United in the 2009 final to the present day has been the most theory-driven period of football's history, and yet the most successful side has been essentially pragmatic, a team based on brilliant individuals with a remarkable knack of doing something brilliant just when it is needed. It was the era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but it was also the era, at least more recently, of huge swings and turnarounds. Which made for great entertainment, but perhaps suggested teams unused to defending in domestic leagues in which they were dominant finding themselves unable to scrap and shut games down when they came under pressure. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Messi and Ronaldo have gone now, the group stage has a new format and the goals per game ratio has dipped – after 12 seasons in which goals per game in the knockout stages dipped below three once, it has been below three in each of the past four years. A new age is coming into being, may perhaps already have begun, but what will it look like? In one obvious way, it seems a lot like the old age, in that there's every chance Real Madrid win a 16th Champions League, their seventh in 12 seasons, despite an unconvincing campaign – they lost three times in the group stage – and, more remarkably, despite consistently lobbying against the Champions League and its structures, and being at war with their own federation. This feels a very modern fable, the serial winners sickened by being unable to win quite enough, or at least lucratively enough, the establishment outraged by challenge. Arsenal's chances of upsetting them were diminished by Gabriel's hamstring injury, but they have the best defence in the Premier League and that, plus the return of Bukayo Saka and his delivery from corners, gives them at least a glimmer of a chance. The other Premier League hope, Aston Villa, have enjoyed their European campaign but neither they nor Arsenal seem on the verge of starting a dynasty. There could be a first-ever clásico final, which would be enticing both from a historical and footballing point of view, although Barcelona are also at war with the Spanish federation and are one of the other holdouts against Uefa in the campaign for a Super League. It's hard to imagine Dortmund, after their miserable season, presenting much opposition. Bayern have dominated other German opposition, but there have been times, notably against Feyenoord and Celtic, when they have seemed inexplicably slow. Inter, meanwhile, have gradually improved over the season to top Serie A. Which leaves Paris Saint-Germain, who have developed radically since a tame defeat by Arsenal in the group stage, and beat Liverpool with verve and energy. Victory for them would be the first for a league outside the big four for two decades and would represent vindication for their move away from celebrity. That leaves the potential for a semi-final, between PSG, tool of the Qatari state, suddenly representing a progressive team-based ethic, and the old money of Real Madrid and their star system. But there is no clear pattern. Madrid appear the default winners but there are possibilities for a mix of familiar big names, plus one upstart newcomer. The environment is different, but as around the turn of the century, there is a slightly messy sense of an age coming into being – which reflects the scrappiness of the Premier League this season, itself probably a function of accumulated fatigue amid the absurd new calendar. It's likely Real Madrid will win the Champions League again because that's just what happens. But there is a chance amid the uncertainty of the interregnum for a less-fancied side to nick a fragment of history for themselves.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sacchi warns Inter about Kane: He ‘rarely forgives'
Arrigo Sacchi feels Inter must play an 'aggressive game' away at Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals and warns the Nerazzurri about Harry Kane: 'He rarely forgives.' The defending Serie A champions have qualified for the Champions League quarter-finals, beating Feyenoord 4-1 on aggregate. They will meet Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. 'The Germans play well on the wings, are strong in midfield, and have a striker like Kane, who rarely forgives,' Sacchi wrote in his latest Gazzetta dello Sport column. 'Inter will need a top-level performance to beat Bayern. The details—which we Italians always pay close attention to—will make the difference. 'Of course, Inter will need to go to Munich with the mindset of playing an aggressive game, putting pressure on their opponents to unsettle them and shake their confidence. Recovering both physical and mental energy will be crucial, as will approaching the first match with calmness and without tension. 'Then, there will be the return leg at San Siro, which is definitely an advantage for the Nerazzurri. If the tie remains level, they could play extra time in front of their home crowd. 'This two-legged matchup is wide-open, and there isn't a clear favourite from the start,' concluded Sacchi. 'However, if Inter avoid major setbacks, particularly injuries, they have everything it takes to compete on equal terms with Bayern and even to eliminate them.'
