DUMP JOSE AND GET IN ANCELOTTIEXCLUSIVE: 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.
