Carlo Ancelotti is an Italian retired footballer and most recently the former manager of English side Chelsea.
As a player Ancelotti came up through Parma’s youth ranks before transferring to AS Roma, where he was made captain. After eight years at Roma he went to the AC Milan team dominating in Europe at the time. Ancelotti also played 26 times for Italy and appeared for them in the 1986 and the 1990 FIFA World Cups. As a player he played in midfield.
Ancelotti took over as Chelsea manager in August 2009. He started his managerial career at his local Italian side Reggiana back in 1995, with whom he won promotion to Serie A. He then went to his old club Parma, followed by Juventus, before also coming back to AC Milan as a manager. With Milan he won the Italian Cup, Serie A and twice the UEFA Champions League before heading to London and Chelsea. In Ancelotti’s first season at Chelsea they won the English double. In the second season Chelsea went trophy-less and despite being runners-up in the Premier League Ancelotti was sacked.

José Mourinho is the manager of Spanish side Real Madrid. Mourinho is widely regarded as one of the most successful managers in the game. He was brought into the thick of things by his father Félix Mourinho, who was a professional footballer. José wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and played for some of the clubs his father took over as a coach. He soon realised that he would not make it to the top level as a player and instead chose to pursue a career in coaching, also something he followed his father in action. He also studied sport science and taught physical education at schools.
Mourinho started out with lower tied Portugues clubs. When Sir Bobby Robson arrived at Sporting Lisboa as head coach in 1992, Mourinho grabbed his chance to work as an interpreter and coach under Robson. They formed a strong relationship and Mourinho followed Robson to coach Porto and later to Barcelona. When Robson moved on from Barcelona, Mourinho stayed as assistant manager to newly appointed Louis Van Gaal.
After a brief stint as head coach for Benfica, in late 2000, Mourinho became the manager of União de Leiria, which he took to a 5th place finish in the Portugues league in 2001/02. In January 2002 he took over as manager of Porto, where he in 2003 won the Portuguese double and the UEFA Cup. In 2004 they again won the Portuguese league and went on to win the UEFA Champions League.

After Mourinho’s successful time at Porto, clubs like Real Madrid, Liverpool and Chelsea were all interested in his services. Mourinho was initially most interested in Liverpool but when they offered the position to Spaniard Rafa Benitez, he accepted an offer from Chelsea. In Mourinho’s first season at Chelsea they won the Premier League and the League Cup. The following season they defended their Premier League title and then the next season won both the FA Cup and the League Cup. Chelsea set a new record of 64 consecutive home league matches without defeat, surpassing the record set by Liverpool between 1978 and 1981. However, after several disagreements with Chelsea’s owner/chairman Roman Abramovich, Mourinho left the club in September 2007. In June 2008 Mourinho took over as manager of Internazionale Milano. In the first season they won the Serie A title, then in 2009/10 they won their famous treble; Serie A, the Italian Cup and the UEFA Champions League. After this Mourinho made his intensions clear; he wanted to coach Real Madrid. After intense negotiation and a record compensation, Inter released Mourinho from his contract and he joined Real Madrid.

A lot has happened since The Evening Standard wrote the headline “Arsene who?” after Wenger’s appointment as Arsenal manager in 1996 – 15 years ago next week. Before that Arsene Wenger had worked his way up through French football, making a name for himself at AS Monaco. He led them to a Ligue 1 title and a French cup title, three times runners-up in Ligue 1 and lost the 1992 UEFA Cup Winners Cup finale (to Werder Bremen). Bayern München wanted to take Wenger to Germany but Monaco refused to let the club talk to him. When the Bayern position was filled Monaco released Wenger from his contract anyway. Wenger moved on to a successful 18-month stint with the Japanese team Nagoya Grampus Eight, with whom he won the Emperor’s Cup. He also took the club from the bottom three to runners-up position in the league.

Arsene Wenger was appointed new Arsenal manager on 30 September 1996. The club finished third in the Premier League in Wenger’s first season in charge. In the following 1997/98 season Arsenal won both the Premier League and the FA Cup, a feat they had only before achieved in 1971. The next three seasons Arsenal finished as runners-up in the Premier League, in 2000/01 that also included runners-up in the FA Cup. Then in 2001/02 Wenger again took Arsenal to winning the double, something only Manchester United have also achieved in England. The following season they defended the FA Cup title but were back as runners-up in the league. In 2003/04 Arsenal again won the league, which is so far their last. In 2004/05 they won their last FA Cup and had their last runners-up finish in the league. In 2005/06 Arsenal lost the UEFA Champions League final to Barcelona and they also lost the English League Cup finals in both 2006/07 and 2010/11. In other words this season takes it to seven years since Arsenal last won a title.
Last season’s shock loss to Birmingham in the League Cup final and Arsenal’s poor start to this season has put added pressure on Wenger to deliver. It hasn’t helped his case that two of his biggest stars, Fabregas and Nasri, both recently left the club to chase glory elsewhere. Many Arsenal fans have been disgruntled with Wenger’s recent lack of activity in the transfer market. For now he still has the full backing of Arsenal’s board but for how long? Arsene Wenger himself is convinced that he can turn the fortunes around for Arsenal again. Wenger’s achievements at Arsenal should mean he is afforded time to prove it.