CARLO MADE TO LOOK A CHUMP

NO pressure then, Carlo. Two Champions League trophies in five years. Should be a cinch. Especially now you can stock up on staff in January.

Maybe with some of the dough that will roll in when Stamford Bridge is renamed Samsung Bridge.

Oh, but that cash will probably have to help the club break even, to become self-sufficient.

Remember that concept at Chelsea?

It was mooted by Peter Kenyon in one of the grand proclamations that studded his time as Chelsea chief executive.

By 2010, the club, he confidently predicted, would be able to operate successfully without Roman Abramovich putting hand in pocket.

The last set of annual accounts showed a loss of £65.7million and the current wage bill is around the £150m mark.

Such is the obscenity of that salary commitment, a staggering 70 percent of turnover, that Chelsea have little chance of being non-reliant on Roman for another five years. At least.

No wonder Peter - "Our plans are simple... to turn the world blue" - stepped aside.

And made way for Ron Gourlay - a Kenyon acolyte, albeit one with a very good reputation inside football administration.

That's what he should stick to. Not saying how many times Chelsea should be winning the Champions League.

"With no disrespect to the competition, I'd still like to think we can win the Champions League twice in the next five years. That may sound aggressive but I think we can."

And this in the same interview in which he promises to rid Chelsea of the brashness and vulgarity that inevitably afflicts the nouveau riche. Let's deal with the claim first.

On what basis does he think that two in five is a realistic target? The law of averages? That after 104 years without winning it, the greatest prize in European club football must come along soon? And that when one comes, another follows?

It is breathtaking arrogance.

Yes, Chelsea have contested five semi-finals in the past six years. But they only progressed to the final once and then choked.

This is a Chelsea team in good form and one that today might well brush aside Manchester United - winners of two Champions Leagues in nine years. But it is also a Chelsea team probably at its peak.

To win two Champions Leage titles in the next half a decade requires a side still to reach full maturity. That is clearly not the case. But we shouldn't even be debating the claim.

Because a chief executive is not a football expert. He's a marketeer. Some just think they are football experts when they get a whiff of power and a pass into the dressing-room.

There's one man qualified to truly predict how many times Chelsea can win the Champions League over the next five years. One man who knows the potential of the squad, the rate of development of younger players in the set-up.

Carlo Ancelotti.

And he would never dream of saying two triumphant European campaigns were possible. Even if he thought it.

Instead, unnecessary, unwelcome and incredible pressure is now on the shoulders of a man who has made a very acceptable start to his career in England. If Ancelotti is trying to give up his nicotine habit, Gourlay is not exactly helping.

When the Italian reads the thoughts of his chief executive - with whom he appears to have a pleasant relationship - he must surely think they are the thoughts of the owner.

And five managers in two-and-a-half years tells you all you need to know about Abramovich policies when it comes to the Champions League.

Apparently, Ancelotti has impressed the players enormously. He has impressed me with his phlegmatic, fair approach to victory and the occasional defeat.

And if he has been the decisive influence in turning Didier Drogba into a credit rather than a debit to football then he deserves immense credit already.

What he doesn't deserve is someone who spends his time in the land of deep carpets and shiny suits telling him how many times he should be winning the Champions League.

Now buy the News Of The World print edition for more from Andy Dunn

This article has 4 comments