The gentleman tried to resist until the last second: «Are you sure Aurelio that I can’t do anything to make you change your mind?». No, there was nothing left to do. The dismissal was served immediately after qualifying for the Champions League round of 16, in Caruso Roof Garden of the Hotel Vesuvio. “But leaving was the right thing to do,” he admitted years later, on the eve of his return to Maradona in November last year. Carlo Erminio (full name, like that of his grandfather) Ancelotti last Saturday he won the 28th title of his history and the other evening the sixth Champions League final of his career, inventing the substitution of Joselu in place of Valverde. No one like him, with his courage, his knowledge of men and life. Unique. Unattainable. Put together, all the coaches in the current Serie A have not played in a final. Except Thiago Motta, but as a footballer. «I boiled? Yes, after Naples that’s what they said about me. But I must say that I really like boiled meat.” There is no one like him. And there is no one else who doesn’t give De Laurentiis heartburn with the memory of him, given how it ended. Incredibly, the most successful man in our football, capable of playing Bellingham as a full-back, was never able to convince Insigne to move ten meters towards the center of the attack.
The adventure
A year ago he risked leaving, after the 4-0 defeat against Manchester City. But Florentino has a long view and confirmed it. There is little that can be done: he is the man of the failed revolution at Napoli, De Laurentiis put an end to him as if he had put an end to a misunderstanding, after realizing that he had signed Ibrahimovic on his own for six months (and seven million per year). Ancelotti is one of a kind, he crosses the barriers between man-based, zone-based, traditional, innovative, Italian-style, Castilian-style, grilled and wood-fired games. Because there is only one possible game: the one where the one who scores one more goal wins. Without extremism, without schemes, without labels, tik and tok, 80 percent ownership. To score, he says, 4 passes and 10 seconds are enough. You play based on the players you have, you manage it without anxiety but with firmness. In Naples, none of this succeeded: everything went wrong. Even Davide, the son heir to the throne, was rejected by the blue group who wanted his father on the pitch to manage training and not the child prodigy that everyone at Real Madrid takes to the stars. Kicked out by Napoli, he remained without the bench for less than ten days: because he is not Conte or Spalletti and not even for a fraction of a second did he fall into the sumptuous trap of the sabbatical. He knows how it works, like the smart guy he is: someone takes a sumptuous break at the expense of someone who has disowned you, announces that he wants to dedicate himself to travel to the Far East, to meditation and then on his return he finds no one who wants him. No, the call came from Everton and he started again at the club with Klopp on the opposite bank. Without hesitation. To forget. King Charles’ parable seemed to be going downhill, but a country man never gives up. He took two small revenges: taking Allan, one of the rebels from the night of the mutiny with Salzburg and, above all, James Rodriguez, who De Laurentiis had pretended to chase without having any intention of signing a champion worth 10 million. Ancelotti flies towards his sixth Champions League final, after triumphing in La Liga, after leading the White Army against Bayern Munich with conviction and determination. He is the best of all time. Except for a few months. In Naples.
