Real Madrid should end the rumors about Ancelotti's future

It was refreshing to read that the anticipated changes in management are by no means definite, and that managingmadrid understands Real have not ruled out maintaining the status quo as far as the head coach is concerned.  It's also good to hear that various meetings are scheduled to take place over the next few days to discuss the events of the season as reported earlier by Lucas on the MM website.

The fact that meetings are taking place at all is encouraging; since this effectively rules out a knee jerk reaction being made by the club to Barcelona winning the league title and Real being knocked out of the Champions League by Juventus.

It's only natural that people will begin to talk about what Real Madrid's intentions are and to try to second-guess the board as they analyse not only recent events, but also the events leading up to the final part of the season where the major trophies were lost.

It all started brightly enough for Madrid as early season setbacks quickly passed and the team settled down, with the league going well until the time came to play in the World Club Cup competition.  Then, after playing abroad over the festive season, Real Madrid returned to find themselves struggling to repeat the successes of the pre-Christmas period when the ‘BBC' were on good form and team spirit was high.

Injuries were present even then, although with the greatest of respect injuries to key players such as Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema were bound to have had a greater effect on team dynamics than injuries sustained by players in more interchangeable positions.  Nonetheless, Madrid still managed to pick up their fair share of injuries to complicate team selection and make continuity difficult.

It's been well and truly documented that injuries together with losses of form and confidence to players like Gareth Bale had an obvious effect on the team and at one point even the whole ‘BBC' were finding it difficult to hit the net regularly.  The approach to the player rotation system has constantly been discussed with Carlo Ancelotti generally felt to have underused this, but in reality, he needed to pick who he believed to be his best players.

Cristiano Ronaldo didn't hit top form in the first part of the Espanyol game last Sunday yet came good at the end with the vital goals required on the night.  Carlo Ancelotti will have had no reason to believe that similar feats could not have been accomplished earlier in the season, hence his likely belief in picking the same nucleus of players week-in week-out in the opinion that they could deliver.

It's always easy to be wise after the event, and who knows, looking back he may have approached things differently.  Experienced coaches always learn from events that have gone before and on reflection, Ancelotti may well have thought that although a particular decision or player selection turned out to be wrong at the time, that same decision may well turn out to be right under different circumstances and against different opposition.

All these topics are likely going to be on the agenda for the up-and-coming meetings and it will be good to hear the analysis once all the discussions have taken place about the coach's future.  I'm sure that Carlo Ancelotti himself will have the opportunity to add his own input to these discussions and clarify the reasons for footballing decisions he made over the past few months.

Hopefully he will be able to convince the board that his reasons were sound and if he has the reported backing of the players as well, the latter could be the telling factor.

The end of the season isn't a pleasant time for any manager or coach who's failed to deliver the anticipated success and it's a difficult position to be in.  Does CA stay loyal to the club or does he start thinking ahead and begin looking around?  It must be tempting for him to have a look at what's going on elsewhere and at least have a think about what his options might be; especially if the situation is perceived to be as clear cut as the media reports make out.

All too often the manager / head coach is the last one to know that he's going to be looking for a new position; with media speculation often resulting in the whole scenario escalating and before you know it the new coach is virtually moving in according to the media before the existing coach has even been told that he's on his way out.

Okay, he's hardly going to start ringing people up to see if they need a head coach but the longer the uncertainty remains the more tempting it must be to start looking at house prices elsewhere.  An indication from the Madrid board would be so welcome at this time as to what their thoughts are, because they are the only people who really know what the outcome of the scheduled meetings are likely to be.

I wonder if Madrid supporters would prefer stability in the management roles to the constant talk of change?

It's all very well hearing on TV or in the media that the word is that ‘Ancelotti is out in a week' or that Jurgen Klopp and Rafa are the two favourites to replace him but the time for conjecture is now over and it would be good to go into the final game against Getafe with a clear understanding of the future plan.

That's not to say that the board should come out and give CA the dreaded ‘vote of confidence' which is usually taken as the signal to actually start looking at the house prices elsewhere, but as we said earlier, an indication of their thoughts would be so much appreciated.  Not only by Carlo Ancelotti and his coaching team either, but also by the players, other club staff and Real Madrid supporters world-wide who patiently wait and watch.