A man as well balanced as Carlo Ancelotti has no business being
a football manager. Certainly not in England's Premier League, where managers are
expected to argue among themselves and snipe at referees as a
matter of routine.
Not Ancelotti. Even approaching a weekend such as this, when he
takes his Chelsea squad to Old Trafford on
Sunday knowing that a win would put them level with Sir Alex
Ferguson's team at the top of the table, nothing shakes his
equilibrium or disrupts his air of knowing geniality as he wanders
in from the Surrey sunshine after a training session to ponder on
the problem of Wayne Rooney or to praise the match referee, Howard
Webb. Not even the knowledge that his destiny is under discussion
in two countries.
His team, fresh from winning the Double, started the new season
with a rush. But the winter months saw a six-point lead transformed
into a deficit of 15 points to Manchester United, the new leaders.
And until the west London side climbed out of their mid-season
slump, putting together 11 wins in their past 14 matches, the man
who arrived in England two summers ago appeared to be heading for
the exit.
Had Chelsea's season continued to disintegrate, the turning
points would have seemed obvious. The first was the abrupt and
unexplained dismissal in November of Ray Wilkins, Ancelotti's No2,
an old friend of whom he said: "We wouldn't have won a thing
without him." The second was the appearance in January of Fernando
Torres, a £50m striker whose arrival forced Ancelotti to modify his
preferred formation and who took 10 games to score his first
goal.
The whims of powerful men, however, are nothing new to
Ancelotti, whether they be Gianni Agnelli, Silvio Berlusconi or
Roman Abramovich, and from his present vantage point he can argue
that the real turning points were quite different.
"Manchester United against Arsenal last Sunday, and our win
against Tottenham," he said. "If Arsenal hadn't won, it would be a
different atmosphere around our game against United." Another one,
he said, had come last month at the Hawthorns, just after their
Champions League elimination, when West Brom scored first but
Chelsea fought back to win.
On Friday he received the manager of the month award – "for
April," he emphasised, implying that the fates should not be
tempted. But no one knows whether a second league title, or even a
near-miss, combined with a second consecutive failure to progress
beyond the last eight of the Champions League, would be enough to
persuade Abramovich to allow him another year at Stamford
Bridge.
"It's not the moment to speak about my future," he said. "I
would like to stay, but I am very quiet and calm. At the end of the
season, the club will take the decision. If they decide to change
the manager there is no problem. I've tried to do my best. If they
consider my job good, I will stay. If they don't, they can
change."
The unexpected turnaround of the past couple of months will have
done his claims little harm. "Nobody thought we would be able to
fight for the title," he said. "We were talking about qualifying
for the Champions League. Fifteen points behind United was too much
of a gap, but we closed it because we did really well for two
months. Last year we built up a very good relationship with the
players, and this atmosphere helped us to maintain good control of
our confidence."
He has a perfect record – three wins out of three – against
Ferguson in league matches and last year, after the victory at Old
Trafford that took Chelsea to the brink of the title, he and
Wilkins went into Ferguson's office for a glass of wine, only to
find the United manager preoccupied by the racing on television.
That match represented United's last defeat at home.
"I know," Ancelotti said. "Thirty matches, only one draw.
Obviously they are the favourites as they have three points more.
If they win, they will win the title. If we are able to win, then
goal difference becomes important, and we have very difficult games
against Newcastle and Everton, so nothing would be decided. But it
would be important to be at the top of the table, after such a long
time."
He spoke of the threat of Rooney and of Ryan Giggs, whose passes
destroyed Chelsea in the two Champions League ties last month. But
mostly that of Rooney. "He is a key player for them. It's difficult
to stop him. His position is not so easy to control – he moves a
lot, he comes back and works for the team. Obviously we have to do
something. We never put one player against him, because it means
changing our philosophy too much and we want to play our football.
But it will be important to stay compact and keep our midfielders'
and defenders' lines very close."
There has been one definite change of policy during the season.
At Abramovich's behest, and with the forthcoming rules on financial
fairness in mind, a group of young players – Daniel Sturridge, Gaël
Kakuta, Jeffrey Bruma, Patrick van Aanholt and Josh McEachran –
were among the substitutes during the first half of the season but
have not been seen in the side in recent weeks.
"When we decided at the start of the season to use more players
from the academy, it was a good decision," Ancelotti said. "We
began really well, we were top and some of them played, although
not many games. But when we had a difficult moment it was not easy
to give them that responsibility. So we gave some the chance to go
out on loan in January. We will decide at the end of the season if
they come back or not."
Whether or not he will be around to influence those decisions,
Ancelotti is intent on making the best of the last weeks of his
very mixed second season. "Our bad moment was too long, I think. We
could have done better. But now destiny has helped us to fight for
the title again. We are excited and very happy. The season has not
gone, as everyone suggested. This team is still alive."