SOCCER:A MAN as well-balanced as Carlo Ancelotti has no business being a football manager. Certainly not in England's Premier League, where managers are expected to argue among themselves and snipe at referees as a matter of routine.
Not Ancelotti. Even approaching a weekend such as this, when he takes his Chelsea squad to Old Trafford tomorrow knowing that a win would put them level with Alex Ferguson’s team at the top of the table, nothing shakes his equilibrium or disrupts his air of knowing geniality as he wanders in from the Surrey sunshine after a training session to ponder on the problem of Wayne Rooney or to praise the match referee, Howard Webb.
His team, fresh from winning the double, started the new season with a rush. But the winter months saw a six-point lead transformed into a deficit of 15 points to Manchester United, the new leaders.
And until the London side climbed out of their mid-season slump, putting together 11 wins in their past 14 matches, the man who arrived in England two summers ago appeared to be heading for the exit.
Had Chelsea’s season continued to disintegrate, the turning points would have seemed obvious. The first was the abrupt dismissal in November of Ray Wilkins, Ancelotti’s number two.
The second was the appearance in January of Fernando Torres, a €57m striker whose arrival forced Ancelotti to modify his preferred formation and who took 10 games to score his first goal.
The whims of powerful men, however, are nothing new to Ancelotti, whether they be Silvio Berlusconi or Roman Abramovich, and from his present vantage point he can argue that the real turning points were quite different.
“Manchester United against Arsenal last Sunday, and our win against Tottenham,” he said yesterday. “If Arsenal hadn’t won, it would be a different atmosphere around our game against United.”
Another one, he said, had come last month at the Hawthorns, just after their Champions League elimination, when West Brom scored first but Chelsea fought back to win.
Yesterday he received the manager of the month award – “for April,” he emphasised, implying that the fates should not be tempted. But no-one knows whether a second league title, or even a near-miss, combined with another failure to progress beyond the last eight of the Champions League, would be enough to persuade Abramovich to allow him another year at Stamford Bridge.
“It’s not the moment to speak about my future,” he said yesterday. “I would like to stay, but I am very quiet and calm. At the end of the season, the club will take the decision. If they decide to change the manager there is no problem. I’ve tried to do my best. If they consider my job good, I will stay. If they don’t, they can change.”
The unexpected turnaround of the past couple of months will have done his claims little harm. “Nobody thought we would be able to fight for the title,” he said.
“We were talking about qualifying for the Champions League. Fifteen points behind United was too much of a gap, but we closed it because we did really well for two months. Last year we built up a very good relationship with the players, and this atmosphere helped us to maintain good control of our confidence.”
He has a perfect record – three wins out of three – against Ferguson in league matches and last year, after the victory at Old Trafford that took Chelsea to the brink of the title, he and Wilkins went into Ferguson’s office for a glass of wine, only to find the United manager preoccupied by the racing on television. That match was United’s last defeat at home.
“I know,” Ancelotti said. “Thirty matches, only one draw. Obviously they are the favourites as they have three points more. If they win, they will win the title. If we are able to win, then goal difference becomes important, and we have very difficult games against Newcastle and Everton, so nothing would be decided. But it would be important to be at the top of the table, after such a long time.”
He spoke of the threat of Rooney and of Ryan Giggs, whose passes destroyed Chelsea in the two Champions League ties last month. But mostly that of Rooney.
“He is a key player for them. It’s difficult to stop him. His position is not so easy to control – he moves a lot, he comes back and works for the team. Obviously we have to do something. We never put one player against him, because it means changing our philosophy too much and we want to play our football. But it will be important to stay compact and keep our midfielders’ and defenders’ lines very close.”
There has been one change of policy during the season. At Abramovich’s behest, and with the forthcoming rules on financial fairness in mind, a group of young players – Daniel Sturridge, Gael Kakuta, Jeffrey Bruma, Patrick van Aanholt and Josh McEachran – were among the substitutes during the first half of the season but have not been seen in the side in recent weeks. Chelsea will decide whether those players will return next season.
Whether or not he will be around to influence those decisions, Ancelotti is intent on making the best of the last weeks of his very mixed second season. “Our bad moment was too long, I think. We could have done better. But now destiny has helped us to fight for the title again. We are excited and very happy. The season has not gone, as everyone suggested. This team is still alive.”
