Chelsea confident of landing Carlo Ancelotti after Sunday's Milan summit

Carlo Ancelotti will meet the Milan president, Silvio Berlusconi, on Sunday with Chelsea quietly confident their first-choice candidate to replace Guus Hiddink as manager this summer will not be persuaded to remain at San Siro by the Italian prime minister.



Berlusconi was quoted in the newspaper La Repubblica this week criticising the Milan coach of eight years for his tactics and team selection this season, and placing the blame for the club's failure to challenge Internazionale for the Serie A title squarely on Ancelotti. The club president was moved to deny having made the comments yesterday – "I was never interviewed," he said – but intends to explain himself to his manager face to face, by which time the club may have secured a return to the Champions League with victory at Udinese on Saturday.

Chelsea, unnerved by Ancelotti's recent claims of his commitment to Milan despite having signed a pre-contract agreement last month to move to London, had sought clarification from the 49-year-old over his future intentions this week and are confident he still intends to swap San Siro for Stamford Bridge. However, delicate negotiations will still have to take place at the end of the season, with Milan apparently reluctant to allow their manager, who has an option on a further year on his current contract, to leave for the Premier League.

The club's general manager, Adriano Galliani, was insistent yesterday – in public at least – that the club intended to activate the final year of Ancelotti's deal. "Carlo has a contract with us until 2010 and he will be sitting on the Rossoneri's bench next season," he said. Berlusconi's reported outburst, delivered during a visit to Egypt, disappointed Ancelotti with Galliani now desperately attempting to limit the damage it has done to the pair's relationship. "I just spoke on the telephone with president Berlusconi and he was flabbergasted to read what was written," added Galliani. "I have also talked with him over the past few days and his ideas were not the same as those that were attributed to him."

Minds at Chelsea are already focusing on the FA Cup final, the last game of Hiddink's three-month spell as temporary manager, with the players desperate for the Dutchman to end his brief reign in style. There was a claim from the captain, John Terry, yesterday that the side's title challenge never recovered from the sloppy concession of points at Stamford Bridge under Luiz Felipe Scolari earlier in the season, and the squad are frustrated to be ending the campaign shy of Manchester United yet again. The FA Cup offers a significant consolation.

"Last year we went so close in a few different things and we have done so again," said Terry. "We were still in the mix: at times we were top of the league and doing well, but we threw away too many points at home against lower teams when we shouldn't have done. You can always lose the games against Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, but games like Everton home and away, Fulham, when they scored late on, Hull at home are the games that really cost us.

"In the Premiership we are close, we are in the FA Cup and the semis of the Champions League again. As players and fans we want to win things and we have that chance with the FA Cup, so we'll be trying our utmost to win it and, if we do, it will be a good season for us. It's important for us to pick up the trophy, but one thing we know for sure is that we have played Everton twice and they are a really well-organised team. [Their manager] David Moyes has them playing really well, they know what they are doing and work hard for each other. They are a threat and can compete with us, and have got past a few good teams to get here."