■ Uefa Champions League: Bayern Munich v Real Madrid, Wednesday at 10.45pm on BeIN Sports
When Carlo Ancelotti was the Real Madrid manager, he expected that every now and then, what he wanted was not always what he would get.
Midfield positions were a point of contention when transfers were negotiated.
Ancelotti made it known to his superiors in the offices of the Bernabeu, for instance, that he thought Arturo Vidal would look right in all-white.
Vidal was one that got away.
Ancelotti lobbied for Xabi Alonso to be given an extended contract, even when the player was well into his 30s.
Alonso was sold.
As things turned out, Ancelotti would find himself in charge of both these authoritative players. But it was not at Madrid where the Italian worked for two seasons, won a Uefa Champions League and was widely liked by players and supporters.
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More Champions League
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■ Juventus v Barcelona: The 'Jewel' Paulo Dybala to duel with his hero Lionel Messi
■ Atletico v Madrid: Spanish giants not taking English upstarts for granted
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It was at Bayern Munich, who contest with Madrid a place in the semi-finals of the Champions League, starting in Bavaria tonight.
Alonso’s meeting with his old club, as well as Arjen Robben’s are absorbing parts of the sub-plot. No less intriguing is the vastly experienced Ancelotti up against Zinedine Zidane, who worked as his No 2 for a period at Madrid. It was an apprenticeship that helped propel Zidane into his first job as manager 15 months ago.
Ancelotti and Zidane go back a long way, to when Zidane was a Juventus player and Ancelotti was the club’s manager, teasing out the best system to accommodate the gifted French playmaker.
The clues that Ancelotti was destined to become one of the greatest club managers of the 21st century were discreet at that stage, but a catalogue of trophies would soon follow in a cascade.
First once he took charge of AC Milan, where two Champions League titles were achieved, then at Chelsea – a Premier League and FA Cup double – at Paris Saint-Germain – a domestic flush of titles – and at Madrid, where he won the 2014 Champions League, via a thrashing of Bayern in the semi-final.
Ancelotti is a generous mentor. When Zidane was at Juventus, the manager noted that, though the midfielder was outwardly shy, he had the magnetism of a superstar. “Carletto”, as Ancelotti is known, later recalled with good humour how “the club executives would come to greet the team and they would want to go straight to talk to Zidane”.
“I began to feel a bit lonely when they all ignored me and just wanted to be with Zidane,” he said.
There was no resentment, either, of Zidane’s elevated status and aura at Madrid, where the Frenchman won a European Cup as a player and decorated the midfield for five distinguished years.
Ancelotti guided his deputy wisely, and sensed that his natural authority could be useful. “When Zidane speaks, players listen,” he said.
From Ancelotti, Zidane would learn the value of economy with words. From London to Milan, Munich to Madrid, those who have worked under Ancelotti advertise his easy manner, his understated authority, his studied capacity for defusing tense situations.
The weekend produced a neatly photogenic example.
Ancelotti had substituted Bayern winger Franck Ribery during the comfortable 4-1 defeat of Borussia Dortmund. Ribery, who had been excellent, looked a little cross at the decision.
Ancelotti leaned towards the player as he left the pitch as if to give him a gentle peck on the cheek.
Ancelotti has coaxed more out of the veteran Ribery than might have been forecast when, last summer, he took over Bayern with a brief to raise the bar in Europe after three seasons, with Pep Guardiola in charge, of successive semi-final exits from the Champions League.
He will greet Madrid with a galvanised Vidal and Alonso in midfield, a vintage Robben on the wing.
And he can rest assured that Bayern’s domestic supremacy has not suffered on his watch; they are striding towards another title.
Has he a point to prove to Madrid, who dismissed him after two seasons in charge?
“He has been planning this game very carefully,” Bayern’s chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.
“I’ve been pleased most of all with the calm and self-assured way he goes about his work.”
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