I hope Chelsea appoint a new manager soon. The farce surrounding people who say they are interested or rule themselves out of contention is unbearable to watch. At these times, nobody says anything that can be taken as being true.

Apparently, yesterday Gus Hiddink and Roberto Mancini have both declared themselves as being 'not interested' in the Chelsea job via their agents. Hiddink is going to stay on as manager of Russia and Mancini will stay at the San Siro for another four years to manage Inter.

Oh that's clear then. At least we know. Why on earth do these people say these things when we all know that frantic negotiations are probably going on behind the scenes. The media interest must be difficult to handle but I wish they would all just make no comment about the situation.

Because of all the speculation I am now forced to declare that I will not be taking the Chelsea job. I am very flattered to be considered for the role but I can say categorically that I will not be in the Stamford Bridge hot seat next season.

My denial is worth as much as the two issued by the agents of these top two managers. I'm not sure that Mancini was ever in the frame. Could it be that his agent is trying to raise Chelsea's awareness about his client to try to put his name in the mixer?

The hot favourite for the role is Frank Rijkaard. I don't know why he is the favourite and I have no idea whether Chelsea want him or whether he wants to go to Chelsea. The fact that he and his agent have remained reasonably quiet probably does mean that he has been approached. I don't know.

I just hope that Mr. Abramovich makes an appointment soon so that we can all stop speculating and the managers and agents can all stop jostling for position.

If managers actually are ruling themselves out of contention it wouldn't be too much of a shock. Their target for the first season in charge couldn't be clearer. Win the Premier League and the Champions League or you will be sacked. Not sure that's too enticing. I really am going to rule myself out of the running.