Ancelotti quashes Coentrao talk

Carlo Ancelotti has rubbished reports Chelsea are ready to sign Benfica left-back Fabio Coentrao as a replacement for unsettled star Ashley Cole.

Ancelotti was linked with a move for Coentrao this week following claims Cole had told the Blues boss he wants to join Real Madrid to escape the recent scrutiny into his private life.

But Ancelotti is determined to keep Cole and, speaking on Friday ahead of Sunday’s Community Shield clash with Manchester United, he said of the Coentrao rumours: “It’s not true, totally rubbish.”

While Ancelotti isn’t in the hunt for a replacement for Cole, he does want to bolster his options in midfield and is said to be close to signing Brazil midfielder Ramires from Benfica for around 18 million pounds.

The transfer is unlikely to be wrapped up in time for Ramires to play against United and Ancelotti was again reluctant to comment on the deal.

“Ramires is, until now, a Benfica player. When he is here, I can speak about him, not now,” he said.

“I don’t want to speak about Ramires. When Ramires will sign a contract for Chelsea, he will sign.

“This is the same for other players. I read a lot of names in the newspapers.

“Today, we don’t want to speak about these players because Sunday we will have a very important game.”

Ancelotti has had a quiet time in the transfer market since the end of last season and has seen Joe Cole, Michael Ballack and Juliano Belletti leave on free transfers.

But the former AC Milan coach is confident his current group of players and the club’s promising youngsters give him enough options to be confident of a strong defence of the Premier League and FA Cup trophies they won last season.

“For us, after a fantastic season, it was very difficult to change this squad,” Ancelotti said.

“We were totally agreed to maintain this squad. To put some young players in this squad from our academy, this was our aim.

“After a fantastic season, we could repeat the same season this year with these players.”