No new Ranieri deal

No deal: Chelsea have played down reports Ranieri will be staying

Wayne Veysey|Matt Hughes|Evening Standard

14 April 2012

Chelsea were today distancing themselves from reports that they have offered Claudio Ranieri a one-year extension to his contract.

Although there was no official comment from the club, Chelsea sources indicated that there is no improved deal on the table and that any suggestion of such a move was likely to have come from Ranieri sympathisers.

The Italian's future seemed doomed following the very public courting of Sven-Goran Eriksson by chief executive Peter Kenyon and it had been claimed that the about-turn over Ranieri's future was prompted by a threat to quit. However, even Ranieri's agent said he had no knowledge of any new Chelsea contract and suggested that it was unlikely as the 52-year-old still has three years left on his existing deal.

Chelsea sources deny any new deal is on offer and they believe one possible explanation for the timing of the story, which was reported on the day of the club's biggest match of the season, the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Arsenal, is that it could mark an attempt to capitalise on the groundswell of popular support for Ranieri and pressurise the club into keeping him.

The new deal, it was claimed, would have kept him at the Bridge until 2008 - the same period that Eriksson has committed himself to England - and would have represented an incredible U-turn by billionaire owner Roman Abramovich and Kenyon.

Last week, the Italian held an hourlong meeting with the pair at which they pledged their full support to Ranieri until the end of the season but offered no guarantees about next season. Under the terms of his existing deal it is estimated he would receive around £7.8million if sacked - and although any potential new deal would not have prevented them changing managers if the right person came up, it would have added on another year's salary - £2.6m - in compensation and dampened speculation about the manager's future.

The last few Chelsea games have seen the fans chant pro-Ranieri and anti-Eriksson songs and the Italian was named Premiership manager of the month for March - but this is not believed to have been enough to force the club into a new contract offer.

On the pitch, Ranieri is set to revert to his old strike partnership of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsen for tonight's match at Highbury.

The Italian spent £33m on star strikers Hernan Crespo and Adrian Mutu last summer but neither is expected to start the biggest game of Chelsea's season.

Ranieri has shown a marked preference for his recent recruits in the Champions League so far this season but has decided to select the men in form. Hasselbaink has scored four goals in his last two matches, including a stunning 13-minute hat-trick against Wolves, while Gudjohnsen has found the net in four of his last seven games and has scored in Chelsea'a last two meetings with Arsenal.

Hasselbaink has started just one Champions League match in his career, scoring in a first-round win over Besiktas last December, and is looking forward to renewing his acquaintance with European football's premier club competition.

He said: "Every player wants to play in the Champions League. If you asked 100 players if they wanted to play in the Champions League 101 would say that's where they want to be.

"I've had a few bad matches but I've been happy with my form all season. You can't play at the highest level all the time and I feel good at the moment. I always want to play, I always want to do well and I always want to score. When you cannot play and you feel you should be playing I get upset."

Despite the arrival of Crespo and Mutu there is little doubt that Hasselbaink and Gudjohnsen have been the club's most successful strike partnership this season. Chelsea have won eight and drawn one of the nine games in which the two strikers have been paired up front and they have scored 31 goals between them.

Arsenal hold the advantage after securing an away goal in a 1-1 firstleg draw at Stamford Bridge, but Hasselbaink is confident Chelsea can beat the Gunners for the first time in 18 games.

He said: "It's always a close game when we play Arsenal but they've had the luck on their side.

"We all know what this game is about and everybody is ready. We just feel it and see it in everybody's eyes. No one is afraid. We believe we can beat them, it's just a matter of time. We can succeed and have a victory tonight."

Marcel Desailly is suspended but Ranieri has no new injury worries and is expected to start with the same team that beat Tottenham on Saturday - only the second time this season he has named an unchanged side. Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron will miss out as he is not quite ready to return from his back injury.

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No new Ranieri deal

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