Ancelotti struggles to cling onto his job

A glorious end to 2014 was greeted by a chilling start to 2015. Real Madrid's Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti is struggling to cling onto his job.

The 2014-15 football season has to be considered a failure for Real Madrid, who on Sunday watched how FC Barcelona lifted the BBVA Primera Liga title, just five days after Real Madrid were knocked out of the semifinals of the Champions League by Juventus.

It must hurt Real Madrid fans and club President, Florentino Perez even more to know that Juventus will face Barcelona in the Champions League final and that Barca will take on Athletic Club Bilbao in the King's Cup, Spain's domestic knockout tournament on May 30, after Real's interest was ended in the last 16 by neighbor's Atletico.

Real Madrid have not ended the season without silverware, but their European Supercup lifted way back in August and the World Club Championship from December seem scant consolation, especially in the back of another year of heavy spending.

Failure is always had to take for Real Madrid, their fans and their President and despite leading the club to triumph in the Cup and the historic and much-desired "Decima" or 10th Champions League last season, Ancelotti's future is now in in the balance.

Past triumphs matter little to Perez, nor does the fact that Ancelotti brought stability and calm to a club in turmoil after Jose Mourinho's three seasons in charge had left a divided dressing room and support.

Now Ancelotti's ability to spread calm, to be the peacemaker and all things to all men is seen as a weakness in which he has failed to crack down on certain players and where his failure to rotate his starting 11 has left key players exhausted at the key moment of the campaign.

Whether or not this is true or fair is debatable: A look at Real Madrid's bench against Juventus on Wednesday would have shown you Pepe, Alvaro Arbeloa, Asier Illaramendi, Fabio Coentrao, Jese, Javier Hernandez and goalkeeper Keylor Navas. With Madrid needing to score, Ancelotti only had two forward to put into the game, one of whom, Jese has still not got to his best after injury.

Everyone else was a defensive minded player, while January signing Lucas Silva, another defensive midfielder, was in the stands.

Real Madrid only had Luka Modric out injured for the game so the conclusion is that Ancelotti does not have a balanced squad and at Real Madrid it is not the coach who designs the squad, rather the President... and the President neither takes the blame nor accepts responsibility.

Many consider Perez to be Real Madrid's best ever President and it's certainly true that during his two terms in office the club's profile has risen to a scale where Deloittes consider it to be the most valuable in the world.

In terms of trophies, however, that popularity is not justified, take for example this fact: In Perez's last 10 year as President the club has won just one Primera Liga title, one Champions League and two King's Cups.

Hardly a good return for an investment of well over a billion euros in players and for a period when Real Madrid has counted on footballers such as David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Iker Casillas, Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, James Rodriguez and Xabi Alonso.

Under Perez's leadership Real Madrid have consistently underachieved and since he sacked Vicente Del Bosque after winning the 2003 league title, Perez has got through eight different coaches (good going when you consider Mourinho lasted 3 years and Ancelotti has been in charge for two seasons).

It is always the weakest link which gives way in football and even more so at Real Madrid, so the questions now are: will Ancelotti weather the storm? And if he fails to do so: who will be the man to replace him? Endi