After their tumultuous season ended in Champions League disappointment, Chelsea can expect more upheaval in the coming weeks with the likely departure of coach Claudio Ranieri and the arrival of more big-name signings.
The multi-million pound London side looked headed for the final on Wednesday after goals from Jesper Gronkjaer and Frank Lampard cancelled out Monaco's 3-1 first-leg semi-final lead.
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Russian oil magnate Roman Abramovich, who bought Chelsea last July and has spent over 120 million pounds ($215 million) on new players, visited the team in a subdued dressing room after the game and said: "It will be better next time."
Just who will be involved in "next time" has been a matter of intense speculation.
Abramovich has made no secret of his desire to turn Chelsea, a perennially fashionable but underachieving club, into the biggest team in Europe.
The billionaire swept through Stamford Bridge, clearing out chairman Ken Bates and recruiting top staff, including chief executive Peter Kenyon from Manchester United, to raise Chelsea's profile and sell the brand worldwide.
ENORMOUS SYMPATHY
Ranieri, recruited by the old regime in 2000, has said he does not expect to remain. The media in Britain and Portugal tip Porto coach Jose Mourinho, who won the UEFA Cup last year and will face Monaco in the Champions League final this season, to take over.
Ranieri has won enormous sympathy for his humour and dignity in sticking to his task, knowing the Chelsea boardroom were lining up his successor.
Mourinho, in London to watch the game, signed autographs at Stamford Bridge before sizing up his rivals for the May 26 final in Gelsenkirchen. It was a good opportunity for the suave, English-speaking Portuguese to assess his prospective employers and newspapers speculated that, despite his denials, he would meet Abramovich on Thursday.
Ranieri, who has insisted since Abramovich's takeover that moulding a disparate group of top talent and egos into a winning team would take more than one season, said he leaves "a very, very good foundation".
A probable second place finish in the English premier league behind rampant Arsenal and reaching the Champions League semi-finals is more than he and most fans expected.
That Ranieri has had to rely on his pre-Abramovich signings for the consistency and commitment that took Chelsea so far proves, perhaps, that money is no guarantee of success.
MORE SIGNINGS
Midfielder Lampard has been outstanding, backed by England defender and Chelsea youth product John Terry.
In attack Eidur Gudjohnsen has shown more intelligence and verve than either 16.8-million-pound ($30.10 million) Hernan Crespo or the 15.8-million-pound Romanian Adrian Mutu who has not scored since February.
Significantly only three of the 14 post-Abramovich signings -- Joe Cole, Wayne Bridge and Geremi -- started on Wednesday.
It was Lampard who ran to the last second, Terry who sobbed at the whistle and Gudjohnsen who was comforted by Monaco coach Didier Deschamps as he walked tearfully to the tunnel.
More signings are on the cards when the transfer window opens, however. Mourinho has said how much he admires David Beckham and, after scandals over his private life, the England captain is reported by the British press to be considering a return home.
Newspapers have also linked his Real Madrid team mate Ronaldo to Chelsea saying he met Kenyon earlier this year. More recently Juventus's French striker David Trezeguet and Roma's Argentine defender Walter Samuel have been touted as targets for the club with unrivalled spending power.
Ranieri's successor will have a lot to think about during the close season.
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