SOCCER:ROMAN ABRAMOVICH will decide this week whether Roberto Di Matteo will remain as Chelsea's manager with the players' chants of "we want him to stay" still ringing in his ears after the club's first European Cup victory.
Di Matteo has succeeded where more illustrious managers fell short at the London club, with the squad’s achievement in defeating Bayern Munich on penalties celebrated in a victory parade in Fulham upon the team’s return from Germany.
The 41-year-old’s 11-week spell in charge since replacing Andre Villas-Boas ended up yielding the most glittering prize, together with an FA Cup and qualification for next season’s Champions League, and Chelsea’s squad made it clear to Abramovich that he is their choice to take over.
Players chanted Di Matteo’s name, singing “we want him to stay”, as Abramovich addressed the squad in the dressingroom on Saturday evening. The club’s owner greeted the chorus with a smile and went on to stress that he considered this just the beginning in terms of Chelsea’s European aspirations, suggesting he will follow through with ambitions to strengthen the squad over the summer.
The club’s immediate priority remains the search for a permanent manager and, although Di Matteo remains an outsider for the position vacated by Villas-Boas, his prospects were clearly improved by victory at the Allianz Arena. The Italian’s contract expires on June 30th and before he goes on holiday this week he will speak to the owner.
“Roman will be in London this week but, while I don’t know what the schedule is, we know we have to start thinking about it,” said the chairman, Bruce Buck. “Our job and our objective is to do what’s best for Chelsea Football Club and we have to sit down and figure that out. It’s six weeks since we’ve discussed it. Roberto’s certainly done a lot and we’ve heard from a number of the players that they’d like to see him as manager.
“But we stopped the process of considering the manager for next season before the first Barcelona match at the beginning of April.
“That’s something we have to pick up on Monday but there’s no doubt we recognise the great contribution Robbie has made to the club, not just in bringing home two trophies but really in turning around the confidence of these players.”
Of the players involved in Munich the Ivorian pair Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou are out of contract next month, with talks planned between the chief executive, Ron Gourlay, and Drogba’s representative this week.
Guardian Service
