In the morning on the Cobham fields, the first hours of the afternoon to study English in the office, in the evening sometimes to dinner at Chicca, the night to sleep in the splendid house in Knightsbridge. Carlo Ancelotti's London was pleasant and, without the problems of a particular club like Chelsea, carefree. The Napoli coach spent two seasons in the British capital, from 2009 to 2011. He made the Double, Premier and Fa Cup, in the first vintage, with the Community Shield dessert at the Blues debut on 9 August 2009. In the second , came behind United in the league and was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Alex Ferguson's squad, but he was dismissed offhand at Everton's locker room after the last championship match, on 22 May 2011. It is true: the billionaires can buy a thousand things, but gentlemen, as Totò said, one is born.
HIS LONDON - Ancelotti was able to enjoy London, within the limits of the frenetic pace of English football. He chose to live in the center. He did not lead a "home-work-home" existence. He did not opt for the Surrey campaign to stay near Cobham. He had a great desire for London: his atmosphere, the parks with a few jogging sessions at Hyde Park, a small restaurant near his home. The dinners at Chicca, a Neapolitan doc, were quite a fixed appointment. Carlo conquered all, and not only for the discreet tips of a great lord: simplicity, education and a few jokes, slipping so much in the Roman dialect with passing friends. "Aho?". "Aho".
EVENINGS - Londoner Ancelotti coincided with England's Capello and Franco Baldini national team manager. There was Marco Tardelli, then deputy of Trapattoni in Ireland. There were Vialli and Di Matteo, based in London since the 1990s. We met at Chicca, in front of the gym frequented by Capello. Some supper among soccer men is back to normal, but Ancelotti also allowed himself to some Italian journalist. There was talk of everything: football, politics, the world and, of course, London. Here, the relationship with his current wife, Mariann, took off in the British capital. This is also why London will always remain in the heart of Ancelotti, bewitched by the atmosphere of a multi-ethnic city, a true metropolis of old Europe: Brexit was still far away. Carletto deserved esteem and sympathy from British journalists. Even now they ask about him: Henry Winter of the Times, Tony Banks of the Daily Express, Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail.
THE TOP - Welcome to London. In these many hours they gave Carlo back the welcome. "I will repeat to infinity that in London and in English football I lived a fantastic experience. Here there is the top for football and the Premier with respect to my years is still improved". Ancelotti is among the most committed in the fight against racism in Italy and speaking of what happened during the weekend across the Channel, with four episodes of xenophobia, he says: "The difference is that in England when these things happen it is a scandal. it is normality. When we racism also scandalize us, well then it will mean that we will have taken the right path ".