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Just over 24 hours after the news emerging that Carlo Ancelotti could be leaving Everton to fill the vacant manager’s role at Real Madrid, he has already been signed and unveiled by the Spanish giants.
Speaking to the media today during his first official press conference since returning to the Madrid after being sacked two years into his last stint, the veteran Italian manager touched on a number of topics, but did mention Everton in a couple of instances.
Regarding how much he has changed since the last time he was at Real, Ancelotti said -
“Football has changed in these last five years - it is more aggressive and organised. But our idea remains the same - to play attacking, spectacular football - what this club’s history and fans demand.
“Carlo Ancelotti is not the same as six years ago. I have six more years experience, that can be positive or negative. I felt very good at Everton, a family club. You can learn from all experiences, bad ones too.”
Word is that his son Davide Ancelotti will be following him along with the remainder of the coaching staff he had at Everton, minus Duncan Ferguson of course.
“We will talk about the coaching staff in the coming days. We have not spoken about anything yet, truly, just to finish things with Everton, and sign my contract.”
A statement he made that seemed to dig at Everton’s somewhat smaller ambitions has already gotten Blues riled up on social media.
“I think each team has an objective, a challenge to try and achieve. The objective for Real Madrid is to try and compete to win the Champions League, La Liga. The objective of Everton is to try and get into European football, to fight to try and get into European football.
“Each team has an objective. Success isn’t just winning trophies, success for a manager is to reach the objective that the club has. Everton doesn’t have the objective to win the Premier League, it has the objective to try and play in European football and we fought until the end.
“To get to the last game fighting for Europe, I think that was a success.”
He’s not really wrong here, Everton are still early on in a rebuilding phase and it would be a deluded Evertonian who would expect the Blues to be contending for the Premier League title. What has also provoked some ire is his insistence that the season was not a disappointment despite the Blues falling away from European contention all the way down to tenth place in the last weeks of the season.
For now though the challenge remains for the Blues to find a manager that will continue to improve the squad and get us back to challenging for a top six position.