Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager, has told Neymar to forget his hopes of moving to Stamford Bridge despite the Brazilian teenager’s rising reputation.
Ancelotti was full of praise for the 19-year-old, who scored both goals in his country’s 2-0 win over Scotland last weekend, but insisted the London club had no interest in signing the player.
The Italian was at the Emirates Stadium to see Neymar’s match-winning performance, after which the Santos striker reiterated his desire to join Chelsea, having made similar overtures earlier in the season. “It’s a dream of every player to play at Chelsea,” he said.
Neymar was reportedly the subject of a failed bid by Chelsea last summer but Ancelotti has now said that the player is not on his radar, having signed Fernando Torres from Liverpool for £50 million in the January transfer window.
“It’s good news because it’s good for the club and the manager if players want to come here,” he said. “It shows the rumours are true there’s a good atmosphere here. He’s very young, a fantastic talent. At this moment, we’re not interested.”
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Assessing Neymar’s performance on Sunday, Ancelotti - who also saw Ramires, the Chelsea midfielder, play a starring role for Brazil - said: “It was a good performance, but the best player on the pitch was Ramires.”
Neymar has also said he would like to play for Barcelona but insisted he intended to see out his contract at Santos, which expires in 2014.
Ancelotti will check on the fitness of Salomon Kalou before choosing his forward line for tomorrow’s Barclays Premier League game away to Stoke City. Kalou, who played 90 minutes for Ivory Coast on Sunday, has a slight knock but the rest of Chelsea’s squad all returned unscathed from the international break.
That included Yossi Benayoun (Achilles), who played the final 19 minutes of Israel’s game with Georgia but will not be risked tomorrow, while Alex (knee) will also continue to build up his fitness.