Reports claim Carlo Ancelotti was sacked for substituting Gareth Bale

Reports indicate Ancelotti’s treatment of Gareth Bale got him sacked

Recent reports coming out in the Spanish press indicate that Carlo Ancelotti might have been sacked because of how President Florentino Perez thought he was treating record signing Gareth Bale. Perez apparently felt that Bale wasn’t being treated well by Ancelotti.

What provoked that thought was apparently the match between Real Madrid and Valencia, where the Welshman was substituted with 20 minutes left in the match, a match that Real eventually lost 2-1. This match was where their title challenge started falling off.

According to AS, when the club President was initially asked about the reasons behind Ancelotti’s sacking, he said that it was "a question of loss of trust" in the coach. One of the club directors then reportedly asked him to elaborate why he lost faith in a coach who had won them four trophies in his first season.

In response, Perez said that the winger Bale had been mistreated, saying, "a key strategic player for us... once he took him off, and I reproached him over it, and Carlo didn't understand it. After that he lost my trust."

The papers also said that he thought that not treating Bale well was a response to Perez. He is rumoured to have said, "To bring off Bale is to attack me."

Real Madrid have since appointed Rafael Benitez as their manager, while Carlo Ancelotti has said that he will take a year off to rest.