Ancelotti says he expects Terry to stay at Chelsea

Whatever uncertainties new Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti faces, the future of captain John Terry with the club doesn’t appear to be one of them.

“I am sure he will remain in Chelsea,” Ancelotti said Friday as the English Premiership club prepared for a friendly against the Seattle Sounders of Major League soccer on Saturday, the first fixture in a four-match tour of the United States.

“I am sure, 100 percent,” Ancelotti said. “He has a contract for three years more and this is the situation now.”

There has been much speculation about Terry’s future after Manchester City revealed they had made an offer for the defender, but Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon insisted earlier this week that the player is not for sale.

City have reportedly offered the 28-year-old a staggering 200,000 pounds a week to sign a deal which would see him join Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz and Carlos Tevez who have cost City 50 million pounds in total this summer.

Terry’s teammates insisted the issue is not a distraction, for them or their captain.

“He doesn’t pay attention to that,” striker Salomon Kalou said. “Maybe if he was paying attention to that it might disturb a little bit of the team, but you can tell he is not disturbed by this situation.”

That’s good news for Ancelotti, who was confirmed as the club’s manager on a three-year contract in June after departing Italy’s AC Milan.

He became the fifth manager in two years at Chelsea, since Jose Mourinho left the club in 2007, and takes over with a brief to make the Blues contenders in the Premier League and in Europe.

“In this work the pressure is normal. I am happy to be at Chelsea,” Ancelotti said Friday. “I like the work of the players, they’ve started the season very well and they work with very good mental attitude.

“Tomorrow is the first game of the season, we want to start well, so it is an important game. We want to win and play well.”