[guillembalague.com]
When I took over as manager of Chelsea in September 2007, the club was in an unhealthy state: sixth in the Premier League, the team had stopped progressing and there was a negative atmosphere within and around the club.
To make matters worse, the image of the club and the team`s style of play was incredibly negative and, fundamentally, it meant that Chelsea football club had become universally respected, but not universally loved. I wanted to change all of that.
Right from the start I understood that this was not going to be easy. To begin with, there was a great deal of suspicion surrounding my appointment as manager: I had been chosen by one man only, the owner of the club, against the wishes of numerous others and that meant there were many who expected to see me fail. I was obviously going to have to prove myself and earn the trust of the players, the staff, the fans and the media.
Not only did I have to prove myself to critics within the club, it is also clear that - as any manager of Chelsea will tell you - the job entails something of a double edged sword: on the one hand you have it all in terms of finances and infrastructure, but on the other hand it means that expectations and envy comes with the job, and there are many outside of Stamford Bridge who are therefore hoping to see you fall flat on your face.
My goals were clear. It was unacceptable for a club to have invested the level of resources that Chelsea Football Club has, without ever having played in a Champions League Final - especially when we consider that much smaller clubs have achieved that goal in recent seasons. I therefore wanted our achievements on the pitch to reflect the huge financial investment that had been made in the club.
I believed that I also had to transform the public image of Chelsea and shake off the boring tag that the team had picked up in previous seasons. That meant introducing a positive playing style that would eventually become watched, enjoyed and admired by football fans all around the world. Playing quality, attractive football would address two of the problems at the club: on the one hand it would bring success, while on the other hand it would help the overall image of Chelsea FC and contribute towards making the club universally popular.
However, playing attractive, positive football would not solve the Chelsea’s image problems on its own and I was also aware that we needed to maintain a positive atmosphere around the entire football club, and not just on the field of play.
That meant, for example, getting rid of the underdog culture that had somehow become the norm and which, in turn, led to a very negative vibe. It also meant that the club had to learn to start dealing with issues in a more discreet manner and stop ‘airing its dirty laundry in public.’ Chelsea needed to learn that as an elite level football club, it is now very much in the public gaze and every minor dispute becomes a headline. We needed to start dealing with any problems or conflicts, no matter how trivial, behind closed doors.
I believed that, if we could start implementing the above, then there was no reason why we could not, one day, achieve my ultimate ambition for the club; which was to make Chelsea the most attractive, admired and successful football club in the world. That may sound hugely ambitious, but we were already one of the most lucrative and, with the resources behind us, the potential was limitless.
In fact, one of the few things that could stop us from achieving our goals was our own resistance to change. As I mentioned earlier, I understood that I was going to have to earn the trust and respect of many involved with the club and this was clearly going to take time. As the former American President Woodrow Wilson once said: “If you want to make enemies, try to change something”.
Charging around like a bull in a china shop was clearly not going to work and the best way to bring about the changes needed was going to have to be done gradually, over an extended period of time. If I was going to begin by telling everybody that they had to start doing things differently overnight, in their eyes I was effectively telling them that everything that they had done before had been wrong – and naturally that would have met with a great deal of resistance. So I created a slogan: “From the past to the future”.
That meant implementing change slowly, sowing the seeds of new ideas in the present while subtly transforming the ideas and habits people had previously learned – so that in the future everyone a the club would have developed a new way of thinking.
This would mean that, in the future, people were stakeholders in these new ideas and that the desire for change came, not as an instruction from the manager, but as something that people felt responsibility for themselves. People need to do things - and change things - because they believe it is the right thing to do, not because someone has ordered them to do it.
This involves creating a culture of positive independence where freedom of expression can flourish – which in consequence would contribute towards the greater creativity that would take the club forward both on and off the pitch. For example, in sporting terms - on the field of play and in training – this required making the shift from a dictatorial style of telling players exactly what to do in every situation, to encouraging them to think for themselves: to play with intelligence and to express themselves.
Where force and power are admired, English football has often been restricted by a culture of yelling and shouting at players, as a symbol of power, in order to get them to follow instructions to the letter.
However, I believe very strongly in introducing core values and principles to the players – on and off the pitch – that encourages an improvement in both playing style and results. I am convinced that players should be given freedom in a framework that encourages them to make decisions, the right decisions in a game, whatever the situation and level of pressure. I always told the players to ignore the millions of ‘football professors’ out there who, with the benefit of hindsight, will point out exactly what else they should have done in any given situation when something goes wrong.
Of course, this vision entailed a long term plan that would have to be introduced gradually and methodically, but this is the football industry we are talking about, where winning is everything and the coach is scrutinised and judged after every training session and result. Every reverse is pounced upon by the critics and, as I did not yet have the trust and support of everyone around me, this presented a serious challenge.
Nevertheless, I clearly I anticipated being in charge for much longer than I was, and as I instructed the staff at the time, many changes were to be introduced gradually, over a longer period of time. The first year was destined to be a transitional season and required that I make certain compromises to my long term plans in order to avoid too dramatic a shake up of the system.
I had planned to produce a handbook for the following season that would contain all of the disciplinary rules as well as core ideas about the way the game should be played – tactics, style, getting the most out of the players etc – the aim being to create a reference point for a core set of principles and values around which the future of the club could be built over the coming years. Continuity is the key to stability, and stability is the key to sustained success.
So, in footballing terms, how would these challenges be met? I envisioned that I wanted Chelsea, in the long term, to adhere to a 4-4-1-1 formation as a foundation for the Chelsea style. However, in the short term – taking in to account the personnel I had inherited – I frequently utilised a 4-3-3 with Ballack and Lampard as attacking midfielders; incidentally, many said that the pair could not complement each other like this, I feel they were ultimately proven wrong. We have a saying: I was trying to make a tastier omlette, while using the very same eggs.
From the outset, I wanted the team to play in an effective, yet eye catching way – with much less of a focus upon long passes, but always adaptable: for example, against Arsenal, I felt the long ball was a useful weapon to exploit against a side that struggled with this style of passing.
The focus in training was shifted towards a culture of thinking: with longer drills than the quick 10 minute drills the players were accustomed to. Short drills are useful to hit an idea home, I wanted the players to have the time to explore and develop alternative possibilities in longer practice drills. I also paid a great deal of attention to personal development of the individual and working at the player’s tactical awareness.
I also needed to assemble a staff around me that would match the philosophy. This meant having at least one senior British coach working with the players to provide a link with the past (from the past to the future), and a European coach for the implementation and introduction of new ideas, themes and values. Along with a new goal-keeping coach, I also wanted to recruit a new fitness coach with a strong scientific approach and an emphasis on load measurement.
An overhaul of the club’s scouting network was also necessary so that, over time, it nurtured and sustained the clubs core footballing philosophy and values.
Another important innovation – and another innovation that in a results business like football, few outside the club can see the benefit of – involved an overhaul of the medical staff, introducing an emphasis upon prevention rather than cure. I was delighted with the outcome of this approach as, in the second half of the season, as we became increasingly more pro-active rather than reactive, we suffered far fewer injuries than before. This was a drastic improvement upon the past, yet as with much of the long term work that is done, a somewhat thankless task as the results are largely ignored externally.
In terms of playing personnel, this involved a strategic plan to maximize the potential of all the players at our disposal and keeping them in peak condition throughout the campaign. Subsequently, I tried to adhere to a consistent and very solid Champions League line up (Cole at LB, Carvalho and Terry at CB, Essien at RB, Makele screening them, and Ballack and Lampard in front of him; Joe Cole out on the right and then Drogba as a striker with Malouda on the left away from home, or Kalou as a second striker at Stamford Bridge).
On the other hand, the team was rotated regularly throughout the league campaign in order for the group to maintain full fitness for the crucial end of season run-in, at which point the side would hopefully remain fixed. A different line-up altogether was required for the domestic cups.
So, what do I feel we achieved in my time in charge of the first team? Well, naturally, it is frustrating that the long terms goals were not given time to develop and flourish – but of course, that is the nature of modern football.
Nevertheless, as I said earlier, when I took over as first team coach, the results, atmosphere and image of the club had been suffering. By the time I left Chelsea, the atmosphere was considerably better than I had found it. I had wanted to make Chelsea more universally popular and I am pleased to say that people no longer complained about Chelsea being boring: the negative football tag had been shaken off.
The change in style had not only improved the club’s image, but it was also effective in terms of results. In the league, during my time in charge, we lost just twice: once to Arsenal and in my very first game in charge away at Manchester United, the eventual champions. In fact, Sir Alex Ferguson`s side were widely considered to have had a fantastic season, yet we pushed them all the way for the title, missing out by just two points at the climax.
I take great pride in the fact that all of this was achieved while having to cope with the loss of some key players to the African Cup of Nations and the loss of others to serious injuries. I also take great personal satisfaction in seeing how certain players developed - Shaun Wright Phillips grew in confidence and ability, flourishing in midfield – and it was enormously rewarding for the group to stake a claim on having achieved a club record nine game winning run.
I feel no bitterness toward Chelsea Football Club, despite some of the nonsense you may have heard or read, and I can honestly say that I still love Chelsea.
I had tremendously high ambitions for the club and gave it my all, working around the clock to try and achieve my dream of making Chelsea the most popular and successful football club in the world. We came within 10 centimetres of winning the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history and, had we done so we would have taken significant steps toward achieving those long term ambitions – and who knows, things may have turned out very differently…
Avram Grant
When I took over as manager of Chelsea in September 2007, the club was in an unhealthy state: sixth in the Premier League, the team had stopped progressing and there was a negative atmosphere within and around the club.
To make matters worse, the image of the club and the team`s style of play was incredibly negative and, fundamentally, it meant that Chelsea football club had become universally respected, but not universally loved. I wanted to change all of that.
Right from the start I understood that this was not going to be easy. To begin with, there was a great deal of suspicion surrounding my appointment as manager: I had been chosen by one man only, the owner of the club, against the wishes of numerous others and that meant there were many who expected to see me fail. I was obviously going to have to prove myself and earn the trust of the players, the staff, the fans and the media.
Not only did I have to prove myself to critics within the club, it is also clear that - as any manager of Chelsea will tell you - the job entails something of a double edged sword: on the one hand you have it all in terms of finances and infrastructure, but on the other hand it means that expectations and envy comes with the job, and there are many outside of Stamford Bridge who are therefore hoping to see you fall flat on your face.
My goals were clear. It was unacceptable for a club to have invested the level of resources that Chelsea Football Club has, without ever having played in a Champions League Final - especially when we consider that much smaller clubs have achieved that goal in recent seasons. I therefore wanted our achievements on the pitch to reflect the huge financial investment that had been made in the club.
I believed that I also had to transform the public image of Chelsea and shake off the boring tag that the team had picked up in previous seasons. That meant introducing a positive playing style that would eventually become watched, enjoyed and admired by football fans all around the world. Playing quality, attractive football would address two of the problems at the club: on the one hand it would bring success, while on the other hand it would help the overall image of Chelsea FC and contribute towards making the club universally popular.
However, playing attractive, positive football would not solve the Chelsea’s image problems on its own and I was also aware that we needed to maintain a positive atmosphere around the entire football club, and not just on the field of play.
That meant, for example, getting rid of the underdog culture that had somehow become the norm and which, in turn, led to a very negative vibe. It also meant that the club had to learn to start dealing with issues in a more discreet manner and stop ‘airing its dirty laundry in public.’ Chelsea needed to learn that as an elite level football club, it is now very much in the public gaze and every minor dispute becomes a headline. We needed to start dealing with any problems or conflicts, no matter how trivial, behind closed doors.
I believed that, if we could start implementing the above, then there was no reason why we could not, one day, achieve my ultimate ambition for the club; which was to make Chelsea the most attractive, admired and successful football club in the world. That may sound hugely ambitious, but we were already one of the most lucrative and, with the resources behind us, the potential was limitless.
In fact, one of the few things that could stop us from achieving our goals was our own resistance to change. As I mentioned earlier, I understood that I was going to have to earn the trust and respect of many involved with the club and this was clearly going to take time. As the former American President Woodrow Wilson once said: “If you want to make enemies, try to change something”.
Charging around like a bull in a china shop was clearly not going to work and the best way to bring about the changes needed was going to have to be done gradually, over an extended period of time. If I was going to begin by telling everybody that they had to start doing things differently overnight, in their eyes I was effectively telling them that everything that they had done before had been wrong – and naturally that would have met with a great deal of resistance. So I created a slogan: “From the past to the future”.
That meant implementing change slowly, sowing the seeds of new ideas in the present while subtly transforming the ideas and habits people had previously learned – so that in the future everyone a the club would have developed a new way of thinking.
This would mean that, in the future, people were stakeholders in these new ideas and that the desire for change came, not as an instruction from the manager, but as something that people felt responsibility for themselves. People need to do things - and change things - because they believe it is the right thing to do, not because someone has ordered them to do it.
This involves creating a culture of positive independence where freedom of expression can flourish – which in consequence would contribute towards the greater creativity that would take the club forward both on and off the pitch. For example, in sporting terms - on the field of play and in training – this required making the shift from a dictatorial style of telling players exactly what to do in every situation, to encouraging them to think for themselves: to play with intelligence and to express themselves.
Where force and power are admired, English football has often been restricted by a culture of yelling and shouting at players, as a symbol of power, in order to get them to follow instructions to the letter.
However, I believe very strongly in introducing core values and principles to the players – on and off the pitch – that encourages an improvement in both playing style and results. I am convinced that players should be given freedom in a framework that encourages them to make decisions, the right decisions in a game, whatever the situation and level of pressure. I always told the players to ignore the millions of ‘football professors’ out there who, with the benefit of hindsight, will point out exactly what else they should have done in any given situation when something goes wrong.
Of course, this vision entailed a long term plan that would have to be introduced gradually and methodically, but this is the football industry we are talking about, where winning is everything and the coach is scrutinised and judged after every training session and result. Every reverse is pounced upon by the critics and, as I did not yet have the trust and support of everyone around me, this presented a serious challenge.
Nevertheless, I clearly I anticipated being in charge for much longer than I was, and as I instructed the staff at the time, many changes were to be introduced gradually, over a longer period of time. The first year was destined to be a transitional season and required that I make certain compromises to my long term plans in order to avoid too dramatic a shake up of the system.
I had planned to produce a handbook for the following season that would contain all of the disciplinary rules as well as core ideas about the way the game should be played – tactics, style, getting the most out of the players etc – the aim being to create a reference point for a core set of principles and values around which the future of the club could be built over the coming years. Continuity is the key to stability, and stability is the key to sustained success.
So, in footballing terms, how would these challenges be met? I envisioned that I wanted Chelsea, in the long term, to adhere to a 4-4-1-1 formation as a foundation for the Chelsea style. However, in the short term – taking in to account the personnel I had inherited – I frequently utilised a 4-3-3 with Ballack and Lampard as attacking midfielders; incidentally, many said that the pair could not complement each other like this, I feel they were ultimately proven wrong. We have a saying: I was trying to make a tastier omlette, while using the very same eggs.
From the outset, I wanted the team to play in an effective, yet eye catching way – with much less of a focus upon long passes, but always adaptable: for example, against Arsenal, I felt the long ball was a useful weapon to exploit against a side that struggled with this style of passing.
The focus in training was shifted towards a culture of thinking: with longer drills than the quick 10 minute drills the players were accustomed to. Short drills are useful to hit an idea home, I wanted the players to have the time to explore and develop alternative possibilities in longer practice drills. I also paid a great deal of attention to personal development of the individual and working at the player’s tactical awareness.
I also needed to assemble a staff around me that would match the philosophy. This meant having at least one senior British coach working with the players to provide a link with the past (from the past to the future), and a European coach for the implementation and introduction of new ideas, themes and values. Along with a new goal-keeping coach, I also wanted to recruit a new fitness coach with a strong scientific approach and an emphasis on load measurement.
An overhaul of the club’s scouting network was also necessary so that, over time, it nurtured and sustained the clubs core footballing philosophy and values.
Another important innovation – and another innovation that in a results business like football, few outside the club can see the benefit of – involved an overhaul of the medical staff, introducing an emphasis upon prevention rather than cure. I was delighted with the outcome of this approach as, in the second half of the season, as we became increasingly more pro-active rather than reactive, we suffered far fewer injuries than before. This was a drastic improvement upon the past, yet as with much of the long term work that is done, a somewhat thankless task as the results are largely ignored externally.
In terms of playing personnel, this involved a strategic plan to maximize the potential of all the players at our disposal and keeping them in peak condition throughout the campaign. Subsequently, I tried to adhere to a consistent and very solid Champions League line up (Cole at LB, Carvalho and Terry at CB, Essien at RB, Makele screening them, and Ballack and Lampard in front of him; Joe Cole out on the right and then Drogba as a striker with Malouda on the left away from home, or Kalou as a second striker at Stamford Bridge).
On the other hand, the team was rotated regularly throughout the league campaign in order for the group to maintain full fitness for the crucial end of season run-in, at which point the side would hopefully remain fixed. A different line-up altogether was required for the domestic cups.
So, what do I feel we achieved in my time in charge of the first team? Well, naturally, it is frustrating that the long terms goals were not given time to develop and flourish – but of course, that is the nature of modern football.
Nevertheless, as I said earlier, when I took over as first team coach, the results, atmosphere and image of the club had been suffering. By the time I left Chelsea, the atmosphere was considerably better than I had found it. I had wanted to make Chelsea more universally popular and I am pleased to say that people no longer complained about Chelsea being boring: the negative football tag had been shaken off.
The change in style had not only improved the club’s image, but it was also effective in terms of results. In the league, during my time in charge, we lost just twice: once to Arsenal and in my very first game in charge away at Manchester United, the eventual champions. In fact, Sir Alex Ferguson`s side were widely considered to have had a fantastic season, yet we pushed them all the way for the title, missing out by just two points at the climax.
I take great pride in the fact that all of this was achieved while having to cope with the loss of some key players to the African Cup of Nations and the loss of others to serious injuries. I also take great personal satisfaction in seeing how certain players developed - Shaun Wright Phillips grew in confidence and ability, flourishing in midfield – and it was enormously rewarding for the group to stake a claim on having achieved a club record nine game winning run.
I feel no bitterness toward Chelsea Football Club, despite some of the nonsense you may have heard or read, and I can honestly say that I still love Chelsea.
I had tremendously high ambitions for the club and gave it my all, working around the clock to try and achieve my dream of making Chelsea the most popular and successful football club in the world. We came within 10 centimetres of winning the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history and, had we done so we would have taken significant steps toward achieving those long term ambitions – and who knows, things may have turned out very differently…
Avram Grant
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