He’d waited and waited, biding his time for the right opportunity to present itself. Time and again, various approaches were made to the highly sought after coach, but on every occasion Carlo Ancelotti politely declined. Having been sacked by Bayern Munich in September 2017, the 58-year-old had dismissed links to former club AC Milan, rebuffed an offer from the Italian national team, been linked with a return to Juventus and mentioned as a potential candidate for various Premier League jobs.
None seemed to tempt the Reggiolo native, until suddenly this week he was rumoured to be in talks with Serie A runners-up Napoli. Given that Maurizio Sarri had brought them back into the Champions League and made them genuine Scudetto challengers while playing a breathtaking brand of football, it seemed initially to be little more than outlandish gossip, even as club President Aurelio De Laurentiis publicly criticised his current Coach.
Lambasting Sarri’s lack of rotation and flexibility while wondering aloud whether the gruff boss would continue his tenure at the Stadio San Paolo, the Napoli owner soon took to Twitter to thank Sarri for his efforts. That was followed by news that he was indeed negotiating with Ancelotti, the news confirmed when De Laurentiis posted a picture of himself and the ex-Chelsea manager together.
That they were stood back-to-back as if preparing to duel was somewhat apt, a succession of Coaches including Rafael Benitez, Walter Mazzarri and Roberto Donadoni all finding themselves on the receiving end of the film producer’s pointed barbs. Desperate to bring glory to Naples, De Laurentiis is a demanding, strict, brash club owner who usually makes carefully considered decisions but is occasionally known to act on whim, qualities which Ancelotti has undoubtedly encountered numerous times throughout his career.
Arguably no modern-day Coach is better equipped at dealing with such an owner, having carefully negotiated a path to success while working for Silvio Berlusconi, Roman Abramovich, Florentino Perez and Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
Each time the Italian tactician delivered silverware while enduring various levels of interference from above, but he also benefited from substantial investment on the transfer market, something he almost certainly will not have after being officially appointed by Napoli on Wednesday. Signing a three-year contract, he will be expected to improve upon Sarri’s accomplishments, which will be no easy feat given the difficult and rapidly improving Serie A landscape.
AS Roma finished third despite completely overhauling their squad and appointing a new Coach in Eusebio Di Francesco, while fourth-placed Inter will be bolstered by their return to the Champions League after a six-year hiatus. Milan will be looking for a much better campaign in 2018/19, while Lazio, Atalanta and Fiorentina will all seek to cause the top clubs problems. That combination of ambitious sides jostling for position is tough enough, but looming over all of them are Juventus, title winners in each of the last seven seasons and showing no signs of regression.
If anything, the Bianconeri can expect to be better next term than they were this time around when they unexpectedly dropped points on a number of occasions. Those factors – combined with their own strict spending and salary budgets – allow Napoli very little margin for error, as Sarri clearly discovered. His side become the first in Italy to surpass 90 points and not win the title, their high-quality starting XI looking drained in the final months as a lack of rotation came back to haunt them in devastating fashion.
Ancelotti has the experience not to be caught out by that challenge, but he has often struggled to maintain interest in the week-to-week monotony of a 38-game grind. His Champions League pedigree cannot be questioned, but a return of just five league titles from 17 seasons in charge of Juventus, Milan, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich underscores just how often he has failed to finish first even at the helm of an elite team.
However, he will bring a class and prestige to Napoli, one that may allow them to keep the majority of their best players. The fear of a mass exodus was discussed in this previous column, but Ancelotti has the cache and pedigree to convince Jorghino, Elseid Hysaj, Kalidou Koulibaly and others to remain with the Partenopei, while also attracting others to join them.
That brings the very real possibility of stepping out of Juve’s long and overpowering shadow, something that would spark unforgettable celebrations in the city of Naples. Maurizio Sarri’s eye-catching “Sarrisimo” era is over, it’s Carlo Ancelotti’s time now and it will be interesting to see if he can go one better than his predecessor. He’s waited long enough, and so have they.
