Ancellotti has a book out and talks about Chelsea and meetings with Roman
In the opening chapter, entitled âCalled up by Abramovich - the beginningsâ, he writes of two meetings with Chelsea last year. One in Geneva and one in Paris.
He writes: 'The taxi driver (in Paris) is studying my facial expressions in his rear-view mirror. Heâs looking for answers but I canât give him any. At least for the moment. I am somebody who has left in a clandestine manner looking for love, or at least it seems that way. A strange sensation, itâs not something familiar to me.
'The manager of Milan is on a secret mission. Me, 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 to Stamford Bridge, from yesterday to tomorrow, from one devil to another. And there I am, in Paris, going to Roman Abramovich, the Russian who has come from nowhere but above all - as far as Iâm concerned - the rich owner of Chelsea. Whoâs looking for a new manager.
'Nobody knows this but weâve already seen each other once, a couple of weeks ago. In Switzlerand, in a big hotel in Geneva, just outside the city centre. I would tell you the name but I swear I donât remember it. It must be my age.
'I was on holiday on the lake, relaxing by the sweet water after the bitterness of failing to qualify for the Champions League with Milan. Abramovich came after me, itâs a good thing but how many bodyguards! They are the ones who accompanied me to the Big Chief and to Peter Kenyon. Their team was completed by a lawyer and an interpreter.
'We sat down and greeted each other cordially, and then we started to talk. Always about football and only about football.
We are in May 2008. Abramovich wanted to know everything about me, my way of working, my philosophy. He was and is still looking for a team with a precise identity: âLike Manchester United, Liverpool, Milan, certainly not like my Chelsea.â
âAbramovich says âChelsea donât have a personality. I have the ambition of winning every competition in which my team takes part, a team that at the moment I donât recogniseââ'While he was talking, my curiosity perked up. He wasnât 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: âDear Ancelotti, I want to win everything. Everything.â I remembered of another president. He made a great impression on me. An hour flew by during which we never talked about money. âGoodbye, see you soon.â
'So here we are, back in Paris. The George V, great hotel two steps from the Champs Elysees, a spectacular terrace with a view over Paris, and in this case over his London too.
'Me and Abramovich, Act Two. Nobody should know anything, weâre all agreed. Iâm wearing sunglasses. I look around and with the typical expression of a secret agent. I make sure there are no photographers at the hotel entrance. Yesterday, a few minutes away from here, Massimo Moratti of Inter Milan met Jose Mourinho.
'I didnât want to have the same end. Road is free, nobody suspicious, I can enter. But no, f**k. I donât believe it. Just around the corner I see Federico Pastorello, an Italian agent that I know very well. I hide. I go to the far end and bump into a very dear colleague and friend. Another Italian manager who works in a city that occupies. (Roma coach Luciano Spalletti, who clearly has also met with Chelsea that day).
'I laugh. âWhat are you doing here?â âNo, what are you doing?â. I laugh again. This improvised refuge is starting to make sense, I feel like I am in a supermarket. Everyone here to talk to this chairman, and maybe weâre his shopping list. A bench for two, for three, for a hundred, who knows how many?
'I go to meet him one floor up. Heâs waiting in a conference room and has the same people he had in Geneva sat around the table. I immediately make one thing clear.
âI have a contract with Milan, Iâm very well there, and an eventual agreement with Chelsea can only happen if Milan is also in agreementâ.
'Again we only talked about football. How would I make Chelsea play in case they got me as a manager?
'âPresident, your team is very physical, you have to put more quality in the middle of the pitch,â I tell him. I gave him two names, Franck Ribery and Xabi Alonso. Players that would have made him very happy.
âWe looked up at the TV and there was His Mourinhity (Jose Mourinho), comparing himself to Jesus. I thought "forgive him his sins, he knows not what he is talking aboutâ'He thought of a third name, that of Andriy Shevchenko, who was close to his heart and it was easy to see.
âI canât understand why heâs not playing., because since we brought him to England heâs not the real Sheva, heâs in difficulties.â
'âPresident, I canât know the reason myself.â We talk and talk and talk some more.
'I find I can easily chat with Abramovich. He doesnât make me feel uncomfortable, not even when he says with a low voice: âWeâve just lost the Champions League final, and the League, I canât certainly be satisfied. Chelsea donât have a personality. I have the ambition of winning every competition in which my team takes part, a team that at the moment I donât recognise.â
'He thinks so much about the results and the beautiful game. Another forty minutes fly by. âThanks Ancelotti, weâll meet again.â No financial offer. OK everything clear, for now thereâs no offer.
'A couple of hours later the phone rings. âHello this is (Adriano) Galliani (Milan vice-president). Beautiful Paris isnât it?â Pause. âHow did your elopement go?â He already knew everything. Like Moratti and Mourinho the day before.
'I said: âI came to talk to Abramovich. When the president of a club of that important calls you, itâs fair to at least go and meet him.â
âNevertheless, youâre not leaving.â
âBut I donât want to leave.â
âIt was my curiosity to meet a man so important in our world, that yes, but not the fierce desire to leave Milan. At that moment we were very well together.â
