57

Watford vs Chelsea | 14-Feb-09 @ 17:30 UK

I never thought I’d be excited about the Watford match. I’m not only excited, I’m expecting a lot. You may say it’s a little too early to expect Hiddink to show us a difference. But why not? By sacking Scolari, Roman has showed his intent that he cannot put up with this nonsense anymore. He wants improvement, in results and in performance. His standards and expectations are very high. It’s a strong message to all the players and coaching staff.

Have you ever heard Hiddink speak English? You’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was. The guy speaks very good English. Not the ‘yesterday bad . . today good . . tomorrow i don’t know’ type of English. For me, thats a huge relief. He speaks good English. He speaks sense. He looks like a tough no-nonsense guy. He’s known to be a master tactician. He has mostly worked with teams that are not gifted with the quality that Chelsea has. That’s quite a contrast when you compare him to Scolari, who has always worked with teams of high quality. That’s one more reason why I think Hiddink would certainly perform better.

I expect Roman to have more patience with Hiddink. Also, I expect Hiddink to perform lot better than Scolari did. That way, this should be a fruitful partnership. There are a lot of rumours that Hiddink is here for the long term. I doubt that. With very few international commitments he can probably manage both Chelsea and Russia in the next three months. After that, as he himself admitted, it would be quite a stretch. Anyway, let’s talk about the three months for now. All said, Hiddink is in a win-win situation. If he turns around Chelsea’s season, he will be hailed as a magician. That’ll be another feather in his cap. If he is unable to resurrect our season, he can’t take any blame. Much of the damage was done before he took over. Okay, let me not call it a win-win situation, he’s got a ‘nothing-to-lose’ situation.

All focus would be on Guus. What team he chooses, who’s on the bench, which formation he plays, what does he wear for the match and all such stuff. Against Watford tomorrow, if he plays a 4-4-2 with Drogba and Anelka as strikers, and if he plays any youngsters, I’d sign up in his fan club plus I’ll sing a song for him. For him, the starting point is clear. List down all the mistakes Scolari did and try to avoid all or most of them. I know we are not in a stage where we can experiment but not expeimenting has left us where we are now. That’s a good enough reason to experiment.

On the valentine’s day, let Hiddink’s romance with Chelsea and Chelsea fans begin!

74

I fully support the timing of Scolari’s mid-season dismissal

guus

There is no better time than now to do the right thing. Roman could have done this lot earlier too. Scolari’s continuance would only have worsened the situation beyond repair. We truly run the risk of not making the champions league next season. I’m all for stability and continuity, but a wrong manager does not deserve that. Am I being very harsh on Scolari? No. He has no defence. The results have been poor. We’re playing horrible football. There are no signs of improvement. The best thing is to sack him and bring about a much needed change.

For all those rival fans, press journalists and experts expressing their shock and disappointment, please fcuk off. This is our club. We’ll do we need to do. We’ll do what’s appropriate for us. I’m tired of rival fans talking about ‘class’ when we change managers. Most of these guys don’t follow Chelsea as much as we do. As score-checking neutrals, they simply have no understanding of the real situation here. You stick with managers when they show promise and potential. If you still do it otherwise, it is plain stupidity. Clubs like Man Utd were lucky to get a top class manager like Fergie. Don’t tell me that he was given time and he took four seasons for his first title. Football was different back then. The pressure was different. The pressure and investment of modern football is much more demanding now. Trophyless seasons are fine as long as we show some promise. Under Scolari, we have lost all we’re known for, we’ve got into all the bad habits that we’re never known for. No one fears Chelsea anymore. Teams love coming to Stamford Bridge. We struggle to beat any team. We surrender to top teams. Players are becoming indifferent. In my books, these are good enough reasons not to show any patience towards Scolari.  Rival fans are disappointed because Scolari is gone. They all sensed that under Scolari Chelsea will hit new depths under Roman. That was not to be. So they are upset and they are talking about how football has been ruined, how sad the state is, how unfortunate the managers are, how there so little patience and all that. As I said, fcuk off.

In this whole sacking episode, the one thing I’m particularly pleased is the timing. What Roman did was very smart. Imagine you bought a share at 10p and the value is going down consistently and now it’s falling every hour and there is no hope of the rate going up. What you’d do is sell in the first possible opportunity to cut the losses. You just stop the losses. That’s what he’s done too. He realised that Scolari at Chelsea is shite. Then what’s the point to hanging on to him only to realise that we more shite than we thought. By sacking Scolari in February, he can bring in an interim manager who can resurrect this season for Chelsea as much as he can. Also, this would give Roman an opportunity to see if this interim manager can be entrusted with the full time job. While what Roman did was smart, it was also very honest. He didn’t mind accepting that he’s gone wrong again with the selection of manager. This was the second manager to be sacked in a space of 9 months. He’s just went and did what he felt was right.

By all probabilities, the new interim manager seems to be Guus Hiddink. I neither too excited nor too worried. I have a strong belief that he cannot be worse than Scolari. I’m also a bit sceptical about Guus. He has managed both national and club teams. Now that we’ve learnt not to care about the international records, let’s look at his club record. He won a lot of silverware with PSV in Holland. Winning in Holland, with PSV? I’m not jumping for joy. He’s had some failed stints and faced the sack in Valencia, Real Madrid and Real Betis. In other words, outside of Holland, he has struggled with club football. Jumping straight onto a pressure cooker like Chelsea FC in the month of February does not look like a success formula for Guus. By the way, if this was a well planned move, we could have got Guus alongwith Arshavin and remove Deco from the list.

There are also rumours that Carlo Ancelotti would become the Chelsea manager in the summer. AC Milan have had enough with Carlo. They want to get Rijkaard for next season. So you hear all these Milan blacksuits saying that Carlo is available, Carlo is interested, Carlo loves London and all that nonsense. Milan is just trying to take Chelsea for a ride. They want to offload Ancelotti and they’ve started their baiting. We know how Shevchenko was sold to Chelsea. We know about the Kaka transfer drama. Milan are cunning bastards. I have nothing against Ancelotti. He is a good coach. But whatever Ancelotti has achieved is all in Italy. His playing career, his coaching career have all been in Italy. That doesn’t impress me much. As far as I know, his English is no better than Scolari’s. Anyway, I’ll wait. It’s just a rumour as of now.

By the way, the poll results show that you want Jose Mourinho back. He is always the No.1 choice and the fans’ favourite. I’d love to see him here too. But that’s not gonna happen. We’ve missed our chance. Jose will win the Serie A and then he would take over Real Madrid in the summer and he would stay there for some seasons and probably manage Man Utd. I don’t think he’ll come back to Chelsea. He’s gone. Roman made a mistake there. I’m sure he’s realised that by now.

In other options, the top choices are Frank Rijkaard, Guus Hiddink, Gianfranco Zola and Steve Clarke. Some have voted for Grant.

The opinion poll is still open. Keep voting.

104

Who should be the next Chelsea manager?

ra

Roman’s had enough. Time for a new manager.

Journos are working overtime. Don’t be surprised if you see a headline “BlueChampion linked with Chelsea job”. Luckily, there are more capable people. There are more than a dozen names doing rounds now. There are some very very capable managers in this list. Some of them are available and some of them have to be relieved by their current employers. For take the job of a Chelsea manager, I think this is the perfect time. You’re preceded only by a Scolari. That’s an easy benchmark to start with. The new manager will have just about 3 months to resurrect Chelsea’s season and can settle well before he starts the next season. I’m sure that the team will play better and pick up some useful results. A change was very much needed and it would arrive soon.

I have some expectations for the new manager.

(a) The new manager must be young. By young, I mean less than 50 years of age.
(b) He must be a very good communicator. If someone’s unable to communicate, he cannot motivate.
(c) He must be a very good tactician and a real smart-ass.
(d) He must be hungry for success. The winning mentality should be back.
(e) He must have the full support and respect of the key long term Chelsea players.

I hope we get someone who ticks all these boxes.

Go ahead, cast your vote and voice your opinion. Please note that you can make upto THREE choices!!!

Who's your choice?






















  • View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
42

Chelsea sack Luiz Felipe Scolari

The inevitable has happened. This was not a surprise at all. Hats off to Roman for sacking Scolari in the month of February. Like me, he knew that while nothing would improve from now till the end of the season, a lot can go worse.

While I have been critical about Scolari for months now, it was after the draw against Hull, I said it with conviction that Scolari should go. Looks like, for once, Roman and I are in the same wavelength when it comes to Chelsea managers.

This is the message from the club website:

Luiz Felipe Scolari has been dismissed as manager of Chelsea Football Club today (Monday) with immediate effect. The Chelsea board would like to place on record our gratitude for his time as manager. Felipe has brought many positives to the club since he joined and we all feel a sense of sadness that our relationship has ended so soon. Unfortunately the results and performances of the team appeared to be deteriorating at a key time in the season. In order to maintain a challenge for the trophies we are still competing for we felt the only option was to make the change now. The search for a new manager has already started and we hope to have someone in place as soon as possible. While that continues Assistant Coach Ray Wilkins will take charge of the team on a temporary basis.

Very good message from the club. Very clear and transparent. I would completely second that paragraph except the last line. I can’t imagine Ray Wilkins taking charge of this Chelsea team for even one day. I hope we find the manager soon enough. But this time around, we should get the right man.

76

Chelsea 0-0 Hull City | It’s beyond doubt . . .

scol

. . . that Scolari’s not the man for this job. We are out of the title race and it’s February. He is in sackable form. If he is sacked, even he himself should not be surprised.

We’ve got to a point where it really does not make too much sense to discuss about the games in detail. It’s the same routine every single match. I had said in this blog before that we don’t play better or worse. We play the same way in every match. Which is why, this season, any opponent that shows more desire and determination than Chelsea is bound to get something from the match. We simply don’t raise our game. We don’t raise our game or react to situations. Chelsea players don’t feel insulted anymore if they concede. There is no urgency because there is no belief that urgency can help. The way I see it, all players as a team have come to the conclusion that they cannot win the title. It shows. And it’s worrying.

This match against Hull City started brightly. I even thought we were going to batter them. Quaresma was impressive. Bosingwa was disastrous. Anelka (premier league top scorer, my foot) was anonymous. Drogba was hopeless. Deco on the pitch is not so different from Deco on the bench. Mikel was tired, well the whole team was. Lampard and Kalou looked like they wanted to win this match. Hilario was always shaky and looked like a midfielder put on goal. Two positives – we did not lose and we did not concede from a set piece. Second half, Hull raised their game and we were just mediocre. Scolari got his substitutions yet again. Hull was growing in confidence. Getting past our defence was never that difficult for Hull. They must have scored. In fact, the chances created by them were closer than ours. Phil Brown says that he’s disappointed with a 0-0. Sad.

In just around six months time, Scolari has transformed Chelsea. The Chelsea I see now is an entirely different team. The football we play and the attitude we show on the pitch represents the No.7 to No.10 teams in the league. It is that bracket of No.7 to No.10, the objective is very simple. End up in the top half, you may not get Europe but just a top half finish. There is not a big difference between a No.7 or No.8 or No.9 or No.10. That’s how we play. We don’t seem to be too concerned about the table standings. I remember Essien scoring that extra time goal against Valencia at Mestalla in a champions league match and saying in the post-match interview “we deserved the three points”. It was a joke then that he said “three points” talking about a champions league match. But the thing is, everyone had the ‘three points’ mentality so very well etched in their minds.

Too many things have gone wrong under Scolari. I’m not even prepared to listen to his side of the story. In a sport where managers are judged by their results, he has failed. There is too much to see that helps me conclude that he has failed. He didn’t get the results, he has certainly not improved the way we play, he didn’t show any signs of developing any player and he hasn’t improved the team morale. That’s not the full list of negatives and I’m struggling to list the positives under his reign. Scolari has undone Chelsea.

I’m convinced that he should go. Most of us are with me. I think we could differ about the timing of his sack. Some say he should be out by now. Some say he should be sacked after this season. If you say his sacking now would impact the team morale and all that, I don’t the team morale any good as it is. I don’t see how it can go worse. We may not get an ideal replacement at this stage though unless we try to lure someone like Rijkaard. Whatever Chelsea FC does with Scolari, I’m only looking for a champions league spot now. And that’s under threat. Stop talking about Man Utd or Liverpool or even Villa. Let’s be No.1 among Arsenal, Everton and the like. The next time anyone from Chelsea FC talk about we being in the title race or showing confidence that we’d catch up Man Utd, I’m gonna scream.