Andrew Fifield
GIVEN the amount of practice they have had in the Roman Abramovich era, nobody should be more adept at selecting new managers than Chelsea.
Carlo Ancelotti is the sixth man to hold the position since the Russian moved his tanks onto the Premier League's lawn in 2003 but if the oligarch has learnt anything in the interim, it is the difficulty of being able to second-guess the success of his appointments.
For all that he arrived in west London as a Champions League winner, Jose Mourinho's success in reinventing Chelsea from flaky also-rans to hardened winners in the space of a single season must have taken even Abramovich by surprise. Equally startling was the illustrious Luiz Felipe Scolari's abject failure to convince players still pining for the Portuguese.
Now, on the back of Guus Hiddink's short, sharp shock therapy which encouraged Chelsea to fall in love with football once again, comes Ancelotti, the chain-smoking, sharp-suited, exquisitely-coiffured mastermind from Milan.
This time, Abramovich is eager to avoid any nasty surprises. A record of one league title in eight seasons might ordinarily have seen the Italian's job application sent straight to the paper-shredder, but of more interest to Abramovich is the fact that he has returned two Champions Leagues to San Siro and was only denied a third by the unlikeliest of comebacks by Liverpool in Istanbul.
Throw in a couple of titles as a player with the great Milan side of the late 1980s and early 90s and he represents the nearest thing to a dead cert that European football has to offer.
Forget any fanciful notions of long-term planning. Chelsea's perspective rarely shifts from the immediate and Abramovich has turned to him because he knows that time is running out for this Chelsea squad. The majority of the club's senior players are approaching or over 30 and, collectively, they have one, maybe two, European campaigns left in their legs.
It is Ancelotti's task to reap maximum rewards in that shortened time-span and he should feel bullish enough. Coaxing the best out of tired bodies has been his specialist subject at Milan and if, as anticipated, Abramovich dusts off his chequebook, the prospects should be perky.
A fit and motivated Chelsea remain a formidable prospect - as Barcelona discovered - and the addition of a Franck Ribery, David Villa or Kaka under Ancelotti's expert leadership would have the cream of the continent scurrying for cover.