Carlo Ancelotti has been sacked by Bayern Munich after their 3-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions league. The club’s hierarchy held a meeting to discuss Ancelotti’s future on Thursday afternoon and have announced that the 58-year-old has now left the Bavarians. A statement on the club’s website said:
“Following an internal analysis in Munich on Thursday 28 September 2017, FC Bayern München have announced the club is to part company with head coach Carlo Ancelotti with immediate effect.”Assistant coach Willy Sagnol will take charge of the team on an interim basis.”
The former Chelsea and AC Milan boss had been in charge at the Allianz Arena for nearly 15 months after taking over as Pep Guardiola’s successor in July 2016. Ancelotti led Bayern to their fifth consecutive Bundesliga title in his first season in charge but his side were eliminated at the quarter-final stage of the Champions League against his former club Real Madrid, while they were beaten 3-2 by Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal Cup.
The Italian had come under pressure in the early stages of the new campaign after a 2-0 defeat to Hoffenheim in September. That was followed a few weeks later by a 2-2 draw at home against Wolfsburg before PSG’s emphatic 3-0 win over the German champions in Paris on Wednesday.
Sky Italy reporter Alessandro Alciato, who collaborated with Ancelotti on his autobiography, said to Sky in Italy: “He was considering leaving the club after what happened last night and was discussing this hypothesis with his staff when the news of the sacking arrived.
“Clearly the locker room was divided. The big names of the club were not happy that they were not always playing and in Munich this was not accepted also by the fans.”
“If an important player doesn’t train or play well he is out, but some players like [Thomas] Muller, [Arjen] Robben, [Franck] Ribery and others did not accept this. They had got to a dead end.”
Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge talked of “consequences” after the defeat to PSG.
“It’s a loss we have to talk about, we have to analyse, from which we have to draw consequences in clear text form,” Rummenigge said to FCBayern.tv, “I think what we saw this evening was not Bayern Munich. I think we all agree on that.
“If I take a look to the right or left, then there is nothing to misunderstand or to interpret wrong. I think it’s important to turn things around after this loss, to present as Bayern Munich and to show we are a team, [the one] which performed well in Europe and in Germany last year. That’s where we have to continue.”
Ancelotti was forced to defend his team selection after the defeat having left Ribery, Robben and Mats Hummels on the bench, while Jerome Boateng was not included in the squad.
“I don’t think my team selection was risky,” he said. “I thought a lot about what the best team to play was. I know I will get criticism, that’s fine. I thought it was a good line-up for this game.”
Sky Sports