Carlo Ancelotti was a happy man after yesterday’s second successive 6-0 and despite having previously suggested we shouldn’t expect that amount of goals every week, the Chelsea boss recognises the benefits we’re reaping from our counter-attacking football.
After the game, Ancelotti stated “There is a different mentality. I think that Wigan tried to come back into the match in the second half, there was more space for our strikers and we are doing very well in counter-attack now. It was a tough game. We had a lot of difficulty in the first half, Wigan played very well. Maybe they used a lot of energy in the first half and the second half was easier for us. The second half was very good, but in the first half, the match was open.”
The Chelsea manager was also quick to praise the players for the desire and commitment they’ve shown on their return from the World Cup, but then he doesn’t hold back when it comes to bigging people up because in his new autobiography, it’s clear he has a lot of admiration for those around him at Chelsea.
Whilst everything we read about John Terry last season suggested he was a womanising arsehole with more consideration for his bank account and what (or who) is in his trouser’s than events at Stamford Bridge, Carlo Ancelotti paints a very different picture of him, saying “John Terry is the captain of all team captains, he was born with the captain’s armband on his arm. Even without the band, it’s as if he wears it anyway, and that’s how it ought to be.” Can’t imagine what he means but I’m sure Fabio could shed some light on that one.
Ancelotti goes on “He’s different from all the others, Chelsea is his home, it always has been, ever since the youth squad. One word from him, and the locker room holds its breath. He’s the first one to sit down at meals, the first one to stand up. Being part of this club is his mission, that’s how he was made. He pays close attention to the performances of the youth team, he keeps up, he knows all the scores, he misses nothing (although he often loses at ping-pong in the dining room – and when that happens, watch out). He works twice as hard as everyone else, he has the sense of responsibility of someone who runs a company, a people, a philosophy that above all has to win. There is no room for second place; there can only be room for us.”
Ray Wilkins is another one singled out for praise, with Ancelotti saying “One of the reasons I fit into the locker room was thanks to the fundamental role played by Ray Wilkins, my number two and my friend. It’s one thing to translate words – plenty of people can do that – but translating feelings is the gift of only a select few. Ray is one of those select few, always present, noble in spirit, a real blue-blood, Chelsea flows in his veins. His heart beats in two languages, and that helped me. Without him, we couldn’t have won a thing, and in particular we would not have started the year at supersonic speed.”
Reflecting on a time when things weren’t going so well last season and could have got a lot worse, Ancelotti talks about the training ground meeting that turned our season around, stating “We did our calculations right after we were catapulted out of the Champions League by Inter, at a moment in the season that was so precarious it could easily have slid into disaster. In the past, Chelsea had always had a hard time recovering from roundhouse punches like that, so the day after our defeat we all gathered in the locker room of our training grounds in Cobham. The venerable old men all spoke – Terry, (Didier) Drogba, (Petr) Cech, and (Frank) Lampard (another magnificent example of English leadership – when I see him on the field, it makes me happy). I was proud of us in that twenty minutes, we understood that we had lost a great deal but that we could win much, much more. I was very clear in what I had to say: ‘The Premiership and the FA Cup are still ours for the taking. Only six teams have managed to pull off a double in 140 years, but it’s our turn now’.”
And on the game he sees as the key to our title win, or at least the opposition manager’s ungracious behavior in defeat afterwards, Carlo says “Our success at Old Trafford was the one that got us the League title, even though in the end Ray Wilkins and I were forced to drink to our victory alone. As is the tradition, a few minutes after the final whistle we went to Sir Alex’s room to drink the usual glass of wine. We walked in, and silence reigned. He sat there staring at a television screen; the set was tuned to a horse race, his greatest love. We were strictly relegated to the background, to some place beyond and behind the background. We stood awkwardly for a while without saying a word, uncertain what to do, and finally did what we had come to do. We drank a glass of wine, to our own health. Bye-bye. Even though I won the three games I played against him that season, I still consider Ferguson to be a master of soccer, an example I have always looked up to, in some ways, unattainable. (Unattainable in the sense that I don’t have a passion for racehorses).”
So having lost to Manchester United in this year’s Community Shield, and worse still, deserving to have lost, it’s little wonder Carlo Ancelotti is happy that yet again, his side have recovered from defeat and come out fighting!
Blue is the colour
