Abramovich will stick with Ancelotti and bankroll £140million summer spree
Published 23:00 17/03/10 By Martin Lipton
Roman Abramovich last night gave Carlo Ancelotti a personal training ground assurance his Chelsea job is safe despite the Blues’ Champions League humiliation at the hands of Jose Mourinho.
But the latest premature end of the quest for Abramovich’s Holy Grail will bring a summer of upheaval which will finally see the coffers opened and a wholesale change of the squad Ancelotti inherited.
Abramovich was understood to have been angry and embarrassed by Tuesday’s exit, which saw Mourinho unfurling his peacock feathers once again after overseeing the destruction of the team he created, with the blame being pinned on the Italian.
But while the Chelsea owner expected far more, his more measured response was to go to see Ancelotti at the club’s Cobham headquarters where agreement was reached over the need for radical rebuilding - at a potential outlay of £140million-plus.
Even before Tuesday night, Ancelotti and the Blues hierarchy had been concerned about the danger of the Chelsea squad beginning to resemble the Saga-sponsored AC Milan side who had capitulated at Old Trafford last week.
That feeling was only reinforced by events at the Bridge, with Ancelotti out-thought by Mourinho and his players second-best in every area of the park.
When Ancelotti took the job last summer, he also accepted the philosophy of doing it with the tools he was given, rather than buying an expensive new set.
But it did not take long for Abramovich to concede that things needed to be different and - with Lens paid off and the threat of a transfer window ban over the Gael Kakuta affair ended - rather than tinker in January Ancelotti was given the green light to do it for real this summer.
That means the end of Mourinho’s generation of Chelsea “Pensioners“ and a new-look side, recruited to fit Ancelotti’s pattern of play, instead of trying to force square pegs left behind by the Special One into round holes.
Top of the wish-list are Fernando Torres, Franck Ribery and David Villa.
The odds are heavily against capturing any of them, although the Torres’ hints of disquiet with Liverpool have raised hopes.
Ribery is seemingly set for Real Madrid, Villa for Barcelona, but if either is available, then money will be no object as Abramovich seeks to find a “personality“ in his side that fits his image of what Chelsea can become under Ancelotti’s guiding hand.
In midfield, too, the need for change is pressing. Joe Cole’s miserable cameo after replacing Michael Ballack - who will accept the reduced contract terms on offer in order to stay in London - may have sealed his fate, John Obi Mikel is vulnerable and Deco is half-way back to Brazil in his head already.
Ancelotti is looking for more pace and invention, Lazio’s Marek Hamsik at the forefront of his mind, as Chelsea accept they cannot expect Frank Lampard to keep on playing every match and delivering 20-plus goals each season.
Other options include Benfica winger Angel Di Mario, fellow Argentine and Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero - despite concerns over his lack of inches - German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and Inter’s marauding Brazilian right-back Maicon.
To land even half of that list - Chelsea have also looked at Sampdoria striker Giampaolo Pazzini, Palermo centre half Simon Kjaer and Alkmaar’s Belgian striker Moussa Dembele - will require a massive outlay, increasing the expectation that academy products Kakuta, Jeffrey Bruma, Fabio Borini and Nemanja Matic will be genuine first team options.
But as the chastened Chelsea players conceded that lessons have to be learned to prevent the rest of the season from capsizing in the wake of the Mourinho bow wave, while urging the club not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, the requirement for action was implicitly understood.
Ballack admitted: “We couldn’t perform well and had no answer.
“Inter were defensively so strong and in every duel they were unbelievable, clever and hard. Normally you find an answer because we are also a physical team but we were not good on the night.
“If you lose then always it means something has gone wrong. Offensively was what we were most disappointed about. That was one of our poorest games in the Champions League.
“I don’t think it would be right to decide on the basis of one match how to assess the development of this team over a whole year.
“We have had a lot of good games. We were looking good and confident before the game, confident that we could beat them, but we have to accept it like it is. I don’t think the team looks poor generally. It was just a bad day.”
Florent Malouda, the one Chelsea player to really show against Inter, added: “It was really frustrating. We didn’t play the way we wanted to.
“We had a plan and couldn’t apply it. We didn’t use our strengths and sometimes we played too many long balls.
“The tactics were right but sometimes the opponents disturb your plans. We wanted to play to our strengths and put more pace and intensity in the game but they were looking for fouls to slow the pace of the game. We didn’t handle it and couldn’t keep the intensity high.
“Now we have to get something from season, like last year. When we went out to Barcelona we were more frustrated and disappointed because of the way it happened.
“Whether you lose in the last 16 or the Final, it’s still the same. We have to We have to analyse what happened against Inter and focus on the two big trophies we can win.”
