Ancelotti: Selling Zola was a mistake

(GSM) – Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti’s failure to accommodate Gianfranco Zola in his team at Parma, resulted in the Italian’s sparkling career in England.

Ancelotti was coach of the Serie A side in 1996 when Zola was often played out of position and eventually made him available for transfer.

Zola was a ‘square peg’ in Ancelotti’s rigid system and quit Parma for Chelsea, where he went on to play over 300 games and become a legend at Stamford Bridge.

Now 13 years later their paths are set to cross again as struggling West Ham face Chelsea at Upton Park on Sunday and Ancelotti admits he made a mistake in not finding a role for Zola.

“Probably I made a mistake with him because I wanted to play 4-4-2 and I put the players in the right positions but he wanted to stay in the centre like a striker,” Ancelotti said.

“In that period, when there was this discussion, Chelsea offered him a good contract and he decided to go.

“I think it was a mistake. It was my first experience in Serie A and I was not able to change the system.

“I preferred to maintain the system that I knew well. For this, Gianfranco had a different decision to make. But a lot of time has passed since and now we have a good relationship.

“He would probably not have gone to Chelsea if I had changed the system, but he had a wonderful experience here at Chelsea and all the fans here remember his performances.”

Zola is now finding life difficult in charge of a side struggling near the foot of the Premier League and a club in financial difficulty.

But Ancelotti is wary of the threat teams like West Ham can pose to his expensive squad.

Bottom club Portsmouth proved that Chelsea can be rattled when they almost sneaked a draw at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday and Ancelotti insists they cannot afford to take their London rivals lightly.

“I think that Gianfranco Zola is not living a good moment, but he has quality to improve,” added Ancelotti. “West Ham have had a lot of problems with injuries, but we have to pay attention to this game.

“It’s a derby and they will put a very good spirit into this game. When you play against a team at the bottom of the league, you have to pay attention. They will do their best to win.

“We saw that against Portsmouth. They created a lot of difficulties for us.

“We have to give respect to every team. Not only the teams at the top of the table, also the teams that don’t want to drop into the Championship.”

Ancelotti also dismissed speculation, for now at least, that Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero was heading for Stamford Bridge during next month’s transfer window.

“It’s not true,” the Italian said. “We don’t have news of a signing, or a contract with any players. At this moment, we don’t think about buying Aguero.”