DUMP JOSE
AND GET IN ANCELOTTI
EXCLUSIVE: Shevchenko in amazing plea to pal Abramovich
by Martin Lipton Chief Football Writer
ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO wants Roman Abramovich to dump Jose Mourinho and
install his former AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti as the next
Chelsea boss.
The Ukrainian striker exacerbated his rift with Mourinho and the
rest of the Chelsea squad by asking the Stamford Bridge owner to
bring in the Italian and axe Mourinho. But Shevchenko knows that if
there is a power battle at the Bridge there can only be one winner
and he has told his friend Abramovich that 47-year-old Ancelotti is
the coach who can make him recapture the form that made him the
most feared striker in Europe.
Shevchenko is understood to have told Abramovich: "Roman, you
should open the door of Stamford Bridge to Carlo. He is just the
man for us." The £30m Ukrainian flop has been the main source of
the open warfare that has broken out between Mourinho and the club
hierarchy.
Ancelotti, 47, will leave AC Milan in the summer after six seasons
at the San Siro helm, where he is likely to be replaced by
Barcelona's Frank Rijkaard or Holland boss Marco van Basten, both
former team-mates of the Italian.
The highlights of his managerial career were the 2003 Champions
League triumph - when former Italy, Milan and Roma midfielder
Ancelotti became became only the fifth man to lift the trophy as
player and coach - and the Serie A triumph of the following
season.
Chelsea will today sign Bolton's Tal Ben Haim for £2m after the
Isreali centre-half agreed personal terms. Skipper John Terry,
meanwhile, has still not given up hope of making the journey to
Anfield. Terry flew back from a day of intensive massage treatment
in Holland accompanied by the Dutch specialist who believes he can
free up his calf injury.
