Carlo Ancelotti has work cut out as Chelsea fail to set transfer market alight

11 July 2009 15:39
The Chelsea chairman, Bruce Buck, said last week he was "optimistic" the club would sign a "marquee name" this summer, a player to spearhead their efforts to rebrand the team under Carlo Ancelotti. New manager, new star, new Chelsea. The problem is, it has been the same old story. John Terry went public in urging the club to bring in high-status players at the end of last season and his restlessness is believed to be motivated, at least in part, by the club's failure to compete in the transfer market. The fact is Chelsea have not signed a player for more than £20 million in three years, not since Andrei Shevchenko arrived from Milan for £30 million in May 2006. While Shevchenko's move did not play out as anticipated, he was still considered one of the top few strikers in the world at the time and was the latest in a series of £20 million plus signings – Michael Essien, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Didier Drogba, Ricardo Carvalho – that confirmed Chelsea's status as the heavyweight recruiters in world football. Now they are no longer at the top of the food chain. One financial crash and an ambitious sheikh later and they are in the position of trying to ward off predatory Manchester City, who are coming in with another, £32 million offer for their captain. Every day Terry maintains his public silence increases the tension, with Chelsea wanting to get it resolved before they go on tour to the United States on Thursday. Having been trumped by City over Robinho last summer, they also appear to have lost out to them over Carlos Tevez this summer. It will take more than Chelsea are prepared to pay to wrench Franck Ribery out of a stubborn Bayern Munich's grip and the French winger prefers Spain as his next destination anyway. Hard as Frank Arnesen and co are undoubtedly working, bringing the big names in is not as easy as it used to be. The problem is not exclusively Chelsea's – the Premier League as a whole lacks the financial braggadocio of previous summers. The weakness of sterling and the impending arrival of the 50p tax rate are surely factors in weakening the hand of England's top clubs, and their early-summer inactivity is giving substance to Arsene Wenger's prophecy that the good times are over. There is plenty of time left – the window closes at the end of August – but clubs on the continent have certainly taken the initiative and with pre-season tours rapidly approaching the big four look like being left behind. While Real Madrid set the heavy-spending tone with the signing of Kaka (£55 million) Cristiano Ronaldo (£80 million) and Karim Benzema (£30 million), the other Champions League regulars are also throwing their weight around. In Italy, Juventus have spent £21 million on Diego from Werder Bremen while Jose Mourinho's Internazionale have signed Diego Milito from Genoa for £19 million. Bayern Munich have bought Mario Gomez from Stuttgart for £26million and Lyon have signed Lisandro Lopez for £20million. All those deals cost more than any to have been done by Premier League clubs so far. Chelsea's incomings are modest by comparison. The hard-running Yuri Zhirkov has arrived to provide cover for Ashley Cole as an attacking left back but, barring remarkable performances, he will be used as a squad player. The promising striker Danny Sturridge and goalkeeper Ross Turnbull have arrived as part of Chelsea's strategy to recruit young English players. The scouting system has been redirected to this effect and it will help the club comply with the new Uefa home-grown player quota for the Champions League. Adam Johnson, the skilful England Under 21 winger is likely to arrive from Middlesbrough, too, as the squad is given depth of numbers. This is essential in a season when Chelsea will lose Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Salomon Kalou to the African Cup of Nations for at least a month in the new year. However, these are not the substantial, fundamental changes needed to radically reconstruct Chelsea's style of play. "We want to improve the identity of the team," Ancelotti told us last week. "We want to have the identity of the play to be the same against different teams." Quizzed about what he meant by identity, we get the one word response: "style". Ancelotti was talking in Stamford Bridge's opulent Armani Lounge, with key board members in attentive attendance. The name of the Italian designer brings back associations of an iconic grey Armani coat: four managers on and the legacy of the Portuguese Napoleon remains pervasive. Only three members of the starting XI in the FA Cup final were not signed under Jose Mourinho. More than that, the team still play to the game plan he so remorselessly imprinted in their psyches on the training ground. Luiz Felipe Scolari tried to change it by ditching Drogba and he ended up losing his job. Guus Hiddink cannily reverted to the Portuguese recipe and the players, relieved, reverted to winning. If Ancelotti is to finally cut the ties with Mourinho's ways he will need help: that, more than any ephemeral signals of intent, is why he needs a new player with the on-field presence to change their style. "To do better than Mourinho is not motivation for me," Ancelotti insisted, diplomatically. "Motivation for me is to win to take Chelsea to a higher level." Does it not trouble him that the man who got under his skin in Milan last season, the man he referred to as "His Specialty" in his book, still speaks regularly with key players of his squad? "No, I think it means the players have heart, can have a good relationship with a coach and I want to do the same, have a good relationship with the players. My idea of what the game is should be transmitted to the players and I want them to play like that on the pitch." There have been double sessions at the Cobham training ground on all but one day of last week to do just that. Ancelotti has been vocal on the pitch, working with Ray Wilkins to get his message across. But without a change in personnel his reforming efforts will end in frustration. Perhaps, as difficult as it would be for the club to square it with the fans, the sale of Terry would be the radical departure the club needs. Welcome to Chelsea, Carlo.

Source: Telegraph