Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has given his opinion on Xavi Hernandez’s departure at Barcelona. The latter announced his departure at the end of the season, something Ancelotti said that he ‘understood’.
Xavi had said in his press conference after their defeat to Villarreal that the job at Barcelona was cruel and unpleasant. He doubled down on Tuesday, saying that Barcelona had a problem with the demands of the job. Ancelotti was asked whether he felt it was a cruel job.
“I just want to say one thing and I don’t want comparisons. We (the coaches) have a fantastic job, with pressure, which is normal. And I respect everyone, their words and thoughts. Be it Xavi or anyone else.”
“I understand [his decision],” he affirmed though.
Ancelotti was also asked he ever felt as if Real Madrid had a problem with the demands of the job, which the Italian batted away.
“As I said, I respect his decisions and his thoughts. That’s it, what I don’t want are comparisons.”
However he did admit that he had felt more pressure at the start of his career, but rather in the top five leagues in Europe, it was in the second division in Italy.
“At the beginning of my career, in the Italian Second Division. There it was very difficult for me to manage the stress, to the point of telling an assistant that I was not going to make it to 2000. And here we are, in 2024, I continue. Little by little you get used to it and understand that pressure is the gasoline to do your job better,” Ancelotti explained.
Certainly Ancelotti has worked in some of the most difficult atmospheres in European football, and his ability to calm the tension and atmosphere around a club is one of the things that makes him so well suited to the Real Madrid job. Previous managers have struggled to do so, but Ancelotti takes problems and defeats in such a stable manner, that it is something that has allowed them to develop over the past three years.