MY ACCOUNT
Carlo Ancelotti was unmoved by reports Paris Saint-Germain have offered to make Real Madrid-linked Kylian Mbappe the highest-paid footballer in the world.
Mbappe was in devastating form against Madrid on Wednesday, scoring PSG’s late winner in the Champions League last-16 first leg at the Parc des Princes after generally impressing throughout.
The France star’s decisiveness was fitting given overarching narrative of his future, which has put the two clubs into something of a tug-of-war over the past couple of years.
Madrid reportedly made several offers for Mbappe last year but were rebuffed by PSG, who were insistent that they would be able to persuade the striker to stay in Paris.
But then came January 1 and Mbappe still had not signed a new contract, meaning he became eligible to begin discussing moves to foreign clubs.
Many expect he will join Madrid at the end of the season, but in the wake of their 1-0 win over Los Blancos, PSG apparently made it known they would be willing to give Mbappe a basic wage “far in excess of £500,000 [€600,000], and closer to £1m [€1.2m] a week”, according to the Independent.
Ancelotti is not convinced that matters, however.
“Everyone has to think what they want,” Ancelotti told reporters on Friday ahead of the clash with Deportivo Alaves.
“I have to say, they pay me a lot and so I am privileged, but what I like is not the money I earn, but what I do.”
Ancelotti acknowledged in the wake of the defeat in Paris that Madrid were poor, as they struggled to get control of the contest and subsequently found themselves under pressure for much of the game.
They failed to get a single shot on target for only the second time in a Champions League game since Opta records began (2003-04), and their 0.14 expected goals (xG) was their worst in the competition in just under nine years.
He was asked again about the performance and he recognised the best thing about the game was that they only lost 1-0.
“Sometimes it’s the little details that decide the matches,” he said. “I’m quite honest, we played very badly against PSG in what we normally do well. We had a bad night.
“This doesn’t worry me so much because I know the quality and personality the team has for getting out of this.
“The criticism is justified because we did badly. The first critic is myself. The approach has not been good and I have to take responsibility.
“Criticism must be understood and learned from because sometimes it is very helpful. The idea that I don’t talk to the players is nonsense.
“I spoke with the president and with the director and we have the same feeling. We are hurt but I think we are honest: we played badly and the image of Real Madrid was not good, which is what hurts the most. The best thing about the game was the result.”
Tuesday’s match was the sixth game in a row in which Vinicius Junior has failed to score after an extremely bright first half to the season, while Madrid as a team have netted just once in four.
Ancelotti is not concerned about there being a specific issue with Vinicius, however.
“Everything that happens to the team is happening to him, we’ve dropped off a bit,” he added. “But the team is doing well physically.
“Against Villarreal we did well sometimes and against PSG we suffered until the end. Vini has had a very intense month and now he’s going to be more effective.
“We have to score more, that’s clear. But now Karim [Benzema] is back, he’s the main striker, who scores a lot of goals and gets a lot of assists.
“When he’s well, he’s better. We’ve had problems but he’s fine and he’s going to help us fix it.”
