Golden immunity and an unknown fate… Ancelotti and Jesus are two sides of the same coin
Portuguese Jorge Jesus, the coach of Saudi club Al-Hilal, has received strong support from club president Fahd bin Nafel, as he faces a storm of technical and fan criticism due to recent results.
Al-Hilal is experiencing a difficult season—at least domestically—compared to its previous one, having exited the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup in the quarterfinals after losing to Al-Ittihad, who also currently lead the Roshen Saudi Professional League by five points.
Amid a turbulent domestic season and five league defeats, Jesus has become a target of criticism, amid speculation that the Portuguese veteran will step down from the Blues. Meanwhile, Bin Nafel remains the last line of defense protecting Al-Hilal’s coach.
According to Saudi reports, the Al-Hilal president rejects the idea of making changes to the technical staff at this stage of the season. Bin Nafel’s position is reinforced by the views of former club figures such as Prince Abdullah bin Musaed, who believes that the club’s management should not be influenced by fan pressure but should adhere to its strategy and strive to implement it despite setbacks.
Jesus’ situation is strikingly similar to that of Real Madrid’s Italian coach, Carlo Ancelotti. While Al-Hilal’s coach is riding high on an exceptional season in which the team undefeated and swept aside all its domestic rivals, Real Madrid’s coach is living on the ruins of European glory, having won the Champions League multiple times under his leadership, both in his current and previous stints.
Special Protection
The support Jesus enjoys at Al-Hilal is almost identical to the support Ancelotti receives from Florentino Pérez, Real Madrid’s president, who often turns a deaf ear to the angry voices of Los Blancos fans, who see their team as lacking an identity and squandering titles one by one.
This similarity between Jesus’ and Ancelotti’s situations is further exacerbated by the fact that neither the Portuguese nor the Italian has performed convincingly this season. Al-Hilal has lost the ferocity it displayed during its dominant season, and the performance of most of its key players has declined. Meanwhile, Real Madrid has struggled significantly this season, losing shockingly to Europe’s elite teams and is on the verge of a null season.
Jesus lost the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup, just as Ancelotti also lost the Spanish Super Cup in humiliating fashion against Barcelona. The two men share a common goal: the Club World Cup, a dream for every coach. However, both may depart at the end of the season, based on declining results.
An Inevitable Fate
Bin Nafel’s protection of Jesus and Perez’s patience with Ancelotti’s lapses may continue, but they will not last long, as the winds of change will inevitably blow in Riyadh and Madrid.
Al-Hilal, on the one hand, wants to make a respectable appearance at the Club World Cup and cling to the hope of winning the league until the final whistle. However, Jesus’s position may not help the Al-Hilal management defend him, especially since he seems distracted by the idea of coaching the Brazilian national team.
Brazilian reports continually cite Jesus as an exceptional candidate to lead the Seleção, based on his previous experience in the land of the Samba Dancers. This is a source of interest to the aging coach, as this may be an irreplaceable opportunity. This is particularly true given his clearly declining fortunes at Al Hilal, and he may not be able to carry out a corrective revolution in the remaining part of the season.
As for Ancelotti, he faces a difficult task: to pull off a fantastic comeback against Arsenal after a 3-0 loss in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, in addition to continuing to chase Barcelona at the top of La Liga and even challenging them in the Copa del Rey final.
Barcelona’s ideal situation makes even the most optimistic about Ancelotti’s future with Real Madrid doubt that this coach is capable of turning things around. The Club World Cup may not be a sufficient reason to keep a coach who has not provided technical support on the pitch with Los Blancos.
