Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri still expects to be sacked at the end of this season, even if his side overcome Monaco and go on to win the Champions League.
Speaking after Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat to Monaco in Tuesday’s Champions League first-leg semifinal, Ranieri said no amount of silverware would make a difference to his future.
”You know this. I said this from the beginning,” the Italian said. ”Also if I win the FA Cup, Carling Cup, everything. At the end I could be sacked.
”An Italian journalist said to me, ‘What do you think of the last month?’. But [for] 11 months now I’m working in this way. What change? Nothing.”
Ranieri has been under huge pressure to deliver success at Chelsea after Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who took over the club last summer, handed him £165-million to spend on new players.
However, Chelsea trail leader Arsenal in the Premier League by nine points, and now have an outside chance at best of winning the Champions League for the first time.
”We have a 20% chance against Monaco. Only the best Chelsea performance [of the season] can help us now,” Ranieri said.
His side allowed two goals in the last 15 minutes against a Monaco team reduced to 10 men following a sending-off.
After the defeat, Ranieri insisted that he and Abramovich respect each other, but suggested the Russian owner is still learning what running a massive team like Chelsea is all about.
”One year ago before watching Manchester United play Real Madrid, he [Abramovich] didn’t know anything about football,” Ranieri said. ”But he wanted to buy a team and now he understands, looks and thinks.”
In an interview published on Tuesday in the Spanish sports daily Marca, Ranieri said he has been ”stabbed in the back” by Abramovich, although Ranieri’s agent later released a statement saying his client has ”the highest regard for Roman Abramovich”. — Sapa-AP