Rumors have been swirling around recently about a possible Jose Mourinho return to Real Madrid if Carlo Ancelotti were to end up retiring at the end of the season.
The high-profile Portuguese manager is certainly an interesting name to feature in headlines in sparking the flashiest international football news. Needless to say, there is also no doubting his reputation as one of the best managers in the history of football with a proven resume of success and glittering trophies.
But the pertinent question at this point is – would he be the right fit for Los Blancos right now though?
Real Madrid did well to bring back Carlo Ancelotti to great success from Everton and the Italian went on to add a Champions League and La Liga double to his already long list of accomplishments. However his long-term future at the club is in question as he had been initially been brought in as a transitional, stop-gap measure manager but he never failed to astound the Los Merengues bosses with his continued success.
As for Mourinho, on the other hand, the recent years have been appreciably lean, having had to transition from being one of the premier managers in football to struggling to get into the top four with AS Roma.
Yet this being said the desire to win still burns vibrantly in him, as he had recently proven by winning the UEFA Europa Conference League with the Italian club last season.
But surely there must be better options for Real Madrid than Mourinho at this stage as big question marks are already hovering over Mourinho especially with regards to how he has adapted to the modern game. A lot of his brilliance of earlier years was his ability to get his players ready to go all out to war for him. Is he capable of getting that out of the modern day footballer though?
There are certainly some truly capable managers available in the not-too-distant horizon, if the situation were to avail itself should Real Madrid need to make an appointment to take over from an ageing Ancelloti.
A name that would immediately come to mind is Thomas Tuchel. Chelsea and Graham Potter’s struggles have been rather obvious since the new owners made the decision to sack him over some differences in opinion. The Stamford Bridge club’s current struggles seem to indicate that the German tactician was getting a lot out of a squad that somehow does not look very good at the end of the day. He even managed to deliver the Champions League for the Blues. Obviously Tuchel could be an excellent pick to be the next Real Madrid boss.
Of course there are several other rising names in the game who could be interesting possibilities as well to replace the 63-year-old Ancelloti, who for all of his brilliance would not be the ideal person to continue in that tenure.