Ancelotti leaves Chelsea after 2 seasons in charge

The Jakarta Post | Mon, 05/23/2011 8:16 AM | Sports

Carlo Ancelotti was fired as Chelsea manager on Sunday following a trophyless season, leaving a year after he led the club to the Premier League and FA Cup titles.

Despite accepting publicly in recent months that his job was under threat, the Italian's departure was only announced shortly after Chelsea lost 1-0 at Everton in the last match of a miserable season.

Chelsea bluntly said the 51-year-old Ancelotti had "parted company" with the London club.

For owner Roman Abramovich, finishing second behind Manchester United was not deemed acceptable for Chelsea, which won the league and FA Cup for the first time in a single season last May.

"This season's performances have fallen short of expectations and the club feels the time is right to make this change ahead of next season's preparations," Chelsea said in a statement. "Chelsea's long-term football objectives and ambitions remain unchanged and we will now be concentrating all our efforts on identifying a new manager."

Ancelotti's replacement will be the seventh Chelsea manager since Abramovich bought the club eight years ago. The club has won every major honor won in that time apart from the one that Abramovich cherishes so much: the Champions League.

The Champions League campaign was ended this season by Man United in the quarterfinals.

Ancelotti, who won the Champions League twice at AC Milan before joining Chelsea, had another year remaining on his contract.

"The owner and board would like to thank Carlo for his contribution and achievements since taking over as manager in July 2009, which included winning the double for the first time in the club's history," the Chelsea statement said.

After that feat, Chelsea had begun the new season with five successive wins and was being hailed as an unstoppable force.

But the decision to allow five senior players, including Michael Ballack, Joe Cole and Ricardo Carvalho, to leave in the offseason appeared to backfire when injuries struck the spine of the team.

That co-incided with the sudden, and unexplained, departure in November of assistant manager Ray Wilkins, which was immediately followed by the club's worst run in the league for almost 15 years.

Even the 70 million pound outlay on striker Fenando Torres and defender David Luiz in January to try and revive the team's fortunes backfired, with suggestions the arrival of Torres had a destabilizing effect.

"I am now on holiday, but I am not sure how long my holiday will be!" Ancelotti quipped at Everton shortly before being fired.

FC Port's Andre Villas-Boas - a former scout at Chelsea - has been installed as the 2-1 favorite to replace Ancelotti by British bookmaker William Will.

The 33-year-old Villas-Boas last week became the youngest coach to win a UEFA club competition, the Europa League title coming in a season in which he also won te the Portuguese Cup, the domestic league and the season-opening Portuguese Supercup.

At 7-2 are Mourinho, the Real Madrid coach, and Turkey manager Guus Hiddink, who have both worked under Abramovich at Chelsea.

Abramovich inherited Claudio Ranieri in the dugout in 2003, but the Italian left in May 24 having failed to mark the start of the owner's regime with a trophy.

Mourinho replaced Ranieri, but back-to-back league titles weren't enough to save the self-appointed "Special One" when Manchester United beat Chelsea to the title in 2007.

The Portuguese manager left a month into the following seon. His replacement, Avram Grant, was dumped after only one campaign. The Israeli left after losing the Champions League final on penalties to Man United.

Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazil's 2002 World Cup-winning coach, had even fewer games in charge than Grant before departing in February 2009.

Hiddink as a temporary appointment and couldn't be persuaded to stay despite winning the FA Cup before Ancelotti was hired in June 2009.

Man United's title charge slowed by Newcastle draw

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 04/20/2011 8:19 AM | Sports

Manchester United's Premier League title charge was slowed by Newcastle on Tuesday, the leaders being held to a 0-0 draw to end a run of three consecutive wins.

The point took Man United seven points clear of Arsenal before the second-place London club plays at Tottenham on Wednesday.

United was dened a penalty kick in stoppage when Javier Hernandez was instead booked for diving after being challenged by Newcastle defender Danny Simpson.

"I didn't feel like I touched him," Simpson said. "I feel like he went down too soft."

But United manager Alex Ferguson hit out at referee Lee Probert.

'It was a clear penalty. It's an insult because he's booked him," Ferguson said. "I thought the referee had a good game tonight, but he's let himself down by booking the player.

"If it's not a penalty, fine. But to book him is an insult. There is definitely contact, no doubt about that."

Ferguson caimed not to see Newcastle's earlier penalty claim, in which Peter Lovenkrands felt he was tripped by United midfielder Anderson.

"The more obvious penalty was Peter Lovenkrands - it's an absolute cert," Newcastle manager Alan Pardew said. "It was a story of two penalties: one that definitely was for us and one that wasn't for them."

United has five matches left in pursuit of a record 19th English league title, but the draw has raised spirits at Arsenal before the north London derby.

"BIG BIG BIG thank you to Newcastle United!" Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny wrote on his Twitter account. "reat spirit by the team and well done (Newcastle goalkeeper) Tim Krul for motm (man-of-the-match) performance!"

In the first half at Newcastle, Krul denied Hernandez and Wayne Rooney, who returned after a two-match suspension for swearing into a TV camera during a goal celebration against West Ham.

Wth around 20 minutes to go, United winger Ryan Giggs curled the ball wide with the goal at his mercy after being picked out by Patrice Evra.

The draw took Newcastle up to ninth place, reaching the 40-point mark that is usually enough to be safe from relegation in the team's first season back in the PremierLeague.

"I think we owe it to ourselves and to the rest of the league that we put in a full performance (at Blackpool) on Saturday," Pardew said. "I think with the commitment we've shown tonight, the points we've got, the goals we've got, we're pretty much safe. But we want to finish high and put in the same commitment and effort as we have tonight against the probable champions."