No more Mr Nice guy! Ancelotti cuts holidays at Madrid

Martin Macdonald

• 4 Jun 2021 10:39 BST

Carlo Ancelotti has already started to show his authority at Real Madrid by cutting the players' holiday period ahead of the 2021/22 campaign.

Last season Real Madrid failed to win a major trophy, with head coach Zinedine Zidane subsequently leaving after complaining of a lack of support in a squad rebuild from the board.

READ MORE: Hazard on Ancelotti’s Madrid return: We’ll do great things together

Names like Raul, Massimiliano Allegri and Joachim Low were considered to replace the Frenchman, but eventually Ancelotti was selected.

The Italian was in charge of Real Madrid previously between 2013 and 2015 and guided them to their historic 10th European Cup, 'La Decima'.

Ancelotti has been tasked with revitalising the squad, which had admittedly become slightly stale under Zidane even though they were in the title race until the final day.

Before Zidane left, he had instructed his players to report back for training on 12 July, but Ancelotti is keen for the hard work to begin earlier for pre-season and has now requested they return a week earlier on 5 July.

The final of the European Championships takes place six days later, but the new date mostly related to players who have not been called up for international duty either for the Euros or for the Copa America.

Madrid's pre-season will take place mostly in their Valdebebas training facility, with money-spinning international friendly tournaments set to be at a minimum this summer due to the ongoing pandemic.

Los Blancos were scheduled in again to take part in the International Champions Cup in North America in Asia, but that tournament will likely not go ahead this summer.

The most likely scenario is that Ancelotti and his players will spend the majority of time in the Spanish capital before potentially taking on other European teams in pre-season friendlies.

Who will be impacted from the Euros and Copa America?

As mentioned above, the new date of 5 July for pre-season is mostly for the players not involved in international tournaments.

However, for some Real Madrid players their return to train will depend entirely on how their nations fare in their respective continental tournaments.

In total, Real Madrid have 13 senior players who will be taking part in competitions.

Going to the Euros are Toni Kroos (Germany), Raphael Varane (France), Karim Benzema (France), Luka Modric(Croatia), Thibaut Courtois (Belgium), Eden Hazard (Belgium), David Alaba (Austria) and Andriy Lunin (Ukraine).

Going to the Copa America and World Cup Qualifiers are Fede Valverde (Uruguay), Casemiro (Brazil), Eder Militao (Brazil) and Vinicius Junior (Brazil).

Rodrygo is away with Brazil U-23s.