Bringing Back Carlo Ancelotti Would Win Fans and Restore Trust in AC Milan

Carlo Ancelotti has nothing else to prove to AC Milan or any other club. He could just as easily take a year off, get healthy and find just as big of a job when he comes back.

But Milan are special to him. It's the only club he would coach again, he said to Mediaset (h/t Goal). He spent eight successful years with the Rossoneri from 2001 to 2009—the longest tenure of his coaching career—and it's the only club that has truly afforded him the time to build a squad.

He could coach anywhere: Ancelotti told Italian newspaper Il Giornale (h/t Sky Sports) that he has offers from not only Italy but England and Germany.

Except he has back surgery coming up, and that complicates the reunion of two old friends. Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has spent the past week in Madrid trying to persuade Ancelotti, offering a €120 million transfer kitty for the summer, according to Italian newspapers (h/t Football Italia). That's a huge show of trust.

"Carlo wanted to take a year out," Galliani told reporters, per Sky Sports. "We're hoping to convince him to accept Milan. He still has some days to think about it, he told me the chances were 50-50."

ALBERTO PELLASCHIAR/Associated Press

But imagine the return: what a coup for Silvio Berlusconi, the fallen politician and under-fire president of AC Milan with one last big move before perhaps selling the club off to a foreign investor. Bringing back Ancelotti would win Berlusconi points. It would win fans. This is the ideal case whenever an election nears.

Berlusconi is barred from holding office, but he still has his Forza Italia political party and he is still trying to stay relevant, setting up an Instagram account while doing all he can to campaign for "other candidates and promote our great crusade," he said, per NPR news.

Milan love a good homecoming, too. They love nostalgia. They brought back Fabio Capello and Arrigo Sacchi to coach and Andriy Shevchenko and Kaka to play.

Not all went well. Most of these are now cautionary tales: to leave the best in the past.

But Ancelotti is different. He is still world-class manager, having won in England, France and Spain. If not for the constant pressures of Real Madrid, he would still be there. The thanks he gets for sealing La Decima.

No one really says anything bad about Ancelotti: Cristiano Ronaldo even pulled for him to stay. He commands the respect of his peers and his players.

"

Great coach and amazing person. Hope we work together next season. pic.twitter.com/HqHHGjGGUH

— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) May 23, 2015"

In the foreword of Ancelotti's autobiography, The Beautiful Games of an Ordinary Genius, Paolo Maldini calls him a comedian in the locker room and "a big, easygoing friend."

Maldini went on:

"

Carlo never wants to do everything on his own. It's a sign of his considerable intelligence. And that's why he can win wherever he goes: at AC Milan, at Chelsea, at Real Madrid—anywhere. His knowledge of football is global, enormous...Even as a player, he was an outstanding organizer—of the game and of ideas. You can't really criticize him.

"

This is exactly what Milan need: someone to bring the team together after years of falling apart.

Ancelotti also understands the Milan way of doing things, and he knows how to work peacefully in stressful situations. You never hear about the kind of bust-ups that happen under Jose Mourinho. That's not Ancelotti.

"Out of all the locker room management techniques that I have witnessed," wrote Maldini, "his is definitely the least problematic."

Not many other managers are better equipped to handle the current turmoil at Milan. And they badly need the leadership of an Ancelotti to steer them out of trouble. They cannot go on with inexperience. They cannot go on with Filippo Inzaghi. 

It's just up to Ancelotti to decide. That will happen on Wednesday.