Blackpool v Chelsea:CARLO ANCELOTTI insists Fernando Torres was "born to score" and is on the brink of starting to repay his €58 million transfer fee to Chelsea.
Torres has yet to strike in his four games since making his record-breaking move from Liverpool and the Chelsea manager has tried to ease the pressure on him by claiming “I do not ask my strikers to score”. But Torres has admitted he must start finding the net and Ancelotti is confident the striker’s drought will not last.
Asked how he would feel if Torres’ barren spell continued until the end of the season, Ancelotti said: “It is impossible, because he will score. He will score, sure, because Torres was born to score.”
Ancelotti, though, was not prepared to bet on how many goals his new acquisition would finish the campaign with. “I don’t want to bet. I don’t like to bet,” he said.
One man who may be secretly hoping Torres continues to flounder is Salomon Kalou, who has arguably been the player to suffer most from the Spaniard’s arrival. Kalou has started once since then – when Torres was cup-tied – and has admitted he will consider his future at the end of the season if his situation does not improve.
“It’s been difficult watching from the sidelines these past few weeks,” said Kalou, whose contract expires in the summer of 2012. “If an opportunity doesn’t come, that’s when you sit down at the end of the season and think about it. It has to be something you’re doing for the good of your own career. You don’t make any decisions by rushing them.”
For now, Kalou is focused on helping Chelsea to win the Champions League and stage a comeback in the Premier League title race. The forward is one of several players at Stamford Bridge who believe the gap to Manchester United is not insurmountable.
Ancelotti, who has previously all but written off his side’s chances, said ahead of tonight’s trip to Blackpool: “If some players think that we can win the title, I think that it’s a good idea because this can give them good motivation. Man United can lose the title.
“Compared to us, Arsenal are closer to them, and maybe they can have more possibility to reach first place. For us, it’s very difficult to think this but obviously we want to win all the games that remain until the end of the season. We reached fourth place and we want to maintain this and, if possible, to improve.”
Chelsea looked like running away with the title in October but the champions worst run in the league for almost 15 years took them to the brink of surrendering their crown. Ancelotti admits “mistakes” were made and that, despite his vast experience, he learnt a lot.
Ancelotti has been strongly linked with a return to the club where he began his playing career, Roma, but he said: “I would like to stay here. I think it’s impossible to stay here 24 years as Ferguson has. More than three years? Yes. My aim is this.”
