Ancelotti cools Chelsea rumours

AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti dismissed reports he will join Chelsea at the end of this season by telling newspaper La Stampa that he has no intention of leaving the Italian giants.

Dutch Russia coach Guus Hiddink has taken over the reins at Chelsea on a temporary basis until the end of the season following the unceremonious dismissal of former World Cup winning coach Luis Felipe Scolari.

But newspaper reports in England have suggested that Chelsea’s billionaire owner Roman Abramovich wants to bring Ancelotti to the London club in the summer.

However, while the Milan coach admitted to having previously met with the Russian, he claimed he is happy where he is.

“Honestly the only club that has approached me is Chelsea,” he told La Stampa when asked about the repeated interest in his services.

“In the summer I met with Abramovich but I didn’t want to leave Milan. The same thing is happening now, I’m not thinking about leaving.”

Ancelotti has won two Champions League titles, one Serie A crown and the Club World Cup since joining Milan as coach in 2001, having previously also coached Juventus.

However, he has at times had his position come under question, such as at the beginning of this season when Milan opened their campaign with two defeats to Bologna and Genoa.

He is under pressure to bring the Serie A crown back to Milan for the first time since 2004 and in so doing to end bitter city rivals Inter Milan’s domination of domestic football over the last three seasons.

However, Milan are only third in the table and trail Inter by eight points ahead of the eagerly-anticipated Milan derby this weekend.

If Ancelotti does leave it may not be for Chelsea.

La Gazzetta dello Sport, the leading sports newspaper in Italy, claims he is more likely to join Real Madrid than Chelsea while Ancelotti himself, a former Milan and AS Roma midfielder, has long made it clear that he wants to coach the Romans one day.