Carlo Ancelotti has only been in the job five minutes but already Martin Samuel is ready to throw him out of the door, as he writes in the Daily Mail.

Basically, Martin thinks that Carlo's future could largely be in the hands of Slovenia - because if they beat Russia in the World Cup play-offs a certain Guus Hiddink could become available.

This game will decide whether Guus Hiddink is to be a free agent or not. And that is very important for Chelsea indeed, because Hiddink’s employment status may well influence how patient Roman Abramovich, the owner, chooses to be with his coach Carlo Ancelotti, and whether he is given time to fix the little flaws that are beginning to appear in his plan of action for Chelsea this season.

Hiddink unattached is a dangerous guy. He is a threat to Ancelotti, although he probably does not mean to be. It is fair to assume that, right now, he is focused solely on steering Russia to the World Cup in South Africa and fulfilling his obligations there until his contract ends in 2010.
No doubt he felt the same way last season, too, until a familiar voice explained that Luiz Felipe Scolari, a World Cup winner with Brazil in 2002, was not coming up to scratch in his first club job in Europe. Shortly after, Abramovich paid a visit to the Cobham training ground, Scolari was gone and Hiddink installed as Chelsea’s manager on a temporary basis until the end of the season.

It was a swift and ruthless coup, which is how Abramovich likes them, and there is no
indication he is plotting one around Ancelotti just now because the drama of consecutive away defeats has yet to become a crisis. So far, the worst that has happened is Ancelotti has lost two league games at Wigan and Aston Villa, and attracted doubts over the success of his diamond system, particularly the role played by the influential Frank Lampard.

This is nothing compared to the succession of mishaps that befell Scolari: a thumping defeat at Manchester United, beaten at home by Liverpool and Arsenal, knocked out of the League Cup by Burnley, a draw in the FA Cup against Southend United. Scolari was sacked because Abramovich lost faith to the extent he feared his team would lose to Juventus in the last 16 of the Champions League and had the portent of a 3-1 defeat by Roma in the group stage to back him up.

There are few such blemishes on Ancelotti’s record so far. Results have generally been good, although it is widely acknowledged that his Chelsea team is yet to scale the heights with its level of performance.

Scolari’s Chelsea, by contrast, showed early signs of brilliance, not least in a 2-0 win against Aston Villa on October 5, 2008, that was as good as anything seen at Stamford Bridge in several years. At that moment, they were talked of as champions with some certainty.

So the mood can change very quickly.