Crap
Throwing money at Carlo Ancelotti shows Everton’s lack of coherent strategy
new
Matt Dickinson, Chief Sports Writer
Share
Save
Carlo Ancelotti likes to quote the Godfather to explain how he manages to remain so sanguine and affable even as he is sacked by an ungrateful owner. “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business,” he says.
Another quote from that classic movie springs to mind when trying to explain how one of the most decorated managers in the game could be on the brink of joining Everton, ranked 16th in the Premier League in mid-season — it became an offer he could not refuse.
Asked how Ancelotti could be ready to add a club with such fleeting and flimsy European pedigree over the last 50 years to a CV that reads like the boutiques of an up-market fashion house — Turin, Milan, London, Paris, Madrid, Munich — one source replied that Farhad Moshiri, the star-struck owner, had simply kept throwing money at the Italian until he could no longer say no.
That suggests estimates of a salary of at least £10 million per year, plus hefty bonuses, are not an exaggeration and even more than Ancelotti might have made at Arsenal, his preferred destination for all the obvious reasons. He also gets to bring his son and his staff of choice.
Put that way, you begin to see why Ancelotti accepted this lucrative opportunity despite all the challenges at Everton, a hankering for London, and initially thinking he would take a sabbatical after falling out with the Napoli owner and being sacked little more than a week ago.
For Moshiri, no doubt it feels a coup but we should set his pride against the knowledge that, under the Iranian’s ownership, Everton have had everything — big-money signings, big ambitions and now a big-name manager — apart from a coherent strategy. Delusions of grandeur have not been matched with even moderate success.
Is throwing a fortune to lure a coach of Ancelotti’s pedigree really the basis for a long and successful relationship? Is Ancelotti, at 60, the man to make sense of a Moshiri regime which has lurched from one costly mis-step to another in staffing and signings?
Given his reputation for handling big names, and bringing harmony to a dressing room, it was much easier to imagine Ancelotti trying to heal an Arsenal squad bereft of confidence, wrapping an arm around Mesut Özil.
Ancelotti will become one of the best paid managers in Europe if he takes the Everton jobACTION IMAGES VIA REUTERS/CARL RECINE
To think of him in the northwest was to see him at Manchester United who sent Sir Alex Ferguson to ply this renowned gourmand with expensive red wine in 2013. Ancelotti was wanted ahead of David Moyes and would have accepted had he not already made a verbal agreement to join Real Madrid.
After a rapid turnover of managers — Sam Allardyce, Ronald Koeman and Marco Silva in less than four years — Ancelotti is no doubt perceived as bringing some kind of blue-chip guarantee to Everton but that depends on his relish for the task in a league where he (with three Champions League medals as a coach) takes on the big giants of Pep Guardiola (two), Jose Mourinho (two) and Jürgen Klopp (one) without anything like comparable ammunition.
Did Moshiri give any thought to setting out a long-term vision, guided by a hungry Eddie Howe, or was his head turned from that first call from an agent whispering Ancelotti’s name seductively in his ear? After a process that has veered from Moyes to Ancelotti via Vitor Pereira, Moshiri has landed one of football’s big beasts, but is throwing money at any problem as far as his football knowledge goes?
For Ancelotti, another erratic tycoon to work for is par for the course. When, as Chelsea manager, you have been bollocked by Roman Abramovich following a 6-0 victory and sacked despite coming first and second in the top-flight then you can handle most owners and their whims.
Ancelotti has a marvellous ability to roll with football’s absurdities. He always says that level-headedness comes from a youth spent on a farm where his father produced cow’s milk for the local parmesan cheese. The process could take 18 months and payment would only come through when the cheese wheels had aged.
“That’s patience,” Ancelotti once explained. “I have the character of my father. He was really patient. Modern football is the opposite.”
Modern football is noisy and impulsive — and Ancelotti likes to laugh at the ridiculousness of it which is just one reason why he seems to be universally regarded as one of the most genuine and likeable men in the game while also being football royalty.
A distinguished player and even more successful manager, he has never been one to demand recognition. I once asked him what he wants etched on his gravestone. “Good man, good manager,” he replied, worried even that might sound boastful.
He called a book
Quiet Leadership — winning hearts, minds and matches and will certainly make Everton players feel better about themselves, presumably starting with Moise Kean following his humiliation at Old Trafford when he was a substitute substituted.
Ancelotti’s affability can mean he is underestimated compared to, say, Mourinho or Guardiola, and he does not have the same definite template of how the game should be played. He is a master of adaptability.
That amenable style has been mistaken for weakness, especially by club owners like Abramovich who thought he had gone too soft with the dressing room at Stamford Bridge. “They appoint me for being calm. Then they sack me and say ‘too calm’,” Ancelotti once explained, raising one of those eloquent eyebrows.
Calmness has served him extremely well given his three Serie A titles and two European Cup victories as a player, plus three Champions League triumphs as a coach as well as cups and league titles in Italy, Spain, France and England to become one of the most decorated of football men.
Yet a very different challenge awaits him at Everton — perhaps his greatest test if Leicester City are meant to show a way forward and the possibility of smashing into the big-six cartel. Good luck with that. Such a massive, enticing salary represents not just aspirations but a club’s dysfunction too.