For a man whose father has turned the raising of an eyebrow into an art form, it was fitting that the very mention of Davide Ancelotti’s name should come with some shock value.
Plenty of brows would certainly have been raised among Rangers fans when it emerged on Monday that Ancelotti, son of the great Don Carlo, is in the running to become the club’s next manager.
Currently on the backroom staff as an assistant coach at Real Madrid, Ancelotti Junior will depart when his father leaves at the end of the season to take charge of the Brazilian national team.
According to reports in Spain, the 35-year-old, who has no previous frontline experience as a manager, is now a nailed-on certainty to take the job at Ibrox.
In terms of a left-field name and a bolt from the blue, this was right up there.
Privately, club sources at Rangers were quick to play it down. The recruitment process for a new boss is still in its early stages and, as such, no leading candidate has yet been identified.
Davide Ancelotti and his father Carlo take in Real Madrid’s defeat to Barcelona on Sunday
Davide Ancelotti has been a successful No2 to his dad but how effective would he be on his own?
Barry Ferguson has been quick to say that the Ibrox job is ‘not a project’ for someone
Any reports that Ancelotti has been offered the job, as some outlets in the Spanish media claimed, are premature and wide of the mark.
Kevin Thelwell is the man who will be tasked with the recruitment of a new manager when he takes up his role as Rangers’ new sporting director.
Given that Thelwell isn’t even in the building yet and won’t formally start work until he leaves Everton at the end of the season, the appointment won’t happen for another few weeks.
Yet, as much as sources at Rangers and the US consortium seeking to take control of the club poured cold water over suggestions that Ancelotti was on his way, nor did they deny suggestions that his name was under consideration.
Which begs an obvious question. With the club in need of a massive rebuild on and off the pitch in the summer, why on earth would Rangers be toying with the idea of appointing a total novice?
Barry Ferguson spoke yesterday about how Rangers is not a club for an unproven project manager, while admitting that he really doesn’t know a whole lot about Ancelotti other than the obvious link to his father.
Ferguson was spot-on. The *last* thing Rangers need right now is to be taking a punt on some random rookie. A guy whose CV has little to suggest he should be the next manager of Rangers, other than the fact that he has a famous surname.
Let’s give Ancelotti the benefit of the doubt for a moment and suppose that he – rather than Carlo – has been the brains behind all the success at Real Madrid.
Rangers have played down any notion that Ancelotti has been offered the job, but have not denied that he is being considered
Ancelotti hands out instructions to Arda Guler of Real Madrid during the Barcelona match
Carlo Ancelotti is taking on the Brazil job after he leaves Real Madrid, but his son’s intentions are not yet fully known
Would that guarantee he is going to become a great manager when he eventually steps out of his father’s shadow? No, of course it doesn’t.
Rangers have first-hand experience of this stuff. By common consent, Michael Beale was a good assistant coach under Steven Gerrard at Ibrox. Look where his appointment as top man got the club.
Ally McCoist was a popular and capable No 2 to Walter Smith, but was never really up to the job as manager in his own right. There are countless examples of this throughout football.
Being a good assistant manager – and we can only presume Ancelotti to be nothing less, given how his father has promoted him at Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton and latterly Madrid – doesn’t guarantee anything.
Angelo Alessio worked for almost 10 years as Antonio Conte’s right-hand man. When Alessio pitched up at Kilmarnock in the summer of 2019, he was a total disaster and was sacked by Christmas.
In 1999, Brian Kidd left his role as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United to take charge of Blackburn.
Just a few months later, United were celebrating the Treble while Kidd was sacked after Rovers were relegated.
Carlos Queiroz was another Fergie No2 who branched out on his own. The Portuguese coach, who had previously led his national team as well as Sporting Lisbon, took charge of Real Madrid in 2003.
The popular Ally McCoist was a fine assistant to Walter Smith but never really convinced as manager in his own right
Michael Beale was another good assistant, in his case to Steven Gerrard, but was a disaster as manager
Rangers are now looking for a permanent replacement to sacked boss Philippe Clement
He was sacked after one season, a disastrous campaign which saw Madrid finish fourth in La Liga and knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals to an unfancied Monaco side.
Maybe Davide Ancelotti will turn out to be a good manager in time. Perhaps he will prove to be more of a Mikel Arteta, who cut his teeth for three years under Pep Guardiola, than an Angelo Alessio.
But it would be a reckless gamble if Rangers were to go anywhere near him right now. They need a proven operator, not a project manager.
It not difficult to envisage a rookie boss banging on about how Rangers had 65 per cent possession and gave one of their best performances of the season, shortly after his team have just been soundly beaten away at Aberdeen.
The club have been in that movie before. Over recent years, the fans have sat and listened to the delusional nonsense of Beale and Philippe Clement.
Clement at least had a track record of winning things in Belgium. However, such was the level of tripe he routinely trotted out over his final few months in charge, he became unofficially known as the bald Beale.
Rangers don’t need another Beale, bald or otherwise. As and when the takeover is finalised, they need a manager of genuine substance to take the club forward.
A manager capable of rebuilding the squad and instilling a clear style of play. They need their own version of Ange Postecoglou.
Celtic took a punt on Postecoglou in 2021 by giving him his first major club job in Europe, the difference being that he already had a wealth of experience as a manager, had won league titles, and had coached in a World Cup.
Davide Ancelotti doesn’t have any of that. His old man may well be The Godfather of modern managers, but for Rangers to make him an offer he can’t refuse? That would be madness.
You’ll Never Walk Alone? Try telling Trent after fans slaughtered him
How mortifying that a large section of the crowd at Anfield chose to boo and jeer Trent Alexander-Arnold on Sunday afternoon.
Brought on as a substitute in the second half of Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal, the right-back was humiliated by the club’s own supporters.
Listen, fans were never going to applaud his departure to Real Madrid at the end of the season.
But he didn’t deserve to be publicly slaughtered. It was petulant and made a mockery of everything Liverpool are supposed to stand for as a club.
Alexander-Arnold owes Liverpool nothing. He’s a local boy who came through the academy, won two Premier League titles and a Champions League, and developed into a world-class talent.
Real Madrid-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold didn’t deserve to be booed by Liverpool fans
This isn’t the same as when Steven Gerrard formally handed in a transfer request 20 years ago to signal his intention to join Chelsea.
When that bombshell dropped, fans set fire to replica shirts bearing his name and burned them outside the stadium.
The thought of Gerrard demanding to leave in order to join one of Liverpool’s biggest rivals was just too much to take.
Alexander-Arnold hasn’t done any of that. He hasn’t handed in a transfer request. He hasn’t downed tools or spat the dummy.
No, he has been presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the greatest club in world football – and chosen to accept it.
He could have chosen to stay at Liverpool for the rest of his career. That would have been a comfort zone.
He has taken himself out of that and wants to test himself. When Madrid come calling, no player in their right mind turns them down. No matter the riches or romance in England.
Not Cristiano Ronaldo. Not Gareth Bale. Not Luka Modric. Not Steve McManaman. Not Michael Owen.
Even the entire wealth of the state of Qatar couldn’t persuade Kylian Mbappe to stay in Paris rather than head for the Bernabeu.
For Alexander-Arnold to be vilified by Liverpool fans is wrong. You’ll Never Walk Alone? Well, just so long as you don’t run off to Real Madrid.
