When the technician Carlo Ancelotti was presented last week as the new coach of BrazilianCBF took the opportunity to also present the Italian coaching staff.
Basically, Ancelotti brought to Brazil most of the. But one of the names announced for the position of auxiliary sounded as novelty: Paul Clement.
Graduated in Physical Education, The 53-year-old had worked as an assistant at Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munichwhere they formed partnership for the last time, in 2016.
Since then, Clement has taken on teams as the main technician and has also added new experiences as an assistant (by Frank Lampard at Everton). Now, nine years later, Integrate to the Ancelotti Technical Commissionthat starts your work ahead of.
Ancelotti met Clement in the under-16 of Chelsea
Ancelotti arrived in 2009 for his first challenge outside Italy. In addition to the professionals who took with him, he gained the collaboration of Ray Wilkins, a fixed assistant of the English club and who, as a player, had played in Italian football in the 1980s – the two even faced each other in Soccer.
Wilkins turned into an important link between Ancelotti and the Chelsea cast. But the coach felt that he needed another assistant and invited Paul Clement, then coach of the U-16, for a period of experience.
“I talked to sports director Frank Arnesen, and we agreed to call Paul [Clement]who worked with the juniors, to be at first fifteen days to see how it would be left. When this period ended, Paul sought me out and said, ‘Should I go back to the junior team?’ I said, ‘No, no, no. You stay with me ‘. Paul became part of my football family and accompanied me in Paris and in Madrid, “Ancelotti said in his book “Quiet leadership”.
Coach scolded athlete who disrespected the assistant
Although he is responsible for making decisions and communicating them to the cast, Carlo Ancelotti does not have a centralizing profile. In his works, the Italian usually gives a lot of autonomy to his assistants and makes it clear to the players.
However, this relationship between assistants and athletes can generate conflicts, as happened at Chelsea in an episode involving Portuguese right-back José Bosingwa.
“On the eve of a game to be played away from home, Carlo wanted to do a brief tactical job. The team that would start the match had already been released, and we organized a collective between holders and reserves. José Bosingwa was acting as a right back to the reserve team,” says Paul Clement in “quiet leadership”.
The Portuguese defender was not working properly, making his discontent evident. In practice, he had given up on training. I warned him about the importance of being professional, saying, “We have a game tomorrow to which everyone has to be prepared, no matter whether they will start playing or not,” and he answered me quite vehemently and disrespectfully. I continued to address him and in the end some people had to intervene, including Didier Drogba and Carlo, not to avoid a physical confrontation, but certainly verbal aggression
The same night of training, the eve of the match, Ancelotti gathered the entire group of players at the hotel where the team was staying and said that this type of incident with any of their assistants was unacceptable.
“Carlo stated that he would not allow something like this to happen again and made it clear in front of everyone for Bosingwa to know,” Clement added.
Important for Gareth Bale No Real Madrid
After passing through Chelsea and a difficult experience at, despite the winning of the Ligue 1 title, Carlo Ancelotti and Paul Clement went together for Real Madrid.
Right in his first season under the command of the Italian, the Spanish team.
According to Ancelotti, his assistant was fundamental in dealing with athletes, especially with the Welsh Gareth Baleone of Real’s big names in the European title.
“No Paul Clement was important to Gareth Bale, assisting him in his process of adapting to the club, both linguistic and cultural, and
He could often explain things to him better than me, “said the coach.
Experiences as the main technician and return to the Ancelotti Commission
In 2016, Paul Clement accompanied Carlo Ancelotti no. The English experience in Germany, however, was short.
Clement received a proposal to be the main coach of Swansea City, which at the time was playing Premier League. Under your command, The team, which was in the relegation zone when he took over, managed to avoid descent.
The following season, however, Clement was fired. Her career went on with work on Reading, from the second division of England, and at Belgium’s Cercle Bruggge, before accepting Frank Lampard’s invitation to join his commission on Everton.
With the resignation of Lampard in January 2023, Paul Clement also left the club.
The work with the Brazilian team marks the return of the British to professional football and also to the technical committees of Carlo Ancelotti. A partnership that worked in the past and now, in Brazil, seeks to repeat the success they have achieved in some of the world’s top clubs.
