Ancelotti receives vote of confidence

Madrid - Carlo Ancelotti will remain as coach of Spanish giants Real Madrid for the forseeable future after being given a resounding vote of confidence by club president Florentino Perez.

Despite a rocky start to 2015, Perez addressed a hastily-convened press conference on Thursday to dispel all doubts about the under-fire coach's future.

"Carlo Ancelotti will remain Real Madrid coach," Perez insisted.

"We're not going to change a thing, whatever happens."

Perez added: "He has the full confidence of the president and the management."

After a year in which the club collected four trophies, the Champions League, domestic cup, European Super Cup and World Club championship, the alarm bells have started ringing in recent weeks.

Since the turn of the year they have lost five times in 15 games to surrender their league lead to Barcelona and were on the verge of suffering one of the biggest shocks in Champions League history when they lost 4-3 at home to Schalke but scraped through 5-4 on aggregate thanks to a 2-0 away success in the first leg.

"We are playing very badly. It is quite incomprehensible after what we did until December," said Ancelotti after the Schalke debacle.

Responding to calls for Ancelotti's head in the Spanish press, Perez refused to accept that the recent dip in form amounted to a crisis within the club.

"We have the best coach and the best players we could have and we're very proud of them," he said.