Chelsea: Antonio Conte is in trouble - but will Roman Abramovich ever give a manager the time needed to do the job?

Football Matters: Ancelotti’s experience suggests that Antonio Conte’s drive to Chelsea’s Cobham training complex will currently be accompanied by more flags than an Olympic opening ceremony

Conte refused to single out any one for criticism despite an angry half-time team talk (Getty)

Carlo Ancelotti described them as ‘red flags,’ the Roman Abramovich eruptions which dispelled any notion that the man in charge at Chelsea was the guy who patrolled the technical area.

And the red flags were not always raised following those ‘thunderbolt’ defeats -- ‘defeats Abramovich believes should not happen to Chelsea’ -- which would lead to the club’s Russian owner addressing staff and players at the training ground hours after they had collectively failed, in his eyes, to measure up.

“We won the first game of the new season 6-0 (against West Bromwich Albion), but I was still summoned to Abramovich’s house that night to receive a ‘dressing down,’ as they say in England, for the performance,” Ancelotti recalled in his book, Quiet Leadership. “Another red flag -- and only one game into the season.”

Ancelotti was gone by the end of the season, sacked in the corridor at Goodison Park following a 1-0 defeat against Everton less than 12 months after guiding Chelsea to the Premier League and FA Cup double.

The Italian had seen it coming, with Abramovich’s decision to foist Michael Emenalo onto Ancelotti as his assistant in mid-season another ‘red flag,’ but his dismissal as manager was, nonetheless, a brutal example of the ruthlessness with which Abramovich acts when he believes his coach is no longer delivering upon expectations.

Ancelotti’s experience suggests that Antonio Conte’s drive to Chelsea’s Cobham training complex will currently be accompanied by more flags than an Olympic opening ceremony, all of them as red as the Liverpool and Arsenal shirts which have run rings around his players during the past two games.

Conte, a serial winner with Juventus, will have known which way the wind blows at Chelsea before accepting the challenge of reviving Abramovich’s club last May, but the past ten days will have set the clock ticking on his reign as manager.

Reports of emergency board meetings at Stamford Bridge following the 2-1 defeat at home to Liverpool may be unconfirmed, but they would not be out of character under Abramovich and it would, frankly, be a surprise if he acted otherwise.

Luiz Felipe Scolari and Andre Villas-Boas can attest to Abramovich’s impatience, both having been sacked as manager halfway through their first season in charge, while Jose Mourinho was shown the door last December, just six months after restoring the Premier League trophy to Stamford Bridge.

So Conte already has a job on his hands to turn the tide and rebuild an ageing team at Chelsea, but will Abramovich ever give a manager the time to do the job?

Since sacking Villas-Boas in March 2012, those with knowledge of the Chelsea owner’s modus operandi claim that he has become fixated with hiring coaches with a reputation for discipline and being strong with players.

One accusation levelled at Ancelotti by Abramovich was that he was not tough enough with his players. It appears that he expects his managers to instil fear into the players just as he does with his managers.

Conte, a renowned disciplinarian in Italy, simply follows a well-worn path of tough-guy managers at Chelsea following Abramovich’s appointment of Rafael Benitez and Mourinho, having failed to lure Pep Guardiola to the club in the wake of the 2012 Champions League success, when caretaker-manager Roberto di Matteo was left waiting for three weeks before being told he had the job permanently.

Abramovich can continue to sack managers as he has always done, but the time has now come for the Chelsea owner to sit back and allow his appointments to get on with the job.

Diego Simeone aside -- another strong-man disciplinarian -- Chelsea have now hired and fired every top manager in Europe. Guardiola, Abramovich’s Holy Grail, had no desire to work in such a pressurised and unforgiving environment and he now appears forever out of reach at Manchester City.

So having gone through the card of the world’s best managers, and sacked them all, Abramovich must now give Conte the breathing space required to reshape the team and prepare it for another decade of success.

The former Italy coach cannot rebuild a defence held together by a 35-year-old John Terry overnight, especially with the likes of David Luiz thrown back into the mix.

And it will take time for Conte to instil some kind of defensive discipline into Eden Hazard, or decide that the Belgian has become a luxury that modern-day teams cannot afford.

Emenalo, the man Abramovich trusts to oversee player recruitment, must also be held accountable for a transfer strategy that has seen the likes of Luiz return to the club and players such as Papa Djilobodji and Alexandre Pato given opportunities when they were clearly not up to Premier League standard.

Conte has inherited a mess at Stamford Bridge -- a squad that has seen better days with too many complex personalities in key positions -- but too often, the easiest option to correct things at Chelsea has been to sack the manager.

Conte is safe for now, but the red flags are already fluttering.

Wayne Rooney was subbed on for Marcus Rashford during the 83rd of United's Saturday clash against Leicester (Getty)

Rooney's time may be up at Old Trafford

Wayne Rooney has scored just two goals in his last eighteen appearances for Manchester United -- both against Bournemouth -- so if he continues to find the net at that rate, it may be a while yet before he breaks Sir Bobby Charlton’s all-time club goalscoring record.

Bookmakers are offering odds of 16-1 that Rooney fails to eclipse Charlton by scoring four more goals in a United shirt and, while those odds appear generous, his omission from Jose Mourinho’s team for the 4-1 victory against Leicester at the weekend suggests the club captain’s time at Old Trafford is coming to an end.

Rooney will surely break Charlton’s record, but he might need to borrow Marcus Rashford’s scoring boots if he is to do it before the new year.

Sinclair celebrates after scoring during the Old Firm derby (Getty)

Sinclair enjoys new life north of the border

Scott Sinclair always appeared to be nothing more than a quota-filler after leaving Swansea City in a £6.2m move to Manchester City in August 2012.

The Englishman made just two Premier League starts in three years at the Etihad Stadium, but 12 months after leaving City for Aston Villa, Sinclair is now set to face his former club for Celtic in the Champions League on Wednesday.

He has six goals in six league appearances so far for the Scottish champions, so the 27-year-old is certainly in the form to haunt his previous employers in Glasgow.