Time for Roman to decide whether to stick or twist

I DIDN’T want Fernando Torres to score against West Brom on Saturday. The reason?

We had a bit of drama on the way to the Midlands – our front tyre blew in the fast lane of the M40 when we were going faster than we probably should have been. We then spent the next hour or so waiting for the recovery truck before heading to a tyre retailer by our Manchester United supporting patrolman.

Veering across three lanes of a motorway while trying to keep control of your vehicle does concentrate the mind somewhat, but not far behind for me was the possibility of Torres scoring when I wasn’t there — selfish I know, but I feel he owes it to me!

As I watched a mechanic change my shredded tyre while I tried to get updates on Twitter, I cursed my bad fortune. I had been particularly looking forward to this game as last Thursday I was lucky enough to see an entire training session and wanted to see how much of it was put into practice.

At Cobham, I observed a rather stern Ancelotti divide the squad into two teams for a 20 minute match, as he counted 1-10 repeatedly and quickly with the team having to pass on every number.

I was relieved to see this exercise as previously I wasn’t sure whether it was a deliberate tactic to continually slow down the play and in doing so, invite pressure on — evidently not.

It was a relief that not only had Ancelotti identified this issue but was addressing it — no excuses then.

Training seemed a serious – almost solemn affair. One has to remember that this was less than two days after losing in the Champions League to United.

Torres looked nervous as he came off the training field and approached the fans. He needn’t have worried; at Chelsea we have a pedigree of backing players — especially strikers — who don’t make an ideal start to their Stamford Bridge careers.

He was greeted warmly, and his interaction with us was exemplary. He’ll be okay. David Luiz, already a fan favourite, proliferated that goodwill by enthusiastically posing for photographs, signing autographs, attempting to communicate by means of a few English words, a few Spanish/Portuguese words and hand signals.

Apart from a few exceptions, the majority were charming, friendly and all too willing to give us some time — they often get a bad press, but for me, they were top drawer.

Ancelotti did not come over — whether this was because he had a special guest with him at the training ground that day (Arrigo Sacchi) — whether he was too busy, or whether he wasn’t up to it that day — who knows, but it can’t be much fun being the centre of the usual Chelsea manager sacking tittle tattle after a Champions League exit.

My feelings on Ancelotti are mixed. I didn’t feel he was right for Chelsea from day one — but then he went and confounded all his critics by delivering the double in his first season. Was it genius? Was it luck? Was it the players? Then we look at this season, which by our recent standards, has been a disaster. Was it the injuries? Were we tactically naive? Was it our suicidal dealings in the closed season transfer market? Was it bad luck?

My problem is that we are almost at the end of his second season and I’m still unsure whether he knows our best 11, our best formation and how to make substitutions.

But then you can’t just keep changing managers every couple of years – it doesn’t achieve anything but instability. And who is available to take over anyway? Some of the names put forward have raised a chuckle but the most ridiculous was the link with Harry Redknapp. I hope Abramovich will not be swayed by a English press which has been guilty of making and breaking careers based on nothing more than bias, self-indulgence and an inflated sense of their own worth.

Abramovich has to decide whether to stick or twist — I think he will twist again, but he can’t carry on in the same manner as eventually, he will either bust, or run out of cards.