Updated at 20.08
REAL MADRID FIRED their coach Carlo Ancelotti on Monday, club president Florentino Perez said, making the popular Italian pay for a disappointing season without a major trophy.
“The board of directors has taken the decision this afternoon to relieve Carlo Ancelotti of his duties as coach of Real Madrid,” Perez told a news conference at the club’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
“It has been a very hard decision… but Real Madrid is extremely demanding and we believe it is time to give a new impulse” to the club.
The former AC Milan and Chelsea coach leaves Madrid after just two years in the job having failed to convert a record run of victories last year into silverware at the end of this season.
Madrid had won the Club World Cup on a streak of 22 consecutive wins between September and December to add to the Copa del Rey and UEFA Super Cup in a record four-trophy haul in 2014.
But they were beaten to the Spanish league title by a treble-seeking Barcelona and eliminated by city rivals Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey.
Ancelotti’s last chance of keeping his job was ended when one of his former clubs, Juventus, knocked Real out of the Champions League earlier this month to progress to the final.
That was too much for the club’s management, despite Ancelotti’s popularity with fans and players.
Media have reported that Napoli’s Spanish coach Rafael Benitez is the favourite to replace him.
Perez said the new coach would be named next week.
Of the early candidates, former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez — who began his career at Real — has been heavily linked with the job.
I was in Croker on Sunday screaming my throat raw for the Rebels, but hats off to the Dubs, they have a quality team. Some fantastic play and lovely scores out of them. Actually thought they had the winning of it till the sending off. Even then, they were dangerous till the end.
Look forward to seeing more of them next year.
my friend’s mother makes $83/hour on the computer. She has been without a job for 5 months but last month her check was $21383 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read more on this web site… www.Can99.com
Jokes on her, I make $84 an hour
Michele
If your friends mother makes that much money why you wasting your Time on the journal , wasting our time ..do us all a favour and get a real job,. Ps the journal should have sent you and your scam on your way .. Tool .. You add nothing to society..
So pleased Cork won. All this hype about Dublin teams gives me a pain in the colon::-)
John. With respect…you haven’t a clue about hurling…to make a comment like that…this year will be remembered ..in the same regard as the mid nineties.. ..a great year for gaa..
Did u read any of the papers that week,on the front page of the star there was an article about Dublin hurling and on the back page,it’s bias journalism towards Dublin gaa,always has and always will,when Kerry last won the all Ireland there was a two page article about Dublin football in the Sunday world,tell me any losing team in a final that gets more coverage than a winning team
Most of the media coverage this week has all been about Dublin hurling,people would swear that they beat Cork,teams that beat Dublin in hurling and football never get the proper recognition,
Im sure the rebels will get plenty of recognition if they bring back liam to cork town !
john so true! and same after the Kilkenny game but it doesn’t really matter when Liam comes home in Srptember!!!!
Really hope Clare win Liam now
This fella griffiths has ideas about himself. Lots of ideas
I thought it was more of a semi-colon, myself.