Scolari’s sacking ruins the Tinkerman’s Champions League plans

Claudio Ranieri was the first of four Chelsea managers ruthlessly axed by Roman Abramovich and the Italian is concerned that the Russian’s latest change of leadership will be bad news for his Juventus side.

While everyone else has questioned the wisdom of sacking a manager in February after the transfer window has shut, the Tinkerman has realised that all the time he spent finding holes in Luiz Felipe Scolari’s tactics, of which there were a fair few, ahead of their upcoming Champions League clashes will count for nothing. Carlton Cole’s number one fan said:

“We could have done without this change.

“Now the players will have an excuse and I, who had studied Scolari’s team by memory, will have to start from the beginning.

“It will be another Chelsea and I will only have two weeks to get to know it.”

There’s just thirteen days to go before the window is opened

In the summer everyone was expecting Xabi Alonso to move to Juventus only for coach Claudio Ranieri to eventually decide that he was too slow. The Daily Telegraph today claim that Ranieri is planning another Anfield raid, with underused duo Daniel Agger and Ryan Babel, who have eight league starts between them this season, top of his wishlist. The former Chelsea coach is poised to offer £19 million to persuade Rafael Benitez to part with his favourite substitutes. Here are today’s other major rumours:

Slaven Bilic to Sunderland
Former West Ham and Everton defender Super Slav has been backed down from 12/1 to 6/4 favourite for the Sunderland job but don’t be fooled into wasting money backing him because The Times say he is still not a leading contender.