23 May,2011 01:41 PM IST | | Agencies
English premiership club Chelsea have sacked manager Carlo Ancelotti and are likely to appoint Turkey coach Guss Hiddink as his replacement.
Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay conveyed the decision to the 51-year-old, who took over in 2009.
"Chelsea Football Club can confirm that Carlo Ancelotti parted company with the club. The owner and board would like to thank Carlo for his contribution and achievements since taking over as manager in July 2009, which included winning the Double for the first time in the club's history," the club said in a statement.
The London club, however, didn't do well this season and the 0-1 loss to Everton Sunday night prompted the board to take a quick decision. The loss saw Chelsea finish second in the league.
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"This season's performances have fallen short of expectations and the club feels the time is right to make this change ahead of next season's preparations. Carlo will always be welcome at Stamford Bridge, where he will be given the reception and respect his position in our history deserves.
"Chelsea's long-term football objectives and ambitions remain unchanged and we will now be concentrating all our efforts on identifying a new manager," the statement from the club added.
Ancelotti thanked the Chelsea fans at Goodison Park following his last match in charge as manager.
"I was happy for this reason. We have a very good relationship, they support us, they support me all the time. For this reason I am really happy," said Ancelotti in a statement.
"We would like to finish the season differently but unfortunately we needed a strong motivation. It was difficult to find the right motivation. Obviously we wanted to play differently, to finish the season differently but this is normal at the end of the season when you have worked really hard but lost the fight for the title with Manchester United. To maintain motivation is not easy," he said.
"We cannot say we are happy to reach second place, Chelsea has to fight for the title all the time. Sometimes there are problems and you are not able to win, this was this year for us," Ancelotti added.
Ancelotti's trusted assistant, Bruno Demichelis, is also expected to leave the club.
Club Roman Abramovich is now set to hire his seventh manager in seven seasons.
