Ancelotti won’t quit – but here are some reasons why Chelsea fans may be hoping he does
Carlo Ancelotti hasn’t had the greatest last few weeks. After a hectic deadline day acquiring the services of Fernando Torres for £50 million, any football fan would be relishing seeing the goals fly in from Chelsea’s front men. However that hasn’t been the case, and since winning 4-2 at the Stadium of Light, Chelsea have only managed to find the net once in 270 minutes of football, and even that coming from a midfielder. After losing 1-0 to Liverpool on Fernando Torre’s Chelsea debut, to drawing 0-0 away at Fulham, to crashing out of the F.A cup, the pressure is increasing on Carlo Ancelotti.
Ancelotti’s side lie 12 points behind leaders Manchester United in the defence of their Premier League crown and the UEFA Champions League is the only realistic chance of silverware this season. Many Chelsea fans want Ancelotti out of the job, as they believe there is too much negativity in the group for Ancelotti to produce any positivity. However, when asked if he would ever consider resigning, the former AC Milan coach said: “No, not me.
“I have never quit, resigned or walked out and I’m not in the mood to quit now.
“I don’t have to consider my position. It is the owner that has to consider my position, not myself.
“I just have to work and try to do my best. This is football; you have to be able to manage at this moment with confidence.”
Ancelotti is doubtlessly a superb coach and his team’s dominance last season and in the early part of this campaign was testament to his ability to organise and motivate good players to achieve better results.
But what Chelsea need right now is a manager, not a coach, and certainly not one with the air of a man defeated. The warning signs came when Ray Wilkins was sacked – apparently without Ancelotti’s knowledge, let alone his wishes.
It was a clear and possibly fatal undermining of Ancelotti’s authority and control over the team, an authority that is essential if the man in the dugout is to control the dominant alpha-males that make up Chelsea’s squad and that kind of authority is also required to shape up the Blues squad in the long-term.
The Stamford Bridge elite is getting old, and some radical changes are required in the summer if the club is to be elevated back to a title-challenging level. The Frank Arnesen years simply have not worked, because the best young players still go to Arsenal, Manchester United, Barcelona and Inter Milan, and those who do come to Chelsea do not make the first team. Chelsea need someone who can dictate matters to the board, to radically reshape the club, to mould it with the next 10 or 20 years in mind – as Ancelotti has shown in the past that he is not that man.
Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Louis van Gaal, Guus Hiddink and Pep Guardiola are all-or-nothing bosses, with distinct playing philosophies and strategic attitudes to player acquisition in the short and long-term.
Ancelotti is a company man, who works with what he has and largely works very well. This may initially flatter the egos of Chelsea’s power-brokers but eventually, when overhaul and the resetting of goals is required, he appears to fall short.
The evidence of this is in his time at Milan. Initially highly successful, he worked with the excellent players at his disposal thanks to the club’s separate transfer policy. The owner decided which players came in and Ancelotti did not rock the boat, nor did he attempt to inject youth into an ageing squad.
By the end of his stay at the San Siro, Milan were barely a top-four side in a weakening league, boasting a back four with a combined age of around 150.
In my opinion, Chelsea needs youth and vigour, and a strongman to wield and axe and take some big risks to bring it to the fore. For all his skills, Ancelotti who in the summer had the bargaining tool of the Premier League title isn’t that man.
