Carlo Ancelotti has told L'Equipe that Paris Saint-Germain "broke" their relationship with him by threatening to sack him.
Ancelotti, who was appointed midway through the 2011-12 season, missed out on the league title to Montpellier, and was under pressure at the Parc des Princes after beginning the following campaign in far from emphatic fashion.
Things came to a head following a 2-1 defeat at Nice on Dec. 1 -- PSG's third loss in five league games -- when the club's owners told the Italian his next outing must end in victory or he would be shown the door.
"We started the season badly, and after that, the club lost the vision of the project," he said. "They became afraid the project would break during the season. After our defeat to Nice in the league, three days before the last group game in the Champions League against Porto, the club thought about changing coach.
"Their mistake was to tell the coach. You cannot tell a coach: 'If you don't win, you're fired.' I know the game -- if you work badly, you will be sacked. That's normal. There, the club broke our relationship. I started to think that it wasn't the project the club was interested in but rather short-term results."
Ancelotti kept his job with a 2-1 win over Porto, and would eventually guide PSG to the Ligue 1 title and the Champions League quarterfinals before leaving for Real Madrid in the summer of 2013, despite the club's efforts to keep him in Paris.