Ancelotti puts the record straight. Maybe he can be left alone to get on with his job now.

Speculation around Carlo Ancelotti and his position as the manager of Chelsea has reached fever pitch over the past week or so.

Problems

The slightly strange dismissal of coach Ray Wilkins, the apparently forced acceptance of a new first team coach who Ancelotti said wouldn’t be involved in the coaching, three defeats in four games and then the rumour that he had consulted with the League Managers’ Association (LMA) about his current position, all pointed towards some serious problems.

When speaking after the defeat at Birmingham Ancelotti said that he wasn’t in total control at Chelsea. He gave the comparison of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, saying that he had total control of affairs at Old Trafford whereas he himself had control of just the coaching.

Going into the press conference ahead of Chelsea’s Champions League game against MSK Zilina tonight, it seemed obvious that Ancelotti was on the verge of resigning.

Wrong

As it turned out, Ancelotti seemed calm, comfortable, happy and totally at ease in his role. He couldn’t have made his position and his desire to see the job through at Stamford Bridge any clearer. Could it be that the tabloid press had got it wrong? Surely not!!

Asked about the rumours that he was about to quit, Ancelotti said,

“These rumours are untrue. I’ve no idea where they’ve come from.”

Asked about contacting the LMA, Ancelotti said,

“I didn’t call the LMA. They called me last night when I was relaxing at home, just to find out what was going on. There was, last night, an LMA dinner with the coaches and they wanted to know about these rumours. I said to them that this is totally untrue. I read in the papers that I called them. That’s untrue. I didn’t call nobody.”

Pressure

Asked if he was under pressure and if he had considered his position, Ancelotti said,

“There’s no reason to think about my position. It’s very clear. I am the coach. I have my contract until 2012, here, in this club. I’ve said a lot of times that I’d like to stay here. I love not just this club, but these players. I have a lot of confidence in these players, in this squad, so there’s no reason to change my ideas. When the team don’t reach the right results, obviously the coach is under pressure. Obviously I am under pressure because I’d like Chelsea to win every game, but I am focused on my job to make us play better than we are at this moment.”

Asked about whether results on the pitch had been adversely affected by the departure of Ray Wilkins, Ancelotti reiterated what he had said after the Birmingham game,

“The fact that Ray had gone did not affect things.”

Attempt

The fact is that Chelsea are still top of the Premier League and tonight will see them cement their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League. It is true that they were pretty awful against Sunderland in their 3-0 home defeat last week, but they were not bad at Birmingham. Birmingham had one attempt on goal in ninety minutes and Chelsea had twenty-five. It was just one of those days.

Any team would struggle to cope with the absence of players like Terry, Lampard and Essien and whilst it is perhaps surprising that the strength of the squad is not quite what it could be, I have no doubt that Chelsea will be there ir thereabouts come the end of the season.

Maybe now Ancelotti can be left alone to get on with his job. It is a job that he just happens to be pretty good at.