water wey Roman abramovic take clean nyansh *chelsea* na waste of time. Simply becos nyash na nyansh and nyansh must to smell. Things can only get worse for chelsea. The team is doomed to fail no matter what. Useless small team forming big. Yeye.

switch47:

water wey Roman abramovic take clean nyansh *chelsea* na waste of time. Simply becos nyash na nyansh and nyansh must to smell. Things can only get worse for chelsea. The team is doomed to fail no matter what. Useless small team forming big. Yeye.

André Villas-Boas's Callowness Was No Match For Chelsea's Veterans

In Vietnam, they called it "fragging": the deliberate killing of a commanding officer by his own men. It happens in all wars when experienced foot soldiers lose respect for their leader and put their own survival before loyalty. And now it has happened at Chelsea. Twice.
No wonder the club's ground shares its name with a famous battle in which an English army defeated invading forces. Three years ago the sergeant-majors in the dressing room were able to exert enough influence on the high command to have Luiz Felipe Scolari, a World Cup-winning coach, removed after six months in the job, having concluded that his insufficiently rigorous training sessions imperilled their chance of winning trophies.

Scolari was an older figure, aged 61 at the time, with medals on his chest. Now the same forces appear to have done for a much younger commander, the 34-year-old Dom Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas. Having taken the job on a wave of fresh-faced confidence, the man familiarly known as AVB rapidly came to resemble a young captain, trained on the playing fields of Eton, arriving to command a battle-weary platoon at Passchendaele. Another victim of friendly fire, he lasted only a month longer than the Brazilian.

This is an astonishing degree of influence for players to wield, particularly when their employer is one of the world's richest men. Evidently Roman Abramovich, who can do whatever he likes with his £11bn fortune, prefers to listen to the whispers of his workers rather than put his long-term faith in the coach he hired to turn them back into a winning team. The Russian is either a firm believer in player power or a man whose own judgment and that of his closest lieutenants at Stamford Bridge – the club chairman, Bruce Buck, the chief executive, Ron Gourlay, the director Eugene Tenenbaum and close friend Eugene Shvidler, the chairman of Millhouse, Abramovich's investment company – is so faulty as to disqualify them from the stewardship of a leading football club.

The Chelsea dressing room is certainly no respecter of age or class. Scolari, like his father a former professional player, was a product of football. And if José Mourinho was that rarity in English football, a middle-class manager, then AVB was in all probability unique in its modern history: an aristocrat in the dugout, his family tree including barons, viscounts and a grandmother from Cheadle, a posh Manchester suburb. She taught him English at an early age, and his near-perfect command of the language gives the lie to the belief that the only thing standing between foreign managers and Premier League success is an inability to communicate with their players and the outside world.

Villas-Boas communicated all too well. His excellent manners and willingness to answer any question in considerable detail gave him the sympathetic ear of football reporters long accustomed to gnomic responses delivered with a Clydeside sneer. But the terms in which he analysed his side's performances soon came to seem technocratic and academic. Until the very end, when his honesty was equally painful, his pronouncements contradicted the evidence of the reporters' eyes, and the players came to share their scepticism. Those who came out with a public defence of AVB during the last days of his regime were not English players grateful for his fluency in their native tongue but the sizeable contingent of his fellow Portuguese speakers, led by David Luiz, the Brazilian defender.

There was something of the nerdy schoolboy about him, and not just in the nervous way he constantly tightened the belt of his black raincoat, a less stylish trademark than Mourinho's grey cashmere overcoat. Despite starting his Premier League campaign with three consecutive wins, not once during his 40 competitive matches in charge did he convince observers that there was substance to his strategy and tactics. Where Mourinho had gone through three seasons without losing a league match at Stamford Bridge, October and November saw AVB's Chelsea losing successive home games 3-5 to Arsenal and 1-2 to Liverpool.

His brief record with Académica de Coimbra and Porto may have looked promising, but at Chelsea he made so many mistakes that it is hard to know where to start. Hired with a brief to revitalise the playing staff and, if necessary, consign the older generation to history, he promoted only one of the younger players, Daniel Sturridge, while alienating the seniors, who disliked the way he sent Nicolas Anelka and Alex to train with the reserves while awaiting a transfer to other clubs.

Whereas Manchester United and Juventus have brilliantly exploited the experience of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Andrea Pirlo this season, Villas-Boas could not find an accommodation with Frank Lampard, whose resentment became a focal point for disaffection. A stronger manager would have shipped out Fernando Torres in January, rather than allowing his wounded presence on the bench to remain as a symbol that all was not well. His unconditional support for John Terry when the club captain was charged with racially abusing an opponent was poorly judged, only a notch or two below the advocacy on behalf of Luis Suárez that brought Kenny Dalglish into disrepute.

Sturridge apart, younger players were marginalised. Once upon a time the Stamford Bridge faithful would have been able to enjoy the development of the extravagantly gifted 18-year-old Josh McEachran, as they once feasted on the sight of the teenaged Alan Hudson and Ray Wilkins, but Villas-Boas sent the England Under-21 player to Swansea City on loan. Jeffrey Bruma, Patrick van Aanholt, Romelu Lukaku and Oriel Romeu were removed from first-team contention after brief consideration. Fabio Borini was sold to Roma, where he quickly earned himself a place in Italy's senior team against France last week, still only 20 years old.

That is to say nothing of Villas-Boas's inability to demonstrate a talent for imbuing a team with any semblance of originality on the pitch. His 4-3-3 looked like anyone else's – very much like Mourinho's, in fact, but without the flame of authority or the spark of inventiveness. Sometimes it seemed that senior figures were included against his real wishes, simply because their omission would lead to an inconvenient amount of trouble. There was no hint of the strength of will or purpose that might have led to the forging of a new Chelsea, had he and the owner backed their beliefs and kept their nerve through what was always going to be a difficult season.

The bigger mistakes, however, have been made by Abramovich, £64m of them on managers alone, and who is to say that the most consequential of all was not the appointment of Villas-Boas but a dismissal that prefaced it: that of Ray Wilkins, Carlo Ancelotti's assistant, sacked without notice and apparently on a whim at the Stoke d'Abernon training ground one fateful morning in November 2010. It was a move that instantly destabilised the playing and coaching staff, leading – via the subsequent departure of Ancelotti – to the decision to hire a promising young Portuguese coach at least a year, and perhaps several, before it would have been possible to form a serious view of his ability to do a job that now looks harder than ever

AVB at 47% win is the coach with the worst win record for a Chelsea boss

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

All those talking about financial fair play bla bla are being hypocritical
People are trying to be more catholic than the pope.

Roman's millions made Chelsea what it is today anyway.
We forget that too quickly. Pre-Roman, CFC was just another Spurs.

My wish? A manager to give them young boys the chance to PLAY!
Honestly, it must be sickening to be a youngster in that Chelsea squad.

FBS:

My wish? A manager to give them young boys the chance to PLAY!
Honestly, it must be sickening to be a youngster in that Chelsea squad.

pep Guardiola? i wanna see him at chelsea!!

lalaboi:

pep Guardiola? i wanna see him at chelsea!!

He won't last a season.

denzel2009:

He won't last a season.

wer you so sure when AVB started that he was gona lasst the 3 season he signed for?

Pep?! Can he do it? Oh he certainly does have the 'right' resume but imo La Liga is completely different from EPL.The speed is frightening.
Either way, he is not a bad choice neither is the worst.
We are watching. . .

pls what happened to all those sekxsy and detailed scouting reports ibime and co were brandishing about off season?.

i thought this chap was supposed to be the best thing tactically to have walked on english green fields

TBH i cannot point to one single match against anyone of substance where the chap's much vaunted tactical nous was on display.

but una for no sack am na

the guy na our agent to deliver 4th spot or better, by april we for don cement am. mcheew

I miss AVB already.
No funny press conferences.

As a person i'm sad to see AVB go, he seemed like a good man.
As a manager he was awful.

Pep has not been tried.
He has the best players at Barca, not enough to judge his managerial skills.

BlueDiva:

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

All those talking about financial fair play bla bla are being hypocritical
People are trying to be more catholic than the pope.

Roman's millions made Chelsea what it is today anyway.
We forget that too quickly. Pre-Roman, CFC was just another Spurs.

Really? FFP pundits are hypocritical?
Care to explain?

Ramires has been handed a new 5 year contract.
Hehehehe. . . . One terrible decision to the other.

nateevs:

Ramires has been handed a new 5 year contract.
Hehehehe. . . . One terrible decision to the other.

Ramires is grossly underrated by Chelski fans. . . . I dunno why. The boy may not be the most skillful of players, but his determination, drive and eye for scoring vital goals shouldn't be overlooked.

Guyz help mi here i have surfed d NET,still i don't know d % of control shares dat RA has in chelsea (is it 52%,75 or 100%) tankz

Ramires has been outstanding this season but a 5yrs contract is too much, he has'nt done much to deserve a new contract. Will their be a pay hike in is contract?

@ debo, no mind nateevs Ojare e will rada hv a dud wit no use in d team like d great shekpe keeper.

nateevs:

Ramires has been handed a new 5 year contract.
Hehehehe. . . . One terrible decision to the other.

Son of God! Who else will Emenalo hand a contract extension-Kalou? Chei!

Ramires is probably one of our best performers this season. a new deal was deserved but the length get comma.

Niggas need to ask themselves what the team has done since Ramires became a fixture.

When Ramires was dropped this time last year, Chelsea suddenly jumped from 5th to the top of the table.

Success no be by gra-gra.

Some players can earn kudos for their physicality, but blind bats like Ramires never add nothing to their teammates.

The amount of times the nigga goes on foolish runs into the centre of trouble instead of feeding a free teammate is enough to make one puke.

Ramires lacks class.

I dont see Chelsea running any midfield with Ramires in the centre.

Maybe he may serve better utility as a winger.

Gimme a 34 year old Ballack anyday.

Ramires is just what he is. . . . He will not and can never be my ideal midfielder.

i would rather have ramirez than fat frank.

Ramires is like the Fletcher of Chelsea

chamotex:

Ramires is like the Fletcher of Chelsea

i admire the lad's energy. he never gives up.
if he can sort out his decision making and pass the ball at the appropriate time with those runs he makes then he would rule in europe for years to come.
he's the only player that drives the team whenever chelsea are stuck with their slow insipid football.

Nobody talk say make craze man no get money take buy club, but how e go run am?? im go dey buy coaches like ingridient for soup, carry money buy wastes like Torress for maket, spoil Mikel destiny, win Nothing, as im crase dey increase, the club failure dey increase. The Club is getting more useless and useless daily and IT CAN ONLY GET WORSE DOOM!! Yeye club, likewise the fans.

Chelsea is a Drinking club with a football habit, a good club only to the mentally sick, Chelsea is a club owned by a suggar daddy, filled with Prostittutes as players and having fans who are perverts coming in week in week out to see their players sodomised, right , left and center. THE CLUB IS A DEAD CLUB and it is only decaying, little by little, it can only get worse.

AVB who complained about old players in now being linked to the Inter Milan job

Chelsea*

ANELKA 32
BENAYOUN 31
COLE 30
DROGBA 33
FERREIRA 32
HILARIO 35
LAMPARD 33
MALOUDA 31
TERRY 30

All the players listed below are over 30yrs

Inter

CAMBIASSO
CASTELLAZZI
CHIVU
CORDOBA
FORLAN
JULIO CESAR
LUCIO
MAICON
MILITO
ORLANDONI
PALOMBO
SAMUEL
STANKOVIC
ZANETTI

nateevs:

Ramires has been handed a new 5 year contract.
Hehehehe. . . . One terrible decision to the other.

We may soon consider you for director of sports.
Ramires is way better than Mikel, Meireles, Malouda and a ton of other guys on that team.

dayokanu:

AVB who complained about old players in now being linked to the Inter Milan job

Chelsea*

ANELKA 32
BENAYOUN 31
COLE 30
DROGBA 33
FERREIRA  32
HILARIO  35
LAMPARD 33
MALOUDA  31
TERRY  30

All the players listed below are over 30yrs

Inter

CAMBIASSO
CASTELLAZZI
CHIVU
CORDOBA
FORLAN
JULIO CESAR
LUCIO
MAICON
MILITO
ORLANDONI
PALOMBO
SAMUEL
STANKOVIC
ZANETTI

LOL. . .AVB is going into murky waters.

Hope the lad ain't trying to end his career prematurely. Dude should start from a smaller club.
The lad probably thinks he is JM. Delusions of grandeur.