Clement aiming to silence the doubters

PAUL Clement returns to Everton for the first time since the sacking of his Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti in 2011 aiming to dismiss doubts over his own Swansea future.

Swansea head to Merseyside tonight bottom of the Premier League, and with Clement under growing pressure to mount the kind of revival which kept them in the top flight last season.

But Goodison Park holds a painful memory for Clement as it was where Ancelotti was fired by then-Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay minutes after the final game of the 2010-11 campaign.

“It was a strange moment and I’ve not been back there since,” head coach Clement said of An- celotti’s dismissal in May 2011.

“We were kind of expecting it with the conversations we’d been having. But what I was surprised about that it was done there in the away dressing room, 30 minutes after the end of the game.”

Clement stayed at Chelsea for another month or so before his own departure was confirmed, and he linked up with Ancelotti again at Paris St Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

The former Derby boss was hailed as a hero at Swansea last season after saving them from relegation. Clement was appointed at the start of January with Swansea bottom of the table on 12 points from 19 games.

He finds himself in a similar position now with 12 points from 17 games.

“There are more teams involved in relegation this time who could get pulled back in,” Clement said.

“While we’re not playing particularly well and we’re still in there, we have to see that as a positive.

“We want to get more points on the board before halfway. If we do that and get the right reinforcements in during January, we can have a better second half of the season.”