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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/DavidRolands on 2025-12-10 22:00:36+00:00.
Original Title: Gareth Bale: “Carlo Ancelotti was great. For me his genius is man management, he’ll always keep you happy.” | Carlo Ancelotti wrote in his autobiography that Gareth Bale went behind his back to complain to Florentino Perez during 2014-15 season. Bale wanted to play in a central attacking position.
The full quote on Carlo Ancelotti by Gareth Bale
“Yes, Ancelotti was great. For me his genius is man management, he’ll always keep you happy. You learn so much from managers and him as a person, he’ll teach you so much just from his calmness in situations. Where you’d be angry, he’ll just keep everybody calm and that’s why he’s such a good manager”
From Carlo Ancelotti’s biography
“One morning in March I received a phone call from Madrid’s general director [Jose Angel Sanchez] saying that the president wanted to speak with me at the end of training that day. This was very unusual. **When I visited the president, he told me that Bale’s agent had been to his office to speak about Bale’s ‘situation.’”**
"In January, Bale’s agent had been saying things and perhaps felt his position was strong because he had already spoken with the president. **Now he was telling the president that Bale was unhappy in his position. He wanted to play more centrally.**
"Bale had fantastic world-class qualities and all that I was trying to do was help him understand his core strengths so he could fulfil his potential and by the way, that I was more qualified than his agent or the president to help him with that. I told the president that I would speak with Bale myself the next day, which I did after training.
"I told him that I knew that his agent had spoken to the president and asked him why he didn’t come to speak directly with me about what he wanted. He said ‘Yes, OK, no problem.’
“I explained to him what I had said to the president, how it was impossible for me to change the system as it wasn’t just one position, it was the whole team. I was clear with him. I told him that we could try some things in the summer, next year’s preseason, to change his position, but not now.”