It is apparent that four managers in two seasons has affected stability on the field.  Moving forward, its about time Chelsea realised stability off the field is the key.  Arsenal and Manchester United lead the way with Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson being ‘untouchables’ , while this season Liverpool has given Rafa Benitez the chance to remain at Anfiled for the foreseeable future, too.

Guus Hiddink once again underlined his world class credentials with only one defeat in 20 games as Chelsea’s caretaker manager.  But now he is preoccupied with getting Russia to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, Chelsea must look for a long term replacement if they are to return to the dizzy heights they tasted with Jose Mourinho; and Carlo Ancelotti looks to be on his way to Stamford Bridge after he terminated his position as Manager with AC Milan yesterday by mutual consent, a position he has held for the past eight years.

Apparently Chelsea wanted to announce Ancelotti last night but there was a last minute snag, allegedly to do with which coaching staff Ancelotti is able to bring with him.

Will Carlo Ancelotti be successful at Chelsea?

Carlo Ancelotti has proven he is as great a manager as he was a player.  He has taken AC Milan to three European Champions League Finals and won two. He has proven he can manage over inflated egos and a squad of players who believe they should be playing every week.  But though there is 10 languages spoken in the Chelsea squad, it is English they speak to each other on the training ground and on the football pitch.

Ancelotti will need to learn English and this may be the reason why Chelsea aren’t too keen in Ancelotti bringing his own coaching staff to London, assuming they all speak Italian too.

This time last year Chelsea were courting another great manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari because Roman Abramovich wanted Chelsea to play more exciting, attacking football.  Allegedly the board of directors wanted Mark Hughes to replace Avram Grant, but Abramovich got his way.

Not only is the Chelsea job a difficult one because they want instant success, its owner appears to frequently change his mind.  The reason Jose Mourinho was sacked was due to the boring, negative way Chelsea won games under his management, so they employed a manager who played exciting cavalier style football with Brazil and Portugal.  One year on and they are about to employ another manager who builds his teams on solid defences, and isn’t opposed to the odd boring 1-0 win.

Before Saturday’s FA Cup victory, an article in the press quoted John Terry as suggesting the new manager would need money to buy new players.  This is true, but was this a dissenting voice opposing Roman Abramovich’s lack of investment in the past couple of seasons?

David Villa and Frank Ribery have already been linked to Chelsea and they won’t come cheap.  But after eight years with AC Milan, Carlo Ancelotti is used to spending big money on big players, so I’m sure he would have been offered a large sum of money, if he is to take the Chelsea manager’s job.  Speculative reports in this morning’s newspapers range from £50 – £100 million summer spending money.  I think that depends on who leaves Chelsea.

Carlo Ancelotti is about to be announced as the new Chelsea manager, the fifth in two years.  What is most apparent is that he will need to be given time as much as money to build a team to win the Premier League and Champions League.

After just seven months in the job, Chelsea decided to sack Felipe Scolari following a drab 0-0 result with Hull City on Saturday.  It has been suggested by Scolari’s agent tonight that it was Roman Abramovich himself who made the decision and not Peter Kenyon or the Chelsea board.  This follows reports suggesting it was with Abramovich’s insistence that Scolari was offered the job over Mark Hughes last July.

More than the draw itself, I believe Abramovich realised there is a distinct possibility that if results continue to go against Chelsea, they may well miss out on Champions League qualification next season.  They have thrown away the Premiership title this season.  But losing out on Champions League qualification would be a complete disaster.

I can’t believe any team are going to want to relinquish a successful manager in February.  So of the possible quick replacements who is actually available that may be on Chelsea’s hitlist?

Frank Rijkaard and Roberto Mancini have the right pedigree and are available. And let’s not forget Avram Grant, though he may also be a target for Portsmouth.

The nutters are out and rumours are flying.  Apparently Peter Kenyon was seen in a London hotel with Kevin Keegan yesterday, and Glen Hoddle was spotted at Chelsea’s training ground today. Though that was a pre-arranged match between his academy XI and Chelsea reserves.

Other names that have already been touted include Guus Hiddink though I cannot see Abramovich prizing him away from managing Russia amidst World Cup qualification. But does anyone remember how close Peter Kenyon came to prizing Sven Goran Eriksson away from the England job?

But if Chelsea are looking for a former player to bring stabilty to the team how about Didier Descamp, Roberto Di Matteo, Dennis Wise or Mark Hughes?

Personally, I think Mark Hughes could be a good appointment; and if Manchester City can line up a replacement, he might be available. But surely, the names at the top of the hit list must be Gianfranco Zola & Steve Clarke.

A statement on the Chelsea website says that Scolari has been dismissed “to maintain the challenge for the trophies we are still competing for.”

Ray Wilkins will assume control of the players while a replacement is being sought.

A return for Jose Mourinho perhaps?

After an exquisite performance in their opening fixture against Portsmouth it looks like Scolari & Chelsea’s dream of winning the Premiership by playing exciting, attacking football like Manchester United & Barcelona has finally run out of steam.

The wheels first came off when Roma humiliated Chelsea in the group stage of the Champions League in Rome back in October.  A stunned Chelsea lost 3-1 and were completely outplayed that night.  Heads dropped and fans shook their heads while Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan were qualifying for the next round and leading Serie A.

Then came Chelsea’s disappointment of losing their amazing unbeaten Premer League home record to Liverpool.  And now Chelsea’s unbeaten away record has come to a crashing end with an humiliating thrashing by their arch rivals.

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s blues honeymoon has finally ended; and it probably didn’t help to know that Jose Mourinho was at Old trafford yesterday watching the match!

Manchester United are now just one point behind Chelsea and five  behind the leaders, Liverpool, with two games in hand.  This week Man Utd play Wigan at Old Trafford and Bolton away.  By 5pm this Saturday Man Utd could be top of the Premiership for the first time this season.

Watching Chelsea play this season I think the main problem is that Scolari doesn’t appear to be able to change tactics during a game.  His substitutions appear methodical rather than switching from plan a to b; and since he has been faced with a fit Drogba, doesn’t appear to be able to change to a 4-4-2 when he needs to chase a game.  Instead he plays top scorer Anelka out of position to compensate two strikers that don’t appear to be able to, or wish to, play together.

Furthermore, he continues to play Deco, Ballack & Lampard in midfield which unbalances the team shape.

Last year critics were slating Avram Grant for being tactically naive but now the total football has stopped, Scolari is under severe pressure as Chelsea appear to be losing the race for the Premier League for the first time this season.

Scolari has been known to have a short temper and has even physically assaulted a journalist in the past when faced with awkward questions.  As the pressure mounts it will be interesting to see how he copes with the British press.  It will also be interesting to see what happens if Chelsea’s trophy cabinet is still empty come the end of the season.

Do you think Chelsea can still win the Premiership?  Vote in our poll (see right).

Shevchenko’s return to Milan brings to an end a frustrating couple of years for the player who was once considered to be the best striker in the world.

His arrival at Chelsea followed a disappointing World Cup for Shevchenko who was making a comeback from injury at the time and he never regained the pace or fitness that made him such a feared striker in Serie A.

While Chelsea are happy to write off the massive fee they paid for Shevchenko they will at least save having to pay the huge salary that tempted the player to the Premier league. But also the move could be considered by the more cynical as a sweetener for the Brazilian playmaker Kaka, who has been a serious Chelsea target this summer, particularly since the arrival of Felipe Scolari.

Rumours of a transfer record breaking move for Kaka have been doing the rounds for the last couple of months and have been fuelled by the player admitting that he would relish a move to the Premier league.

It seems more likely that fellow Brazilian Robinho will join Chelsea from Real Madrid at this stage, but what an exciting prospect Kaka and Robinho would be for the premier league, that already boasts the likes of world class players Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres.

Last years flop of the season has to go to Tottenham’s Darren Bent. His move from Charlton to Spurs raised a few eyebrows to say the least, following an indifferent season that saw Charlton relegated to the Championship.

Juande Ramos has finally given the striker a run in the first team, albiet pre-season, and Bent has responded with a hat full of goals. The 24 year old has notched up 10 goals in five games, his latest coming in Spurs 3-0 defeat of Borussia Dortmund, to win the Feyenoord Jubileum Tournament in Rotterdam yesterday.

New Chelsea coach Felipe Scolari was pleased with the performance of striker Nicolas Anelka as he scored four more goals for Chelsea in their 5-0 thrashing of AC Milan.

Scolari feels that the French striker is finding his confidence and is now reaping the rewards. The coach suggested that Anelka has been misused by Chelsea when they have played him on the left wing and says he prefers to see the striker spending more time in the penalty area, where he proved his worth this weekend.

Arsenal are looking in pretty good form too. Despite the comings and goings at the Emirates, if yesterdays game against Real Madrid is anything to go by, Arsenal will start this season as they did last, with a real chance of winning some silverware.

Whether the Adebayor move was real or just media speculation, the outcome is a fit and in form player who will once again terrorise the premiership defences. Whether he can maintain that form for the whole season remains to be seen.

His goal against Real came from the penalty spot, but the player had done enough throughout the game to deserve a goal. When he kissed the badge on his shirt the Arsenal fans rejoiced after having booed him earlier in the game.

He spoke well, telling of how John Terry knocked on his office door and introduced himself as ‘John Terry, the Chelsea captain’.  He said John Terry would remian as club captain, with Frank Lampard as vice captain.

He went on to say that Frank Lampard has personally told him he wants to stay at Chelsea and that Didier Drogba is “100%… no, 200% in my plans”

And when asked what pressure he was under, he amusingly shrugged his shoulders and said, the only pressure he was under tight now was to speak in English!

Felipe Scolari was on good form though I suspect he wasn’t quite telling all of the story when suggesting Lampard wants to stay with Chelsea.  It appeared that Lampard was looking for interested parties last summer, and to know he can follow his old boss, Jose Mourinho to Inter Milan must be a massive plus for the English player who has never played for a team outside London.

Scolari dealt with the question of whether he would like to sign Kaka by simply say, now is the time for speculation, and followed Kaka’s name with other top players linked to Chelsea.

The truth is that any manager in the world would like Kaka in their team, but it is surely not simply down to Felipe Scolari who gets bought and sold at Chelsea.  The AC Milan vice-president has reiterated that Kaka is not for sale, and told Sky Sport Italia:

“Milan [are] not interested in selling [Kaka] and I stopped everything before they could make any offer… So, I don’t know whether they would have offered £80million.”

The Brazilian star’s agent Vagner Ribeiro has suggested that Madrid are under valuing Robinho, not in monetary terms, but by not showing the respect that the player deserves.

“Neither Robinho nor I like the fact that Real Madrid can use him as part exchange in their bid to sign Cristiano Ronaldo. We don’t like this attitude and we want Madrid to start valuing Robinho because at the moment they’re not.”
“Robinho is as good a player as Cristiano Ronaldo or better. The difference is that Cristiano Ronaldo reached the Champions League final and Robinho didn’t. But if Robinho had won such a title he would be at the same level as Cristiano.”

Ribeiro revealed that he has offered his player to premier league Chelsea, who he claims are keen to sign the player for 35million euros, suggesting that there has been much more contact over the player since Felipe Scolari has taken over.

Ribeiro claims that Robinho is not keen to leave Madrid, but would do if he continues to be undervalued. The 24 year old Robinho scored 11 goals in 32 games for Real Madrid during last season.

It was always thought that wherever the former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho turned up, he would pursue two of his ‘untouchables’ Lampard and Drogba.

While Moratti has dismissed any links to Drogba, he has firmly endorsed the pursuance of Lampard, saying “We all know that he’s a great player” and “He is our number one objective.”

Luiz Felipe Scolari however is keen to keep Lampard at Chelsea and reports say that he is prepared to make the midfielder an offer he can’t refuse to stave off interest from Italy.

With talk of Deco arriving at Stamford Bridge, something has to give.

Deco was the first and most obvious  name to be mentioned, having already hinted of a move to Stamford Bridge in recent months. A story today on BBC Sport, suggests that the transfer is as good as done and Deco will join Chelsea for a fee of around £15million. Quite a lot for a thirty year old midfielder, although he still possesses plenty of magic.

Brazilian players Robinho, Kaka and Ronaldinho have all been mentioned as possible transfer targets for Scolari, as have most of the Portugese team, with the exception of course of the player who really would make a difference to Chelsea- Ronaldo.

I expect to see Deco join the London club and wouldn’t be surprised if Ronaldinho turns up there now that Scolari is in place, surely he would relish a chance with the top two club over his other choices.

But I don’t see Chelsea prising Kaka away from AC MIlan any more than they did their manager.

With Deco, Ronaldinho and Shevchenko Chelsea would have some of the games top names from the past ten years, but face turning the team into a bit of a Dads army with excellent players past their best, with a lot to prove. If they are going down that road they could try for Thierry Henry who has been frustrating all year at Barcelona and looked awful for France against Holland this week.