REAL MADRID HAVE confirmed the appointment of Carlo Ancelotti as the club’s new manager.
The club’s official website confirmed the appointment after club president Florentino Perez had earlier indicated that a deal to appoint Ancelotti was close to completion.
And Malaga’s highly-rated midfielder Isco looks set to be Ancelotti’s first signing as manager of the Spanish giants.
Madrid have been searching for a new boss since it was announced five weeks ago that Jose Mourinho would be leaving the club.
Although Ancelotti has always been Perez’s first choice to take over, the move has now been completed with his current club Paris Saint-Germain expected to announce former French national team manager Laurent Blanc as his successor.
“As of today he is not signed. It could be [Tuesday] that PSG announce the agreement that would let him sign for Madrid. We hope that everything goes well. My coach is Ancelotti,” Perez told Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos in an interview released on Monday night.
“It depends on PSG arriving at an agreement with Ancelotti and announcing their new coach, Blanc,” the 66-year-old added whilst also refusing to rule out the possibility that an official announcement could be made on Wednesday.
In terms of new acquisitions on the field, Perez also confirmed media reports in Spain over the weekend that Madrid are set to beat off competition from Manchester City for the signature of Isco.
There is a great chance that he will be a Real Madrid player because he wants to be in Madrid and Madrid also want him.Isco is one of Spain’s great players and the technical team have understood that he has the necessary quality to play for Madrid.
No [I haven't spoken with him], but I know that the player is very excited to come. The same as I am that he comes here. If everything develops well, we will announce his signing shortly, once the announcement of the new coach is made.
And Perez was equally bullish about the chances of Cristiano Ronaldo signing a new long-term deal with the club.
The Portuguese star’s current contract is due to expire in 2015 and he rubbished rumours that he was on the verge of signing a new deal two weeks ago when he wrote on his Twitter account that “all the news about my renewal with Real Madrid are false.”
However, Perez maintains that he will sign a new deal and it could even be done before the new league season gets underway.
“He is our most important asset, around which we want to build the future of Madrid.
“Cristiano made these declarations because strange information came out of some media outlet that didn’t correspond with the reality of the situation.
“This question will be clarified shortly. I don’t doubt that Cristiano will retire at Real Madrid. I am convinced he will renew. The renewals will be done before the competitions start.”
Additional reporting by © AFP, 2013
Got to respect his honesty tonne fair. It’s always easy to be critical.
Let’s hope it works out for him. Acknowledging that he was doing himself no favours sounds like a step in the right direction
best of luck to him, wasnt aware that he was hanging around with an unhelpful crew.
but at the same time every single sports person always says they are in the best shape physically and mentally ever so will wait to see how he goes.
It is probably a good thing for him to move to Italy. There is obviously a culture he is trying to get away from. If he eats and trains properly and focuses on soccer he could have a good career. They are built up and then knocked down. They work so hard to get to the top level but loads of them throw it away. Too much money too young perhaps. I think it’s generally they surround themselves with the wrong type of people. A player dyeing their hair for me is usually a very bad sign, they’ve lost focus completely. I hope he knuckles down and gives it everything because it feels like the last chance saloon