Chelsea have given themselves seven weeks to find a new manager after sacking Carlo Ancelotti and handing him a £6.5 million pay-off, Goal.com can reveal.

The club, who are scouring the world for their sixth boss in four years, are confident the new man will be in place by the time of their first pre-season friendly on July 9.

Marco van Basten has emerged as the leading candidate to succeed Ancelotti, although there is also believed to be strong support within Stamford Bridge for Porto’s Andre Villas-Boas.

Harry Redknapp was the favourite with a number of bookmakers on Sunday evening but the Tottenham manager is believed to be a long-shot for the vacant post.

One man who is unlikely to be the next Stamford Bridge manager is Guus Hiddink, who has told owner Roman Abramovich that he is not interested in being a club manager again.

Nevertheless, the Turkey manager is believed to be the key figure in the senior management shake-up at Chelsea. The club also have vacancies in the sporting director and chief scout positions following the departures of Frank Arnesen and Lee Congleton to SV Hamburg.

As revealed by Goal.com in April, Hiddink has been approached by Chelsea to be their new sporting director and will make his decision on whether to accept the offer in the wake of Turkey’s Euro 2012 qualifier away to Belgium on June 3.

A defeat will scupper Hiddink’s hopes of winning a November play-off spot and will open up the possibility of him being available immediately.

Hiddink admitted in his column for a Dutch newspaper at the weekend that he has continued to work for Chelsea in an advisory capacity since his spell as caretaker manager at the club ended in the summer of 2009.

The 64-year-old has told friends his future involvement in the game will either be a senior executive role at leading club – he has also been offered posts at Ajax and PSV Eindhoven - or another international post.

It is understood that Hiddink has nominated fellow Dutchman van Basten, who completed his coaching badges at Chelsea, to succeed Ancelotti. The 46-year-old is now ready to return to management following a long break from the game after leaving Ajax in 2009.

Ancelotti left his post less than two hours after Chelsea’s final Premier League game of the season at Everton, which they lost 1-0.

The Italian is believed to have been given his marching orders by chief executive Ron Gourlay shortly before his team boarded the coach to Manchester airport. It was done so promptly in order to allow him time to say his goodbyes to the players and staff before they leave either to go on holiday on Monday or join up with their respective international squads.

Ancelotti will become the latest manager to walk away from Chelsea with a huge pay-off, following in the footsteps of Jose Mourinho in 2007, Avram Grant in 2008 and Luiz Felipe Scolari in 2009. The Italian had a year remaining on a contract worth £6.5m-a-year.

Should Hiddink reject Abramovich’s advances, it is believed that Grant has been lined up to return to the club he managed briefly in 2009 and that the Israeli will be installed as the sporting director.

This could pave the way for a surprise swoop for Redknapp, who is good friends with the former West Ham boss from their time together at Portsmouth.

Although Redknapp is firmly against a set-up headed by a director of football, he would make an allowance for Grant, who he speaks to by phone around three times a week and has done so for the last two years.