Smash hit

“I laugh,” he writes. “ ‘What are you doing here?’ ‘No, what are you doing?’ I laugh. I laugh again. I feel like I am in a supermarket. Everyone here to talk to this chairman, and maybe we’re his shopping list.”

Soon afterwards Ancelotti received a call from Galliani, who had been tipped off about the talks. He told him that the club did not want him to go. Ancelotti agreed to stay, but negotiations with Chelsea have continued into this season and the Italian has been having three English lessons per week “to prepare the ground” — not that he is showing any evidence of being fluent, with all interviews conducted in Italian yesterday.

The mixed signals continue with Ancelotti insisting yesterday: “If Milan ask me to stay, I’ll stay.” Silvio Berlusconi, the president, has been critical of Milan’s performances this season, with the team going into the last game this weekend still to secure Champions League qualification.

Ancelotti has previously been “on the brink” at Milan, almost moving to Real Madrid in 2006 and then Chelsea a year ago. But this time Berlusconi is known to be eyeing up alternative coaches, notably Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, playing legends at the San Siro.

The president may decide it is time for a change of regime after eight years of Ancelotti, who has won two Champions League titles during that time. Rijkaard has also been spoken to by Chelsea, but he would prefer to go to Milan than to London.

Ancelotti’s future — and a saga stretching back more than 12 months — will be resolved on Monday. Chelsea are resigned to Saturday’s FA Cup Final being Guus Hiddink’s farewell.

The Italian’s jobs:

- Carlo Ancelotti was born in 1959 in Reggiolo and owns the farm where he grew up, a 75-minute journey from AC Milan’s training ground.

- He made his Serie A debut with Roma in 1979 and became a kind of Italian Darren Anderton: a talented midfield player whose career was beset by injuries.

- Ancelotti won 26 caps for Italy, as well as Serie A titles with Roma and Milan, twice. He moved to the San Siro in 1987 and won two European Cups in four years. In 1995 he made his coaching debut with Reggiana in Serie B, joining Parma a year later and steering them to second place in Serie A. Sacked in 1998, he took over at Juventus in 1999.

- In 2001 he was appointed Milan coach and has led the club to one Serie A title and two Champions League triumphs. Popular with the players, he is considered to be approachable and unpretentious — he has operated for years without an agent. He comes across as less aloof than Fabio Capello but more serious than Claudio Ranieri. But without a good command of English, how would he fare in the Barclays Premier League?

Words by Tom Dart