Blues pin faith in Ancelotti dynasty

Chelsea want victorious Carlo Ancelotti to set-up a trophy-winning dynasty at Stamford Bridge.

Ancelotti claimed the Barclays Premier League title in his first season at the club after Chelsea smashed Wigan 8-0 on Sunday.

Now the Italian is on the brink of an historic League and FA Cup double as Chelsea prepare to face Portsmouth at Wembley on Saturday.

Chief Executive Ron Gourlay believes Ancelotti’s success could be the start of a new and successful era at the club.

“It is a pleasure working with the guy,” said Gourlay. “The plan is to work with Carlo for five to 10 years. I think stability would be good for the club going forward and when we start to bring the young players forward.

“Carlo is definitely here for the long term. He is not a coach who moves around, even in his playing days. I am sure he will be around for many years to come.

“We have won the Premier League and hopefully we can win the double. But then we have to look at next season because it is important that we continue on.”

But Gourlay is clearly concerned about the future in terms of the club’s wage bill and their bid to become self-sufficient.

Gourlay insists that Michael Ballack, Nicolas Anelka and Joe Cole have not been offered a new deal so far.

But he is more adamant about the fact Chelsea need to promote from within the ranks of their youth academy rather than spend massive amounts of cash in the summer.

Players are almost certain to find their wage demands rejected as the club attempts to reduce its salary bill.

Gourlay added: “We decided a couple of months ago not to talk about any new contracts or any comings and goings at the football club until the last game of the season.

“The plan is to keep that the same. Our approach has been spot on and hopefully we will be able to add the FA cup next week. But we are respectful of Portsmouth and it will be tough game.

“We have given the players no indication about contracts at all. We made it very clear that the time for talking about these things is at the end of the season.

“The players have been fine. That is the decision of the football club. We understand the circumstances of all the players involved.

“We want to focus on winning football games and are not prepared to let anything get in the way of that.

“I would not read anything into that. We will start to get into the process after the last game.

“That is the way forward for future seasons and that is the way it should be. As a contract nears its end there is a time to open up the conversation but it should never get in the way of football.

“We don’t want to cause any unrest in the dressing room so the best way of doing that is lay down the policy of we won’t talk to anybody about it until the end of the season.

“The bottom line here is that Carlo will recommend any players that he wants in the squad next year. We will sit down at the appropriate time at the end of the season and evaluate that.”

Gourlay also maintains that any new players should preferably be funded by sales of the existing squad, but there is still scope for buying a quality player if necessary.

“What I must say and stress, is that we still have to get this club self-sufficient,” he added. “That is still the goal. We have worked very hard at the academy level.

“It would be nice that any money we spend on players will be financed by players going out. But if we have to go into the bank we will do so but it has to be at the right level.

“We are very conscious of controlling our salaries. At the same time we are expected to win every game we play so we have to get the balance right.

“The balance is being able to bring players through from the academy and offset some of the higher costs we have spent over the years.”