Villas Boas (EX) Chelsea manager

[peekay]

Abramovich has created a situation where the players can bypass the manager and complain directly to him. It started with Mourinho, continued with Scolari and now with AVB.

At no point should this be allowed at any club ( unless the manager is Roy Hodgson). This is an unhealthy environment and if Abramovich has any sense he will sell all the trouble makers and start afresh.

In the short term there maybe issues but it will be better for them in the long term. I cannot see any young upcoming manager willing to move to Chelsea now after the treatment AVB has received.

[Tee]

They really need someone English in charge with over 30 years experience.........

[Lee]

We need to take advantage of Chelsea and Arsenal's poor form at the moment and really push on for that 4th spot..

It's there for the taking..

Our inability to capitalise on how **** they both are is incredibly annoying.

[dom9]

I think I'd take Hiddink in the Summer if Kenny had to leave.

[Nick77]

We need to take advantage of Chelsea and Arsenal's poor form at the moment and really push on for that 4th spot..

It's there for the taking..

Manure were there for the taking & look what happened, we bent over for them...

[Shanks]

We need to take advantage of Chelsea and Arsenal's poor form at the moment and really push on for that 4th spot..

It's there for the taking..

[Vermilion]

This all sounds so very reminiscent of when the press had the knives out for Rafa towards the end of his time here.

Ok i know it's Chavski, no sympathy there believe me, but it's just the way the media go about their work that irks, constantly chipping away with rumours, day in. day out.

Players acting up because they think they know better! having never, ever, managed themselves.

Like vultures picking away at a dying man.

How the hell would Fergie have coped starting out in todays game, not much better i'd wager!

[Chazza]

Chelsea stars say 'get Guus *Hiddink in now'

Senior Chelsea players want Guus *Hiddink to return to Stamford Bridge as manager and save the club's season.

Standard Sport understands some of the squad have lost faith with boss Andre Villas-Boas and believe only *Hiddink can turn their campaign around.

Chelsea have slumped to fifth in the Premier League after winning just two of their last 10 matches and face vital games in the next week against Birmingham in the FA Cup fifth round and away to Napoli in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie.

Villas-Boas is under huge pressure and while the club publicly insist his position is not in jeopardy, owner Roman Abramovich's patience appears to be running out.

Villas-Boas's tactics were questioned by some senior players during a stormy meeting at the training ground on Sunday, which Abramovich attended, after Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Everton.
Abramovich hired Hiddink three years ago this month after losing faith in Luiz Felipe Scolari.

As is the case now, the club's place in the top four was at risk but Hiddink guided them to third in the League, as well as the Champions League semi-final and won the FA Cup after beating Everton at Wembley and many of the players wanted him to stay.

However, he was also in charge of Russia's World Cup qualifying *campaign and went back to that job full-time.

The relationship he forged with the squad has never been forgotten and there are individuals who want *Abramovich to re-hire him.

However, the billionaire faces major competition for his services should he sack Villas-Boas and attempt to put the Dutchman in charge.

The 65-year-old is available, having resigned as Turkey coach in November after failing to secure qualification for Euro 2012.

But it is understood he wants his next job to be a permanent role and wealthy Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala as well as PSV Eindhoven, who he has managed twice before, are interested in him.
His representative Cees van Nieuwenhuizen is refusing to confirm whether Hiddink would be keen on returning to Stamford Bridge.

He said: "I know they are not doing too well at the moment but Guus never puts himself in a position that he says he is interested in whatever job if there is still a coach who is doing the job. For him, that's not the way to treat your colleagues."

Hiddink appeared to be in the running for the job after Carlo Ancelotti was fired last summer only for Chelsea to surprisingly choose Villas-Boas.

The 34-year-old was given the tough task of trying to rejuvenate an ageing squad and his man-management skills have caused problems in the dressing room, particularly in the manner Alex and Nicolas Anelka were treated before they were sold last month.

Yesterday, Porto president Pinto da Costa claimed
his reign is being undermined because players were still in contact with former boss Jose Mourinho.

Standard Sport revealed last week how Abramovich's relationship with the former Chelsea boss has also improved in recent months amid speculation he wants to leave Real Madrid and return to England
in the summer.

Abramovich wanted to give Villas‑Boas as much time as possible to turn results around, yet the next two games could have a huge impact on his future.

Statistically, he is the worst manager of the Abramovich era as Chelsea have won just 48 per cent of their League games. Significantly Hiddink, albeit over just three months, has the best record of the club's seven bosses since 2003 with a winning percentage of nearly 85 per cent.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...dink-in-now.do

[lickedlollipop]

^^

best solution, IMO

[Alex]

Sounds to me that AVB will be staying and there will be a fair few older players shipped out in the summer.

[Shaggy]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/feb/13/chelsea-players-andre-villas-boas-row

Chelsea players confront André Villas-Boas in training-ground row

• Club tensions mounting following 2-0 defeat at Everton
• Owner Roman Abramovich at Cobham on day of row

David Hytner
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 February 2012 22.59 GMT
Article history

André Villas-Boas sparked a blazing row with some of his senior Chelsea players on Sunday after calling the squad in on their day off to vent his anger over the 2-0 defeat at Everton. The manager tore into his players, who had pockmarked their display with sloppy errors, but he found that some of them gave back as good as they got. In the blow-up, they told him exactly what they thought of him and his tactics, to lay bare the tensions at the club.

Villas-Boas believes that he has the support of the owner, Roman Abramovich, who was also present at the training ground on Sunday. Abramovich's focus is no longer consumed by his $5bn (£3.2bn) litigation battle with Boris Berezovsky – the high court hearing ended on 19 January and Mrs Justice Gloster is in the throes of writing her judgment – and he has been a regular at Cobham since the Saturday before last which, inevitably, has heightened the pressure on Villas-Boas. Abramovich, though, does not want to sack the young Portuguese, having taken the decision on his own to appoint him as the successor to Carlo Ancelotti last summer, and he shared in the manager's frustrations with the players.

The defeat at Goodison Park, which exacerbated the club's Premier League slump and dropped them out of the Champions League places, was, by common consent, the team's worst performance of a season that has seen them fail to compete for the title. They lag 17 points behind the league leaders Manchester City.

A big part of Villas-Boas's brief is to rejuvenate the Chelsea squad, to assimilate talented young players while still competing for silverware. He has maintained that a club of Chelsea's stature cannot tolerate mere transition. But, inevitably, he has found himself unpopular with the older guard, whom he feels he must phase out.

He caused a stir with his man-management when he banished Nicolas Anelka and Alex to train with the reserves, after they had requested transfers in December; the popular pair departed in January for Shanghai Shenhua and Paris St-Germain respectively. Villas-Boas has also clashed with Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba while even the high-profile January signing, Gary Cahill, has been left bewildered at his treatment. He has played only once in his five weeks at the club.

Chelsea's hopes of a trophy have come to rest on the FA Cup and Champions League – the latter is the one that Abramovich covets above all others – and their next two fixtures are in those competitions. They play Birmingham City in the FA Cup fifth round at Stamford Bridge on Saturday before they travel to Napoli for the Champions League last-16 first-leg next Tuesday. The captain, John Terry, hopes to return from a knee injury to face Birmingham, while Drogba and Salomon Kalou are due back on Wednesday from the Africa Cup of Nations.

The pressure in each tie will be intense, with the resentment towards Villas-Boas in some quarters adding further spice. Villas-Boas's assistant, Roberto Di Matteo, is also under scrutiny, with Abramovich picking up on the feeling during his visits to the training ground that the former Italy international is unpopular with the players. Abramovich turned to Villas-Boas after dismissing Ancelotti at the end of last season following, coincidentally, a Premier League defeat at Everton, having been impressed at how the 34-year-old won the treble of league, cup and Europa League with Porto. He is desperate for Villas-Boas to succeed, not least as firing him would call into question the wisdom of investing such faith in a talent without an extensive track record.

It is never prudent, though, to second-guess Abramovich, who has sacked five managers during his eight-and-a-half-year stewardship of the club. He dismissed Luiz Felipe Scolari in February 2009 when the club's membership of the Premier League's top four was in jeopardy. Villas-Boas is acutely aware of the need to qualify for next season's Champions League.

The fallout from Everton in the Chelsea dressing room also featured a candid assessment from the goalkeeper Petr Cech. "When you lose a game 2-0 and you are Chelsea football club, playing for the Champions League and with big expectations, losing is not good enough and the performance was not good enough. That's why we lost.

"We took so many passes side to side and we never really opened them up. In the second half, we tried to play more direct but they were fighting well and kept organised, and 1-0 up so early became so much more difficult to break."

[Mostar]

He's a prick and I don't like him at all but for us it would be the best if he stays until the season is over.

If they sack him now a new manager may be able to temporarily change the momentum and get more out of them than he did so far.

[Phoenix07]

Inevitable Guus Hiddink links again. No surprise.

[lfcred]

Yeh totally agree! He didn't have a full summer to build his own squad, and never got any players in that he actually wanted. But will he ever get the chance to bring in the players he wants? The guy they have brought from genk was according to AVB a 'club signing', that insinuated that he didn't really know anything about it! If chelsea carry on working like that they wont see much success!

[ric.williams]

he inherited a squad that was well past its prime with way too many egos. they'd be better sticking with him and let him rebuild