Sell Drogba if you want Torres to fire, Ancelotti advises Blues

FORMER coach Carlo Ancelotti has advised Chelsea to sell Didier Drogba as soon as possible, claiming his presence inhibits fellow striker Fernando Torres.

The Italian, who last month took charge at French league leaders Paris Saint-Germain, has broken his silence on his sacking from Chelsea, describing owner Roman Abramovich’s behaviour as “very cold”.

Ancelotti revealed he was prepared to spend a year out of the game in the hope of taking the coach’s job at either Arsenal or Tottenham at the end of this season, but was tempted back into it by PSG sports director Leonardo.

But it his comments about his former club Chelsea that will raise eyebrows in west London. Ancelotti was seen as harshly treated after his sacking, one year after winning a league and FA Cup double in his debut season.

And he has claimed that Abramovich refused to even explain why he was shown the door.

“It was cold, very cold,” said Ancelotti. “I was hoping for something, like ‘good luck’, and that was it. He knew I thought it was the wrong decision and he didn’t want to discuss it.”

Six months earlier, Abramovich had spent £50m on Torres, whom he thought would help fire Chelsea to Champions League glory. It has not turned out like that, though, as the Spanish striker ended up scoring more league goals in one month for Liverpool (four) than he did in the next 11 for Chelsea (three).

Ancelotti struggled to get the best out of Torres and he now suggests that the presence of Drogba did not help the striker at his new club.

“If you decide to invest heavily in Torres, you have to sell Drogba,” said Ancelotti. “Didier is like Inzaghi: he tends to devour whoever he is in competition with. It’s not maliciousness, some players are made like that.”

Drogba usurped Torres as Andre Villas-Boas’s first-choice striker before heading off to the African Nations Cup, and though the Chelsea coach has declared Torres ‘untransferable’, Ancelotti admitted that the Spaniard has even been offered to PSG.

“Many players have been offered to PSG: Tevez, Torres, Berbatov, Pavlyuchenko, Cavani, Llorente it’s a long list.”

He refused to comment on the work Villas-Boas is doing at Chelsea, or the club’s position 11 points behind leaders Manchester City after five defeats so far this season; this time last year, under Ancelotti, Chelsea had also lost five games but had earned five fewer points.

“I won’t judge the work of a colleague,” Ancelotti told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport. “I’ll only say that training this Chelsea, in the middle of a great generational transition, is complicated.”

The Italian added that he turned his back on coaching in London again after the opportunity to work again with former Milan player Leonardo presented itself. But this challenge, he concluded, is very different to the one in London. “When I started at Chelsea the two Champions League titles I had won gave me prestige, but in the dressing-room there were people who already had medals: Terry, Lampard, Drogba, and who had worked with other coaches to shout about like Mourinho. PSG’s players don’t have this past, so my titles weigh that little bit more. They want to be helped to win, and in fact they train with a great intensity. I can’t ask for better.”