Claudio Ranieri believes he has done a good job at Chelsea and should be allowed to finish it.

The Italian coach, whose team were beaten in the Champions League semi-finals by Monaco on Wednesday, expects to be replaced at the end of the season, with British newspapers tipping Porto boss Jose Mourinho as his successor.

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"I think I've done a very good job here. The plan is good," a weary looking Ranieri said before training for Saturday's English premier league clash with Manchester United.

"The foundation is good. The spirit of the group is strong. I would like to finish my job," he added.

Ranieri's job on Saturday is to lift his team out of their disappointment at losing the chance of European silverware and try to confirm their second spot in the premier league.

Midfielder Joe Cole said the atmosphere in the dressing room after the Monaco game, a 2-2 draw which gave the visitors a 5-3 aggregate victory, had been horrible. Several players had left the pitch in tears.

"We're going to have to see what we're made of now. We have to go and see what went wrong and then at Old Trafford on Saturday make sure that we're back on our games," Cole said.

With runaway Arsenal already champions, United are four points adrift of Chelsea with two matches to go. Second place means automatic qualification for next season's Champions League.

Ranieri said few had expected Chelsea to advance so far either in Europe or domestically despite the injection of owner Roman Abramovich's billions.

Earlier this week the amiable Italian indicated he knew who his planned replacement was and that he did not expect Abramovich and chief executive Peter Kenyon to change their minds and keep him on.

On Friday he said anyone taking over would inherit a team with potential to go further.

"This is a great group and with this group, changing not too much, you could do even better next season."

On Saturday, Chelsea will be without Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron and off-form Romanian striker Adrian Mutu whom Ranieri said were ill. Irish winger Damien Duff is sidelined after dislocating his shoulder and captain Marcel Desailly has an Achilles problem.