With the way Chelsea finished last season, losing out to United in both the Premier League and the Champions League, you’d assume Scolari had a job on his hands as far as lifting the players’ spirits was concerned, but not so apparently. The mere arrival of the new manager seems to have done that in itself.
Hardly a surprise given the difference between the management offerings of last season, a season in which a manager perceived to be the dogs dangley bits was replaced by someone resembling a tenant from the local rest home. Still, taking that into consideration, along with Grant’s apparent oblivion when faced with a squad depleted by injury and ACON, and we didn’t do a bad job in the end. Okay, so we didn’t actually win anything and to my knowledge nobody’s started giving out trophies for second place yet, but we gave one of Manchester United’s better sides a good run for their money.
I mean, when you look at it, we had players like Cech, Carvalho, Ballack, and Drogba out for significant periods and when you count the spells missed by the captain as well, these are pretty influential players to have missing. Even Lampard, a player who’s previously prided himself on being an ever-present, had missed 14 games by the end of the season and Essien, as usual seemed to spend far too much of his time wasted at right-back.
So, it’s hardly surprising that with a new manager, the addition of a decent right back and the playmaker we seem to have been missing, optimism within the camp appears to be running high. Add to that Anelka finally locating the back of the net (in pre-season at least) and the possible addition of Robinho (let’s just forget all the nonsense about Kaka), and you wouldn’t blame anyone for getting a little excited about the coming season.
Not so for the new boss though, who in a pretty refreshing interview recently laid out some pretty realistic plans for the club. Flying totally in the face of Kenyon’s ‘global domination’, Scolari accepted it could take at least 50 years to achieve the sort of status enjoyed by Manchester United. I’m sure it didn’t please Gollum to hear Scolari say “Chelsea is a club that is a growing name. Before, it was Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Milan. If we win one or two big competitions, I’m sure we’ll have fans all over the world. Maybe it won’t be the same as Madrid, Manchester or AC Milan because our history is not the same and you don’t make a history in two, three or ten years. Maybe in 20 or 50 years, Chelsea will be on that level”, but at least he has enough bottle to be honest, unlike his predecessors.
Talking of his predecessors, Scolari, who clearly doesn’t appreciate the comparisons, stated “I am not José Mourinho, so why compare me with him? Mourinho says, ‘I will win ten championships.’ I don’t say, ‘I will win ten.’ I say, ‘I will try.’ I am from South Brazil. We’re different. I’ll say, ‘We will try to win all the competitions,’ but in my culture, I’ll never say, ‘I will win this, this or that.” Scolari goes on to say “I’m more modest. Maybe Mourinho says, ‘I win’, and afterwards if he does not win, it causes problems. Because the manager doesn’t play, it’s the players and if they make a mistake, you then have to say, ‘It is the players who are bad,’ and I will never do that. You are the man who must take the responsibility.”
Scolari will undoubtedly be very different to both of those before him and although you can’t take that much from pre-season games, what you can do is see the changes he’s implemented. He already seems to play, if not exactly the sexy Brazilian style his boss is reported to demand, then certainly something a lot more productive than we endured last season.
The Brazilian also suggests he doesn’t need the sort of funding TSO enjoyed, stating “Since I came to Chelsea we have only spent €10million [about £8million] for Deco. Maybe they spend more money before, but now they don’t spend the same because they already have a base. They need a coach to develop young players and I am that coach.”
And that has to be something both his players and his boss will be very happy to hear.
Blue is the colour
