Quiet Leadership: Winning Hearts, Minds and Matches

by Carlo Ancelotti

  I digress. Let’s go back, to Carlo joining the club. He steadies the ship and we climb the table, getting to fourth position and into the next season’s Champions League. In this competition in 2003 we reach the semi-finals along with two other Italian clubs, Juventus and our local rivals Inter. Three out of the four semi-finalists Italian – a success that is unlikely to happen again anytime soon. We are drawn against Inter and we eliminate them, while Juventus beat Real Madrid to reach the final.

  Then the most beautiful thing in the world happens, and it will stay engraved in Milan fans’ hearts for ever. We beat Juventus on penalties to win the Champions League under Carlo in Manchester. Three days later, we win the Coppa Italia against Roma. The Champions League and the Coppa Italia in a matter of days. Fantastic!

  Our adventure with Carlo goes on. We win the European Super Cup in 2003, the Scudetto in 2004 – a marvellous time for the club. In 2005 we finish second in the league and reach the Champions League final again, but we lose in Istanbul against Liverpool. In 2007 we would have a repeat of this final and win this time. Milan were first in the European rankings, ahead of Real Madrid and Barcelona, in July 2007.

  Those eight years with Carlo were Milan’s most beautiful period. As always, there were victories and defeats, but many more victories. We won eight trophies: an Italian championship, a Coppa Italia, a Supercoppa Italia, two Champions Leagues, two European Super Cups and a Club World Cup. If you add this to the trophies he won as a player, Carlo can boast an unbelievable curriculum vitae. Together with Pep Guardiola of Barcelona and Miguel Muñoz of Real Madrid, Carlo is one of only three people in the world to have won the Champions League as a player and a coach with the same club. In the end, something magical and marvellous happened.

  I am always asked if there were recriminations after the Istanbul final, but that was not the case. We supported Carlo. Our reaction was of great sorrow, but in Istanbul Milan had played marvellously during the first half and the whole of the second except for those six minutes during which we conceded three goals. We should have won. In the 120th minute Shevchenko was stopped by a miraculous save by Jerzy Dudek. Destiny. Milan won two years later in Athens but played much worse.

  During those five beautiful years we reached three Champions League finals, one semi-final and a quarter-final, which was incredible. Nobody could come close to us during that period – not Barcelona, nor Bayern, nor Real.

  I don’t believe there exists a magic formula about how a coach should be. Carlo is a great motivator and he has his own way to manage his players, just as Mourinho has his and Guardiola his. Ultimately, results do speak for a coach. Each of us has his own way. With children, for example, there are hard parents, soft parents, those who use the stick and those who use the carrot. In the end the results say if you were right or wrong, and Ancelotti’s history speaks of the greatest results. He won in Italy, in England with Chelsea he won the Premier League, he won Ligue 1 in France and, with Real Madrid, who had been winning nothing for centuries, he won the Champions League.

  Despite being this multinational, multicultural leader, Carlo has never betrayed his roots or abandoned his way of being. He has remained the boy from Parma. Carlo has this great capacity for enlivening the atmosphere where he works. He spreads serenity because he is a serene man.

  In life people must be accepted for what they are. You cannot demand someone to spread serenity, or to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, if these things are not of themselves. Carlo is made like that. It’s useless for me to say that he should be harder or stricter, or he should be this or that, because, if he were so, he would lose some of his other qualities.

  One of my favourite episodes was when I attended the last training session on the evening before the Champions League final against Liverpool in Athens in 2007. Pippo Inzaghi, our centre forward, was completely out of sync – he was barely able to trap the ball. We had another strong centre forward, Alberto Gilardino, who had scored in the semi-final against Manchester United. As I was standing at Ancelotti’s side on the field watching Inzaghi miss every single ball, I said to him: ‘Why don’t we let Gilardino play? He looks to be in much better shape than Inzaghi.’ Carlo simply said: ‘Inzaghi is a strange animal. Maybe tomorrow will be his night.’ Inzaghi scored two goals in the final.

  Any other coach, watching how Gilardino was playing and had performed in the semi-final and then looking how Inzaghi was playing, would have chosen Gilardino. It wasn’t as if Gilardino was an untried player: he was a valuable asset. Carlo had agreed with me that Inzaghi wasn’t doing well, but he just had a feeling. He has this feeling for the game. He said to me afterwards, ‘After thirty years I’ve developed an eye for this and I’ve learned to trust it.’

  My job is to give my opinion, but I always respect the coach and his decision, and the final decision always belongs to the coach. On the field we were like two friends and I was able to give my opinion without it being considered any imposition of my will.

  As with all things in life, there comes a natural break point. I believe that a coach, as excellent as he can be, cannot remain at the same club for ever. It’s inescapable and unavoidable that he should change. Eight years had gone by and we still had a contract for one year – it was due to expire in 2010, not 2009. Carlo was very honest and upfront and told us that Chelsea wanted him. Chelsea had become a very big club under Roman Abramovich, with lots of money and potential. Carlo very clearly and correctly had told Chelsea that the decision had to be made by Milan. Had we said no, he wouldn’t have gone. He would have honoured his promise, his contract – this is Carlo’s way. He had done the same once before, when Madrid came for him and he didn’t go.

  Berlusconi and I discussed it many times and in the end decided that a change was best for both parties. In football everything has an end, and so after eight years we let him go to experience a new adventure. He very much wanted to go to England and it was a consensual separation. There was no trauma. We simply split amicably, with each of us going our own way, but still retaining our bond. Nowadays, when a coach is still under contract, clubs will ask for money as compensation to let them go. It’s like when you buy a player – if you want him, you must pay for him. We didn’t ask Chelsea for a penny. He was free to go.

  I spent five days in Madrid with Carlo as soon as I heard that Real Madrid had sacked him. I wanted to convince him to come back to Milan. Berlusconi and I wanted to bring him home. We courted him, but in the end it was not to be. He said no because he had to undergo an operation on his neck. I believe that last summer, if it wasn’t for the operation, he might have come to Milan. Perhaps he was worried about returning. They say ‘Never go back’ and I can understand this. Thirteen years with Milan is a lot. It’s difficult to go back after so long as a player and a coach – and with such a strong relationship between us. This friendship with Carlo has kept going for thirty years.

  4. Talent

  The players are, of course, the most important part of any football club. Without the players, there is no football, no fans – nothing. It’s as true in the entertainment industry – without the talent there is no show – as it is in business. Without the core staff to make it all happen, where is the business? Managing the talent, then, is at the heart of the leadership challenge in any organization. Key to this are the crucial elements of the talent cycle – recruitment, onboarding, development and succession – that apply to the players. And in turn I am aware that I am part of a talent cycle for those above me, the general director and president, that they will address also.

  My starting point is that players and staff are first and foremost people – they are not defined by their roles, their positions, or their jobs. When I first meet a player at a new club I might ask them: ‘Who are you?’ They may reply: ‘I’m a player, I’m a great attacking midfielder.’ But I might then tell them: ‘No. You’re [their name]. You’re a man who plays football. You’re brilliant at it, world class, but it doesn’t define you.’ I try to see the full
person and to help them see themselves in a broader way.

  Recruitment

  In football, as in business, there are a wide variety of pressures – commercial, cultural, political – that must be accommodated when recruiting top-level talent in a highly competitive market. In business they talk about the ‘war for talent’ and this is also true of football – there has always been a war. As with all wars, you have to pick your battles, match your ambition to your resources, build strategic allegiances and, most importantly, be smarter than the other guy.

  My role in recruitment is not a normal one for a business, but it is how it is done at a football club, particularly in mainland Europe. The negotiations are usually the responsibility of the general manager, though often a player will want to speak with the new manager before deciding whether to join the team. Sometimes these little personal touches can make all the difference in swaying an undecided player. I have spoken with almost every new player who has signed with my team prior to them making their decision, at the behest sometimes of the club, sometimes of the player’s agent and sometimes of the player himself.

  The special players have to satisfy themselves that the move is right for them. One example is David Beckham. He is smart enough to know that, with his profile, it could be that he is being pressed on to a manager for reasons other than football. So, he contacted me directly and asked if I wanted him to come to Milan. I told him, ‘Yes.’ Only then did we discuss how and when he might play. As it happened, he probably played more than he expected, but the point is that we trusted each other to speak the truth.

  My main job in the recruitment process is to say, ‘We need this type of player for this position and that type of player for that position.’ I might suggest one or two names but the club will draw up a list of players to fit this remit in collaboration with the analytics departments. In the old days it would just be the head coach and the president compiling the list, but football is big business now and many considerations other than simply his performance on the pitch that the player can bring are taken into account, like his age and potential sell-on value, commercial revenues and such things. This is not my job, however. My concern is how they will perform in the team.

  Sometimes, when we have a choice between players for the same position, I have an important role to play in choosing the one we should go for. At Real Madrid, when it was between Toni Kroos and another player, I told the general director, ‘I know this other player. He drinks a lot and he is not very professional. You have to go for Kroos.’ I got Kroos.

  It is important to try to recruit people who have the same ideas as you about behaviour and professionalism – people who share your beliefs – and who share the values of the organization they’re joining. This is why it is vital for that responsibility and direction to be held by the president and his senior team. Some managers are in the job less than a year, so it cannot be their responsibility to protect the values of the club.

  I have never been at a club where I had total responsibility for recruitment. Not even in England, where my general director was often Abramovich himself. I think my friend and former assistant Paul Clement held such a responsibility at Derby County but such full responsibility is too much for any one person. At Manchester United van Gaal was given carte blanche, the same at Everton with Roberto Martínez. But I believe such situations will not last because there’s so much relying on this one guy, and he can’t do all of these things. For the clubs it doesn’t make sense to allow only the manager to dictate recruitment because the manager will, statistically, be there less than two years on average. What then of all the players he has recruited? No, the club must have a policy and the manager must become part of implementing that policy.

  When Real Madrid decided to sign a kid from Norway, sixteen-year-old Martin Ødegaard, I thought, ‘I don’t care if he comes or not, because he’s not going to play for me now.’ He could go on to be the best player in the world after I’m gone, but I’m not interested in the signing because it isn’t of importance to my job. Of course, when he arrived I treated him with the same respect I would give to any young player, but why would I want to be involved in his recruitment? He is being recruited for the future, for other managers after my time.

  It is still vital to respect the vision of the owners. Pérez was well known for his galácticos approach, where the biggest and most expensive superstars in world football are recruited, so players would arrive and depart who would not necessarily have been my choice, but it was my job to make the team work with whatever assets I was given. It is a waste of time and energy to fight against something that has already happened – you must manage it. After all, that is why we are called managers. If the president decides that, for a PR exercise, he needs the Norwegian boy to play three games with the first team, I will work out a way of doing that. If the president also decides to sell midfielder Xabi Alonso, I must accept that too. Did I want to lose Alonso? No, of course not, but my job was to make it work.

  Paris was different. At Real Madrid my eyes were open as to how long my stay would be, but at Paris Saint-Germain I thought I was going to be involved in a long-term project, so I wanted to know more about the academy and the recruitment policies, about everything involved in producing players for the team both at the time and in the future. I was trying to build the culture there and wanted to be fully involved in making sure the players coming in would fit that culture.

  Agents play a huge role in recruitment now. Thankfully, this is the domain of the general director, whose job requires him to have relationships with them. I try not to have any dealings with agents, and the clubs I have worked with have rarely asked me to get involved with them. In football the agent can act for both parties, unlike in sports in the US where the agents can act for one party only. So, if the agent is acting for both parties, how can you be sure where his strongest commitment lies? I do not have an agent myself other than my wife, Mariann. I have a very close friend, who advises me when I need it. It probably doesn’t hurt that he is one of the best agents in the game.

  Maybe my advice should be to marry your agent or, if you’re already married, then ask your wife to be your agent. Barcelona right back Dani Alves’s wife is his agent. Actually, it’s his ex-wife. They’d just broken up and she was negotiating for him when he arrived at Barcelona. She said, ‘How can you offer him so little money – he has to feed his wife and children and me.’ Now, that’s an agent playing all the cards at her disposal.

  I had a young player at Paris, Adrien Rabiot, who also kept it in the family, but in a different way. He was seventeen years old when I put him in the first-team squad and every day his mother, Véronique, would come to watch training. She really pushed her son and one day she asked to have a meeting with me. We sat down together and Véronique said, ‘I am here as a mother and as an agent of my son.’

  ‘Hold on,’ I said. ‘I’m going to speak with you as his mother, not the agent. The agent has to speak with the president.’ That’s my rule. Obviously, when the market is open then sometimes the general director or the president will ask me to speak with the agents, but not once the season is under way. It is not the best way.

  Onboarding

  The job of the manager is to integrate the players who have been recruited into the fabric of the team, which is called ‘onboarding’ in some circles. It is up to me to communicate to the players what their behaviour should be like outside the club, what is expected of them. Things like eating sensibly, drinking responsibly and living a normal life, by which I mean integrating as quickly as possible into a new culture. This is professionalism and this is what I expect of my players. To return to the issue of culture and language, I can’t understand a player who comes to a country and, in two years, is not able to speak the language. Six months should be the maximum. If an old guy like me can do it then so can the players. I think it should be part of their contract, because if it doesn’t happen, it usually has a negative effect on his performance. Why
would you not want to learn the language? It is unprofessional not to.

  Onboarding is handled differently depending on the club. Some clubs have serious infrastructure to handle the process as smoothly as possible. They employ people to help the players find houses, schools – anything the family needs to settle into their new environment. It makes sense for the club to do this: a happy and settled player off the pitch is more likely to be able to concentrate on playing. The players’ agents are also usually heavily involved in helping them settle.

  As part of the onboarding process, the club usually gives each player help with the language, and every single day he has a relationship with his teammates, in which he can listen, learn and practise. This is key: ultimately, the player has to want to learn.

  We would try to buddy the players up. I’d ask Sergio Ramos, who is from Madrid, to look after Kroos or Bale. I would ask this not as an imposition, but just as a suggestion, only if he was willing to. This is the quiet way. In fact, when you have leaders like Ramos, John Terry or Paolo Maldini in the dressing room, they take care of this of their own free will, it is automatic to them, and this is the most effective way of all.

  Development

  How do you keep developing players such as Ronaldo, who are already at the top? It is easy. These players are so professional that they tell you where they need developing or they are happy to discuss where you think they might improve. These will never be technical improvements, but always to do with game management or analytics or physical information.

  With young players it is a little bit different. For the young players you have to do some specific work to improve their limits, to improve their understanding of the game and their role within different systems, and also some technical work in areas where they might be deficient. So, with the eighteen-year-old Ronaldo who signed for Manchester United, it was important that he understood the team dynamics, and within the United system his crossing and decision-making needed work. Sir Alex and his coaches at Manchester would only have been concerned with his technique where it was applied towards the needs of the team. By the time he was at Madrid, it had become a case of working out how we could best get the team to extract the most value from his talent. So, the development needs gradually change as the player grows.