Carlo Ancelotti has done a fantastic job in his second stint as Real Madrid manager, when you consider the hurdles that he has had to face. This is no longer the club that signed multiple Galacticos every summer. The transfer policy has changed a lot and they have focused much more on signing young talents and developing them into stars at Santiago Bernabeu itself.
There is clearly a lack of squad depth at the club as well. And hopefully, that will be addressed in the ongoing summer transfer window. The club have signed Fran Garcia, Jude Bellingham and Arda Guler already while Joselu has been brought in on a loan deal.
If given the right tools, Ancelotti is someone very capable of engineering a great season for Real Madrid. This looks set to be his last campaign as the manager of the club though, as it is believed that he will take over the Brazil national team job come next summer.
Naturally, Real Madrid will need to keep an eye on potential replacements. And it appears that a favourite has already emerged in the race to replace Ancelotti in the Santiago Bernabeu hot seat.
Favourite named to replace Ancelotti at Real Madrid
As reported by Tribuna, Christian Falk revealed while writing for Caught Offside:
"“We believe Xabi Alonso is the number one option to replace Carlo Ancelotti in 2024. I think at the moment he is one of the biggest solutions and has the best chance to get this job.“Everybody knows that Leverkusen could just be a step in between. They don’t know if it will be Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, one of his former clubs, but everyone knows that one of these clubs will be the next step.“And at the moment, there’s just one club which is searching for a new manager in the near future and this is Real Madrid. This is his club and I think that Alonso wouldn’t say no if an offer came next year.”"
Thus, it looks like Alonso has emerged as the early favourite to replace Ancelotti as Real Madrid manager next summer. And the Spaniard’s history with the club will be an advantage for him as well, if he is indeed handed the job.
Alonso started managing at the top level just last season, with Bayer Leverkusen, but he has already done a fantastic job there and established a solid reputation for himself. If he goes on to have another successful season with the Bundesliga club, it is more than likely that he could find himself in the Real Madrid hot seat in the not too distant future.