Football: ‘Di Matteo will have to wait’

Chelsea chief executive says interim manager to discover fate after CL final.

LONDON: Chelsea Chief Executive Ron Gourlay has said interim manager Roberto di Matteo will have to wait until after the Champions League final to discover if he will be given the job on a permanent basis.

Blues captain John Terry has made it clear that Chelsea players are backing di Matteo to be named as Andre Villas-Boas’s full-time successor and the Italian underlined his credentials by leading the club to a 2-1 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup final at Wembley. However, reports claim Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is still weighing up his final decision, with an approach for Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho not out of the question.

“I’m not going to change my mind on what I’ve said. We’ve just got to take – the cliched – one game at a time,” said Gourlay. “We’ve got three games left. He’s done well since we brought him and the players have responded well.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2012.