Sunday Times
March 21, 2010
Trouble and strife as Chelsea confront harsh realitiesDuncan Castles BODY language is often more eloquent than words alone, as on Friday as Carlo Ancelotti set about fixing the damage inflicted by Jose Mourinho’s Internazionale by announcing Chelsea’s determination to win the Double.
After telling us that owner Roman Abramovich was disappointed “but not angry” with Tuesday’s Champions League exit, the Italian was asked if he will ever bring the European Cup to Chelsea. There is a wry smile, a breathy chuckle. Ancelotti turns his eyes to the floor and scratches at his right temple. “I think so,” he says. “It is my dream . . . to put the Champions League here in Stamford Bridge.”
That reverie had sparse time to present itself in the two hours of restless sleep Ancelotti got after the loss to Inter. It did not help that
Abramovich held Ancelotti and his assistants back at the Bridge until the early hours of Wednesday morning for a verbal post-mortem of another failed European campaign. The coming day brought the prospect of the club’s owner encamping himself at Cobham for further inquisitions.
Accompanied by a cadre of Chelsea executives, Abramovich sat in on a fractious gathering of players and coaches. He gathered the club’s scouting staff together to discuss the quality of recruitment work. He called together the medical department to discuss the burgeoning list of front-line injuries. The process has become so familiar through Chelsea’s recent failing seasons that it is easy to overlook its oddity. “Holistic” is how one Chelsea official describes the Abramovich approach. Horrific seems more appropriate. Those close to Ancelotti talk of a popular, well-intentioned man attempting to cope with myriad advisory voices and competing agendas. As he struggles to meet the owner’s target of winning trophies playing beautiful football, the coach is expected to integrate Frank Arnesen’s academy recruits into the first team. His players are assaulted with half-time performance statistics courtesy of Mike Forde, the club’s performance director. Head scout Michael Emenalo has risen to a position from which he directly questions players on their tactical roles during and after games — a strange responsibility for an Avram Grant appointment whose previous position was coaching a girls’ side at Tucson Soccer Academy.
There are rumblings of discontent towards Ancelotti’s assistants. Ray Wilkins is considered too close to John Terry, who championed his appointment in 2008.
There has been criticism of the relaxed manner in which he and Bruno Demichelis, the psychologist Ancelotti brought from AC Milan, prepare for games. Terry’s standing within the team has arguably been damaged by his affair with the mother of Wayne Bridge’s child. Club insiders describe Terry as a man who has lost his formerly dominant position inside the dressing room, and talk of a resentment that Terry’s behaviour forced Ancelotti into publicly warning the entire playing staff against bringing Chelsea into further disrepute.
Terry remains oddly untouchable as a player, a succession of on-field errors written off by Ancelotti as results have suffered. In the 11 matches since their captain’s affair became public knowledge, Chelsea have conceded 13 goals. Four games have been lost, including the “fiasco” of a 4-2 home defeat to Bridge’s Manchester City.
Abramovich may prove less tolerant of the injuries that weakened his team on Tuesday, Jose Bosingwa and Michael Essien failing to recover from knee problems in time for Inter. For all the millions spent, Chelsea remain a dysfunctional conundrum of self-preserving factions. For all Abramovich’s training ground inquisitions, the owner will not change the club’s power structure to help his manager concentrate on success.
Barring a disastrous end to this campaign, Ancelotti will survive, yet the word from Russia is that there is to be no radical overhaul of the squad. Joe Cole and Deco are likely to go and Michael Ballack will have to take a pay cut commensurate with his new status as a squad player. There may be spending on a Franck Ribery or a Sergio Aguero, but only if the prices come down. Arnesen and his mentor Piet de Visser remain influential, with Alex and Salomon Kalou regarded as relative successes on Tuesday and lauded as economical acquisitions.
More worrying for Chelsea fans is the belief that several young signings are ready to establish themselves in the first team. Nemanja Matic, Daniel Sturridge, Gael Kakuta, Fabio Borini, Jeffrey Bruma, Ryan Bertrand, Miroslav Stoch and Patrick van Aanholt are to be a grand part of Chelsea’s Champions League future. No wonder Ancelotti is rubbing that temple.
The kids who may have to step up
Daniel Sturridge (20, England, striker) Left Manchester City in 2009 when Chelsea agreed to pay him £60,000 a week. Unused sub against Inter
Nemanja Matic (21, Serbia, midfield) £1.5m Frank Arnesen signing from Slovak club MFK Kosice. Played just 21 minutes against Wolves in the Premier League
Gael Kakuta (18, France, winger, inset). His acquisition from Lens brought Chelsea a transfer ban, eventually lifted when the French club were paid off. Four senior games
Miroslav Stoch (20, Slovakia, winger) Quick but slight full international. Loaned to FC Twente this season, he has scored eight times
ON TV TODAY
BLACKBURN v CHELSEA
3.30pm Sky Sports 1/Sky Sports HD1, kick-off 4pm. Highlights BBC2 10pm
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