Carlo Ancelotti has said he holds no grudges against Roman Abramovich or Chelsea as the Everton manager prepares to face his former club for the first time since his ruthless dismissal in 2011.
The Italian was famously sacked in the corridors of Goodison Park at the end of his second season as Chelsea manager, having guided the club to the Premier League and FA Cup double in his first campaign and finished league runners-up in his second.
Ancelotti, who established a close rapport with Frank Lampard during his time at Stamford Bridge, has watched a few Chelsea games since leaving the club but Sunday will be his first competitive appearance back there. He is free to take his place on the touchline having avoided a ban for being sent off after Everton’s draw against Manchester United last weekend.
“It can happen” was Ancelotti’s sanguine take on his Chelsea dismissal. “Maybe the club wants to change something in the structure of the club and they sack a manager; it doesn’t matter. The fact that I was sacked cannot change what I felt there – it was two fantastic years. There were problems in the second part of the final year but at the end it was a fantastic experience.
“I spoke with him [Abramovich] maybe three times since. I still have a good relationship with him. He was very kind the two or three times I went back to watch Chelsea games and so I have to say thanks to him because he gave to me a great opportunity to be the manager of one of the top teams in England.”
Everton have announced their leading goalscorer, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, has followed Mason Holgate in signing a new five-year contract. The manager also hopes to convince Leighton Baines to extend his Goodison career beyond this summer.
“The belief in ourselves we are back up there and can compete with the best is well and truly there,” Calvert-Lewin said. “And with a man like Carlo leading the ship it makes it easier for us to believe in the process.”