Carlo Ancelotti adamant he ‘won’t be found crying’ if he is sacked by Chelsea

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Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti claims there would be no tears on Sunday if the board were to sack him after the final game of the season against Everton.

It has been a campaign of ups and downs for the Italian, after early season promise soon filtered away into a diminishing run of lost points which dented their title hopes, until a late rally saw them hot on the heels of champions elect Manchester United.

The former AC Milan manager confirmed on Friday that he is to have a meeting with the Chelsea board next week to discuss his future, but insists he will go quietly if he were to be sacked.

He told reporters: “The club have to judge my job – be objective.

“If they decide to change, it’s not a problem.

“You won’t see me crying or doing something. I will accept the decision of the club and find another solution.”

This time last year Chelsea were celebrating their double achievement of attaining both the championship and the FA Cup, and the Italian admits that he could never have forseen himself being under such pressure 12 months ago.

“No, but this is football,” he said.

“I’m not surprised about this.

“When I started my experience here in England, if someone had told me that we would win the FA Cup and the Premier League in two years, I’d have been happy.

“In these two years, I have to be happy because the team, last year, was fantastic.

“This year was not so good. But we can learn from this experience to do better next season.”

However, despite such an intense campaign, the 51-year-old claims he still enjoyed the ride.

“I am happy when I work, and so I have enjoyed this season,” he said.

“I trained for 15 years in this work and, sometimes, I was able to win. Other times, I was not able to win.

“But every time I was happy at the end of the season because I’d worked.

“Sometimes I’d worked well, other times I’d made mistakes. But this is my work. I want to stay and maintain my work.”

Roman Abramovich has sacked the past two managers that failed to bring any silverware back to Stamford Bridge and after being brought in a Champions League specialist, this season’s inability to progress to even the semi-finals of the competition will weigh heavily on the Italian, whose side were knocked out by Manchester United in the quarters.

“The best memory was the Premier League victory against Manchester United last season, and the worst the defeat against them in the Champions League,” he said.

He added: “I think every time, every experience, it’s important to learn and improve your experience, your knowledge.

“This season was nothing special. We had problems, as we had a lot of times in my career.

“We were not able to win the league as we did last year, but we didn’t play at our best.

“But we’re still in a good position – we were able to reach second place.”

In terms of Sunday’s game on Merseyside, Ancelotti insisted that his players will play to the full potential, despite there being nothing riding on the result for his team.

“On Sunday, we want to play at our best,” he said.

“It will not be easy because the last week of training when obviously there are not a lot of aims to reach, it’s not easy to maintain concentration and stay focused.

“But we want to try our best against Everton and finish the season well.”

When asked what needs to be done to ensure future success at Stamford Bridge, Ancelotti replied: “I think this team, to maintain their position at the top, doesn’t need to spend a lot of money.

“We won’t need a lot of changes to stay at the top.”