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Chelsea Thread

Pretty clear that the Press have no idea what's happening!:


Jose Mourinho is prepared to return as Chelsea manager to succeed Avram Grant but only if he has complete control over football matters. (The Sun)
Mourinho also wants Chelsea's academy director Frank Arnesen to be sacked and wants to bring his old backroom staff back with him. (The Sun)
Mourinho has ruled himself out of a return to Chelsea because he wants the Inter Milan job, leaving Russia coach Guus Hiddink as the favourite. (The Guardian)
Hiddink's agent Cees van Nieuwenhuizen says the Dutchman will remain as Russia coach until the 2010 World Cup. (The Times)
Chelsea want a tough disciplinarian manager to replace Grant. (Various)
The Blues also want a boss who will discuss team tactics and player selection with club owner Roman Abramovich. (The Independent)
Chelsea have already spoken to former Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard about becoming their new boss. (Daily Star)


Blackburn boss Mark Hughes has the backing of Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon as the right man to be the next Chelsea boss. (Daily Telegraph)
The Blues could appoint Hughes and make Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola his assistant. (Daily Telegraph)
Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, Rijkaard, Inter Milan boss Roberto Mancini and Hiddink are also in the frame. (Telegraph)
As are Getafe coach Michael Laudrup and Croatia boss Slaven Bilic. (Telegraph)
Scolari and Hiddink are top of Chelsea's shortlist. (Daily Mirror)
Hughes, Scolari, ex-Italy coach Marcello Lippi and a Sven-Goran Eriksson-Mancini combination are high on Chelsea's wishlist. (Daily Express)
Mancini and Lippi are not serious contenders for the Stamford Bridge job. (Daily Star)
Avram Grant rejected the chance to return to his former post as Chelsea's director of football for a huge pay rise. (Daily Mirror)
Chelsea are in disarray because Grant refused his old job, forcing Abramovich to sack him and leaving the club desperate to find a new director of football. (Daily Express)
Grant pleaded to stay as manager during a two-and-a-half-hour meeting at Abramovich's mansion on Saturday. (The Sun)
Grant's meeting with Abramovich ended 'in a drink, a smile and a joke'. (Daily Mirror)
 
I hope not - The best team I ever saw at Stamford Bridge were funnily enough, his Lazio side. They were absolute quality with Veron running the show.

But I don't think he translates that well to our league. Motivating players is a massive factor here and as we saw from City's capitulation in 08, when the chips are down, he can't pick people up again.

We'd probably be excellent in Europe, but gash in the league - which I dont think is acceptable.
 
Hiddinks ruled himself out aswell. TB Fan who would you want as the manager since 2 have dropped out already?
 
To be honest, I see no evidence that Hiddink has ruled himself out. The BBC claim his agent said it but I don't see any quotes - just Legard saying Hiddink has no contract past the Euros. I don't think you can read anything into that, other than BBCs desperation to run a Chelsea Manager story.

I dunno who the other drop out is? If you mean Mancini, the story is he was rebuffed rather than the other way round. I think neither story carries any water.

I think whoever it is has already agreed to sign. If not, I doubt Grant would have been dismissed straight after the season end (although it has given most Chelsea supporters a massive lift!).

I still think it is most likely Hiddink, and that Ten Cate was brought in to do the brunt of the coaching. Having just signed Bosingwa, I think it's fair to say that someone is pulling the strings and while it may just be Arnesen, I have a feeling it's the new boss.

But I don't have a clue, and no one else appears to either!

**EDIT - Bookies favourite appears to be Rijkaard. Not who I'd want, but he did a decent job with Ten Cate.**
 
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I think there is a very small list and Lippi, Mancini, Rijkaard etc. aren't on it.

I think we're looking at either Hiddink or Mark Hughes. That's the impression I'm getting at the moment. I'd be happy with either.
 
Quite a good article - maybe a little more negative than the actual situation, but it would be nice to see us build some solid foundations for once.

Going for Hughes would be good move by Chelsea

So let’s get this straight. The new manager of Chelsea must be a strong man, capable of seizing back a dressing-room lost by Avram Grant. Yet he must also be malleable enough to accommodate the whims of the owner, Roman Abramovich.
He must be capable of producing football that will set the world alight while, at the same time, winning just about every game he contests. Two European Cups inside a decade, as Peter Kenyon once declared as Chelsea’s goal, even though it took Manchester United 40 years.
The new man must be strong-willed and determined but he must also be diplomatic enough to handle all the other courtiers, such as Frank Arnesen, who have their own hotline to the boss. And he must be more charismatic than Grant (which, admittedly, should not be difficult) without being so dangerous that he leaves a trail of destruction like José Mourinho.
Every club would love this man, whoever he is. The difference with Chelsea is that they believe he is out there waiting for the call. They believe that they can have it all because they are the richest club in the world. It is a presumption that is at the heart of everything at Stamford Bridge.
It is the same presumption that has Fernando Torres at the top of their summer shopping list, along with Kaká and Robinho, for whom it must be news that they are wasting their careers at AC Milan and Real Madrid respectively.
Strange. It was only a few weeks ago, in the days when Grant naively assumed that results alone would keep him in the job, that the former Chelsea first-team coach explained to a few of us over dinner how the club had adopted a long-term strategy, how they had flooded South America with scouts and how they were going to build a team for the future rather than just throw money at proven talent. This long-term strategy has lasted about six weeks.
You can write all this yet still, flying back from the Champions League final last week, a Chelsea fan perched in a neighbouring seat asked why the media seemed biased against his club, why he could detect a warmth towards Manchester United that would have been unthinkable five years ago. He wanted to know why millions of ABUs (Anyone But United) had morphed into ABCs.
He refused to accept then what can only be repeated now — that an air of entitlement emanates from the top at Chelsea that is all too readily peddled by employees such as Kenyon. It is the presumption that they will win several European Cups, that they will become the most powerful club in the world, that they can expect to buy Torres from Liverpool for £50 million.
There is nothing wrong with ambition or wealth, Chelsea cry. Which is true. But why add to the clutter of grasping, bullying, rapacious football clubs when Abramovich had the opportunity to create so much more?
On the pitch, they have bought some great players, contested some memorable matches, but the team would never be described as beautiful. Off it they have missed plenty of chances to blaze a trail, to be a force for good.
How uplifting it might have been, for example, had Chelsea turned over the front of their shirts to a charitable cause rather than helping Samsung to sell mobile phones. After all, what is another few million in debt? Instead it is Aston Villa who are about to show that there is more to football than just a balance sheet by carrying the name of a local hospice.
Chelsea will say that they do their bit for charitable causes, that they reach out into the community and that they are working towards long-term sustainability. It may even be true, but the whole construction is still built around the need for one man to clasp his hands to the European Cup, and we are not talking about John Terry.
The need to keep Abramovich interested in that quest before he starts spending even less time at football and even more with his girlfriend makes it likely that they will appoint an experienced foreign manager on a brief to bring the European Cup in double-quick time. Round up the usual suspects such as Luiz Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink.
But the interesting development at Stamford Bridge is the word of support, believed to be from Kenyon’s office, for Mark Hughes. He is no one’s idea of the finished article as a manager, not even close, but that may be exactly what is so attractive about him, particularly to Kenyon, whose job is to rid the world of ABCs.
To appoint a young British manager would show Chelsea trying to build something for themselves rather than taking short-cuts and paying through the nose for other clubs’ players or ideas. Given the respect for Hughes, his appointment might even buy Chelsea time with the media.
As manager of Wales, Hughes turned a team that had been an embarrassment and carried them to within a whisker of a leading tournament, losing only in a play-off for Euro 2004.
Three consecutive top-ten finishes at Blackburn Rovers, while snapping up shrewd bargains such as Benni McCarthy and Roque Santa Cruz, provide further evidence of real promise. Hughes would not be intimidated by working with big names, which is one of the concerns about David Moyes, his rival as the best of British.
The problem for Kenyon in selling the idea to the owner is less Hughes’s track record than the requirement to show patience to a manager who is still learning his trade.
Abramovich wants the European Cup in the same way he wanted the Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon paintings he purchased for £60 million earlier this month — not for the art, nor for the journey of discovery, but purely for the rush that comes with acquisition.
 
T Butcher fan said:
I think there is a very small list and Lippi, Mancini, Rijkaard etc. aren't on it.

I think we're looking at either Hiddink or Mark Hughes. That's the impression I'm getting at the moment. I'd be happy with either.
Click to expand...


I tend to agree with this. Hiddink and Hughes are within the disciplinarian mould. Mancini and Rijkaard certianly aren't. Imagine Hughes and Zola :))
 
Fantastic article Terry...the thing that appeal most to me would be that Chelsea appoint a young and rather inexperienced manager and give him time to build a team, i.e. trying to be a normal, old fashioned football club.

The writer asks himself if Abramovich will have the necessary patience.
I agree, but he might have written something about the necassary patience by the Chelsea fans too. Correct me if i am wrong, but i think quite a large part of the Chelsea fans want the CL as much as Abramovich...


edit 1: i prefer Moyes to Hughes (but who am i).

edit 2: fantastic songs prof, you guys should be proud...
 
gerd said:
Correct me if i am wrong, but i think quite a large part of the Chelsea fans want the CL as much as Abramovich...
Click to expand...

I don't think I can answer that 100% correctly, but most people I know would always put the Premiership above the Champions League.

It would be good to win it, specifically to get that Monkey off our backs. If the press say we're obsessed with winning it, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy because we want to win it to stop them saying it.

At the end of the day it is just a cup competition, and largely governed by luck. If you become obsessed with it, you're likely to be very disappointed. Being the Daddy at home is what the focus should always be.
 
we never know it could be Steve Clarke the coach... so as to tie him down to the club to ensure the spine remains intact?? I wouldn't mind Clarke becoming the coach... maybe zola could come into the fold maybe youth team??? and then progress to manager rein of Chelsea?? wild idea i know i can always dream right??
 
The more I think about it the more I'd like Hughesy. Not only is he ex-Chelsea (and a Chelsea supporter) but he'd be bringing Eddie and Hitchy back with him. Clarke would no doubt stay too, and I'm sure Franco wouldn't turn down the chance to join in. They're family - and in stark comparison to the money grabbers that are allegedly circling the gates (Rijkaard, SGE etc.)

My only confusion is that Ten Cate seems to be safe. Either the new manager wants to keep him (therefore unlikely to be Hughes) or we're about to let someone else go with a massive pay off. Wish I could work for Chelsea....
 
Mark Hughes would be a great choice IMO. just dont see it happening, Chelsea want instant success and with that im still sticking to Rijkaard.
 
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