From a Russian with love: the AC Milan coach reveals that he has been pursued by the owner for a year
Carlo Ancelotti has revealed astonishing details behind his clandestine talks with Roman Abramovich, including plans to sign Franck Ribéry and Xabi Alonso to improve a Chelsea team that, the Russian owner despaired, had “no personality”. The indiscreet disclosures in Ancelotti’s autobiography could not have come at a more delicate time, with the Italian on the brink of joining Chelsea — but only if he hears next week that he is no longer wanted to coach AC Milan.
Ancelotti says that, emotionally, he felt at times this season that he had already made the move to Stamford Bridge and claims that, for Abramovich, working with him would be a relief after employing José Mourinho — or “his Mourinhoness”, as Ancelotti scathingly refers to the Portuguese.
“I confess that at certain points in 2008-09 I watched my DVDs of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba,” Ancelotti writes. “I was already the coach of the boys on paper. I thought, there are worse things in life than me and Abramovich together. The worst for him had already been and gone. He had already worked with His Specialness, Mourinho.”
Later, in a meeting with Adriano Galliani, the Milan director, Ancelotti writes: “We looked up at the television and there was his Mourinhoness, comparing himself to Jesus. I thought, ‘Forgive him his sins, he knows not what he is talking about.’ ”
Abramovich has been pursuing Ancelotti for 12 months, but the 49-year-old still refuses to commit himself to Chelsea and reiterated yesterday that he would see out the final year on his contract at Milan if they want him to stay. It also remains to be seen how the Chelsea owner will react to the disclosure.
Ancelotti goes into great detail about his talks with the Russian, starting at an hotel near Geneva last year. “Abramovich wanted to know everything about me, my way of working, my philosophy,” he writes. “He was and still is looking for a team with a precise identity: ‘Like Manchester United, Liverpool, Milan, certainly not like my Chelsea.’
“While he was talking, my curiosity perked up. He wasn’t the monster that papers painted him to be. The first thing I noticed was his timidity. The second his great knowledge of football. The third his hunger, his bulimia: ‘Dear Ancelotti, I want to win everything. Everything.’ He made a great impression on me. An hour flew by during which we never talked about money.”
They had a second meeting at the George V hotel in Paris that Ancelotti describes in hilarious detail, comparing himself to James Bond as he is whisked across the French capital. “The manager of Milan is on a secret mission,” he writes. “I, like 007, on my own. Sat behind a driver with the face of a killer. More than a taxi, this is like a time machine, from Milanello [the Serie A club's training ground] to Stamford Bridge, from yesterday to tomorrow, from one devil (the rossonero) to another . . .”
It is at this second meeting that the men get into real detail about how they plan to rebuild a Chelsea team with which Abramovich had fallen out of love under Avram Grant’s leadership, even though they reached the Champions League final.
In the book — launched yesterday, and from which all proceeds are going to research a form of motor neuron disease that has afflicted two former footballers in Italy — Ancelotti writes that he told Abramovich: “ ‘President, your team is very physical, you have to put more quality in the middle of the pitch.’ I gave him two names, Franck Ribéry and Xabi Alonso, players that would have made him very happy.
“He thought of a third name, that of Andriy Shevchenko, who was close to his heart it was easy to see. ‘I can’t understand why he’s not playing, because since we brought him to England he’s not the real Sheva, he’s in difficulties.’ ‘President, I can’t know the reason myself.’ We talk and talk and talk some more.
“I find I can easily chat with Abramovich. He doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable, not even when he says with a low voice: ‘We’ve just lost the Champions League final, and the league, I can’t certainly be satisfied. Chelsea don’t have a personality. I have the ambition of winning every competition in which my team takes part, but this is a team that at the moment I don’t recognise.’ ” Ancelotti describes how, fearful of being spotted in Paris, he wears dark glasses and checks the streets “like a secret agent” for photographers, only to bump into Luciano Spalletti, the Roma coach, who was also being interviewed by Abramovich.
“I laugh,” he writes. “ ‘What are you doing here?’ ‘No, what are you doing?’ I laugh. I laugh again. I feel like I am in a supermarket. Everyone here to talk to this chairman, and maybe we’re his shopping list.”
Soon afterwards Ancelotti received a call from Galliani, who had been tipped off about the talks. He told him that the club did not want him to go. Ancelotti agreed to stay, but negotiations with Chelsea have continued into this season and the Italian has been having three English lessons per week “to prepare the ground” — not that he is showing any evidence of being fluent, with all interviews conducted in Italian yesterday.
The mixed signals continue with Ancelotti insisting yesterday: “If Milan ask me to stay, I’ll stay.” Silvio Berlusconi, the president, has been critical of Milan’s performances this season, with the team going into the last game this weekend still to secure Champions League qualification.
Ancelotti has previously been “on the brink” at Milan, almost moving to Real Madrid in 2006 and then Chelsea a year ago. But this time Berlusconi is known to be eyeing up alternative coaches, notably Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, playing legends at the San Siro.
The president may decide it is time for a change of regime after eight years of Ancelotti, who has won two Champions League titles during that time. Rijkaard has also been spoken to by Chelsea, but he would prefer to go to Milan than to London.
Ancelotti’s future — and a saga stretching back more than 12 months — will be resolved on Monday. Chelsea are resigned to Saturday’s FA Cup Final being Guus Hiddink’s farewell.
The Italian’s jobs:
- Carlo Ancelotti was born in 1959 in Reggiolo and owns the farm where he grew up, a 75-minute journey from AC Milan’s training ground.
- He made his Serie A debut with Roma in 1979 and became a kind of Italian Darren Anderton: a talented midfield player whose career was beset by injuries.
- Ancelotti won 26 caps for Italy, as well as Serie A titles with Roma and Milan, twice. He moved to the San Siro in 1987 and won two European Cups in four years. In 1995 he made his coaching debut with Reggiana in Serie B, joining Parma a year later and steering them to second place in Serie A. Sacked in 1998, he took over at Juventus in 1999.
- In 2001 he was appointed Milan coach and has led the club to one Serie A title and two Champions League triumphs. Popular with the players, he is considered to be approachable and unpretentious — he has operated for years without an agent. He comes across as less aloof than Fabio Capello but more serious than Claudio Ranieri. But without a good command of English, how would he fare in the Barclays Premier League?
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