Elite five-time Champions League winner has ‘always’ wanted to be Man Utd manager – insider | OneFootball

Insider Duncan Castles has revealed he once heard that Carlo Ancelotti has always “coveted” the Manchester United job and wanted to take it before he retires.

United got rid of Ruben Amorim on Monday. The boss had been in charge for just over a year, and had begun to finally get his side playing how he wanted, climbing to sixth in the Premier League after last season’s 15th-placed finish before his dismissal.

The manager being given the boot seemed to be more about the messaging coming from him to the media, after a bit of an outburst which seemingly rubbed the board up the wrong way for the last time.

Since Amorim’s sacking, United have been linked with the likes of Unai Emery, Andoni Iraola and Oliver Glasner from within the Premier League, though there are bigger names floating around.

Insider Castles has suggested Ancelotti has always been intrigued by the United job.

He told The Transfers Podcast: “Carlo Ancelotti I think is interesting, because Ancelotti, I heard a long time ago – in fact, when he was Chelsea coach – from someone close to him, that he has always coveted the Manchester United job and wanted an opportunity to do that before he retired.”

It has been a long time since Ancelotti was Chelsea coach, though, and a lot has changed since then.

He left the club in 2011, at which point United were one of the powerhouses of English football. They won the Premier League in 2010/11, after finishing second to Chelsea when Ancelotti guided his side to the title the season prior.

United have only won the Premier League once since then, in 2012/13, and they have since finished outside the top four in seven seasons.

Ancelotti, following a spell at Real Madrid in which he won three of five career Champions Leagues, and who is now in charge of international powerhouse Brazil, is surely of bigger stature than to manage United, where they now find themselves.

He said: “You have got to be pretty special to tick all four of those boxes, and as such, the outstanding candidate for me would be Carlo Ancelotti, even if it would mean potentially delaying his arrival until late July if Brazil reached the World Cup final.”