Thursday 10 November 2011

Ancelotti rumours not poppy-cock


No doubt what the week’s number one football story has been: Poppies have been everywhere, and I’m not talking about Kettering Town.

COMMON SENSE HAS PREVAILED seems to be the mantra of the day after FIFA relented and decided to allow England to wear black armbands with poppies on during their friendly with Spain to mark Remembrance Day.

Without wishing to seem disrespectful, I think common sense went out the window several days ago, and some of the behaviour of our public figures (hello David Cameron) has been beyond parody. But there we go, at least now everyone is happy, including the EDL.

It’s not clear whether or not Carlo Ancelotti was wearing a poppy during his two day visit to Paris, but what is obvious is that his trip to the capital can’t be good news for incumbent coach Antoine Kombouare.

“Ancelotti met Leonardo, the sporting director of PSG, who he rubbed shoulders with at AC Milan, and Nasser al-Khelaifi, the chairman of the board,” said today’s Parisien and every other French paper with a vague interest in football.

“The three men laid the foundation for a future collaboration aiming to make the 52-year-old Italian the new PSG coach next season.”

Apparently AK didn’t help his cause with a slightly bristly response al-Khelaifi’s declaration that the season will be a failure if we don’t win the title. Apologies if this is a poor translation, but I think the jist is right:

“There is no problem, these are the words of the president,” said the coach. “I stick to my line and he knows that [...] Let us not forget that the original target was the Champions League. For the Championship, there are plenty of factors to take into account.”

I like Kombouare and think the way he has handled himself since the takeover has been spot-on. He’s generally kept his head down, forged a functioning, if slightly disjointed, team from players he didn’t necessarily pick, and managed to get them to the top of the league.

But you kind of get the feeling that QSI are just waiting for an excuse to get shot of him, and that the good run in the league is just delaying the inevitable. If the aim of the project is to become one of the top teams in Europe, then they will need a coach with a suitable profile, and Ancelotti probably fits the bill.

Let’s just hope that if the end is nigh for AK, that the club deal with things in a professional manner and we don’t have to endure a trickle of rumours and leaked stories for the rest of this season.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | Grants For Single Moms