Wembley win means Carlo Ancelotti will have a hard time following Guus Hiddink

Simon Johnson
1 Jun 2009

Chelsea's claiming of the FA Cup at the weekend has made Carlo Ancelotti's task to win over the hearts and minds of the Blues faithful just that little bit harder.

Guus Hiddink has been in charge for just three-and-a-half months, yet few managers have made a bigger impact at Stamford Bridge.

The Dutchman not only succeeded in getting them back to winning games on a regular basis, he also ended their two-year wait without a trophy by beating Everton 2-1 on Saturday.

His efforts have been well rewarded and bonuses should ensure that he has earned £3.5million during his stay.

Not so long ago, Jose Mourinho's name would still be first on most Chelsea supporters' lips when asked who they wanted to be in charge of their team — now it is Hiddink.

Chelsea fans were still optimistically singing for the Dutchman to stay as the team came from behind to beat Everton at Wembley on Saturday and reserved the loudest cheer of the afternoon for when he lifted the Cup.

The 62-year-old, who has resumed his job with Russia on a full-time basis, has confirmed he will return to the club as a technical advisor and his close relationship with owner Roman Abramovich will put Ancelotti under intense pressure from the word go.

If Russia fail to qualify for the next World Cup and Ancelotti gets off to a bad start, the supporters will be quick in their desire for Hiddink to be reinstated.

However, midfielder Michael Ballack, who has played under four different managers in his three seasons at the club, is urging them to back Ancelotti.

He said: “Hopefully they will get behind him. If we play good football and win games quickly then that will help but if a new manager comes you should give him time.

“When you come after a coach that is successful it is part of the job to cope with that. Ancelotti has great experience and I think he can deal with this situation.

“I haven't worked under him so I don't know him very well. But he has had great success with AC Milan and the players respect that.

“What we need at Chelsea now is more consistency and for the new manager to be given time to work. I have had four managers in three years here and you need time to adapt to a new coach.

“This time there is no guarantee that it will click straight away like it did with Hiddink.

Everyone needs to realise that we need consistency and it is unfortunate the first person to come under pressure if the results don't go well is the manager.”

Whether the fans agree with Ancelotti taking charge or not, Chelsea have proved in the last three months that they are far from being a fading force.

With only one defeat coming in Hiddink's 22-game reign, Chelsea have shown they can still compete at the highest level and gave Barcelona more of a game in both legs of their Champions League semi-final than Manchester United did in the final.

The possible additions of David Villa, Franck Ribery and Yuri Zhirkov will add much needed quality and freshness in the attacking department.

But on Saturday, Chelsea's superiority over Everton, a team that finished just two places below them in the Premier League, was evident and suggested not too many changes are required.

Keeper Petr Cech believes Ancelotti will be delighted with what tools he has to work with in the dressing room. He said: “I think every manager has his own ideas but whoever comes will find a fantastic group of players who always want to work hard and give everything for each other.

He will find a lot of quality at the club.
“I don't think there is much of a gap between ourselves and Manchester United. They have won the title three years in a row but in the previous two seasons it was very close.

“This season unfortunately we faced them when we weren't playing well. We have maybe been the best team over the last three months but we let a lot of points go in December and January and allowed a gap to develop.

“I would have loved to have played them in March or April rather than when we played them in January. It would have been a different story.”
The strong character of the team is still there in abundance, as was clearly demonstrated by the way they bounced back from falling behind to Louis Saha's strike after just 25 seconds at Wembley.

Chelsea dominated possession from then on and it was no surprise when Didier Drogba headed in an equaliser just 20 minutes later.

Frank Lampard struck the winner with his left foot in the second half to end the season once again with 20 goals to his name.

The margin should have been much greater but the match officials failed to spot that Florent Malouda's superb effort from 30 yards had crossed the line.

Yet it didn't prove costly and the players left Wembley clutching their winners' medals but perhaps more importantly renewed belief that they can take the Premier League crown back next season with Ancelotti's help or not.