Chelsea must plan without Cudicini

CHELSEA boss Claudio Ranieri confirmed that it will be another month before Carlo Cudicini returns to action after surgery to help ease the club’s goalkeeping problems.

However, he reassured Cudicini that, if he is still in charge next season, the Italian would remain his first-choice keeper despite the signing of Czech international Petr Cech.

Cudicini broke a bone in his hand during training last week and will definitely miss his side’s two-legged Champions League quarter-final tie against Arsenal.

It was initially hoped that he could be back in action within four weeks, but Ranieri has confirmed that his first-choice keeper would be likely to miss a total of around eight or nine games.

Indeed, the earliest he can realistically hope to return is mid-April, possibly just in time for Champions League semi-final tie if Chelsea can qualify without him.

In the meantime, Neil Sullivan has at least returned to full training after recovering from a badly bruised leg to rival Marco Ambrosio for the goalkeeper’s jersey in Cudicini’s renewed absence against Fulham this weekend.

Ranieri is well used to speculation over his own future, with Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld having been the latest big name linked with his job, even if Chelsea denied claims they had approached the German.

The Chelsea boss responded: “This is normal. From the beginning, there’ve been these rumours and I don’t give importance to this rubbish.

"I continue to build and think about my team. That is the most important thing. If I had to win a trophy, I would buy players who were 28 or 29, who are full of experience. But I prefer to continue with the idea of Roman Abramovich, Peter Kenyon and myself to build very good young players.”

Chelsea have also signed another talented young prospect in Dutch winger Arjen Robben, although Ranieri has told fellow left-winger Damien Duff not to worry about his future.

“We have a lot of confidence in Damien and Robben could play, like Damien, on the left, in the middle, behind the strikers or like a striker, or also on the right.

“Robben is like Damien Duff and we are very happy to have both of them.