Villas Boas (EX) Chelsea manager

[Mostar]

From the Independent

AVB has a worse record than Scolari before he got the boot

Sickening to see that even this article has to involve us in some way, shape or form...

[dww]

I honestly don't think he'll make it to the end of the season, they've spent a lot of money as you've said and really the only one that has looked decent from them is Mata.

They needed to get in Cahill in the summer and add another CM then. Without time to bed players in the transition from the old style to the new, along with resistant/ill suited older players, it was always going to be a transitional season for them. I think if he gets another season he'll be a big success. I'm doubtful that he will get it though.

[Chazza]

Sam Wallace @SamWallaceIndy
Gazzetta quoting Pinto da Costa today saying AVB could go to Inter. He would certainly be emulating Mourinho. Just without the 2 PL titles

[Chazza]

From the Independent

AVB has a worse record than Scolari before he got the boot

James Lawton: Patience may not be a virtue this time, Roman – Andre Villas-Boas looks all at sea

Abramovich's visits to training reinforce the idea of a coach feeling pressure from above and below

One day it might just dawn on the man who started off making plastic ducks in a Moscow apartment block. In some ways winning in football is not too dissimilar from becoming one of the richest men in the world. A lot of it has to do with timing, knowing when to hold the cards and when to toss them aside.

The least disposable of all those Roman Abramovich has strewn so impatiently across the table at Stamford Bridge was Jose Mourinho.

Carlo Ancelotti was certainly worth a second look, especially when you measured his track record and general knowledge of the game against the tyro who was being fitted for his shoes, and even the oligarch grasped the value of Guus Hiddink.

But Andre Villas-Boas, what does he do with him?

It's getting near impossible to believe that he shouldn't junk all the free advice he has been given down the years, all those solemn reminders that every story of significant success in football can be traced to the moment a club identified outstanding quality in their hired professional and pledged their long-term support.

However, the boy prodigy from Portugal is surely pushing this impeccable theory to breaking point.

He has now been in office at Chelsea for almost precisely the time Luiz Felipe Scolari, a World Cup-winning coach of huge experience, took to persuade Abramovich that he was an expensive mistake.

As it happened, Scolari's record was rather better than the one Villas-Boas now boasts, 20 wins in 36 games against 18 in 36, a winning percentage of 55 per cent against 50.

Unfortunately for Scolari, the owner of vast mineral rights in Mother Russia was never going to be assuaged by such piffling data.

He wants swift evidence of a winning dynamism and, if Scolari had a slight edge over Villas-Boas in the win and loss column, he was just as quick as his young successor in turning the dressing room from a happy home of millionaire brothers-in-arms into a hot bed of rebellion.

Villas-Boas's decision to haul in his players for Sunday training after the dispiriting weekend defeat at Everton might have made more sense if his relationship with the squad had not already appeared quite so fragile.

Abramovich's increasingly frequent visits to the club's training ground can only reinforce the idea of a coach feeling the pressure from both above and below his precarious position at a club which is not so much underperforming as threatening to fall through the floor.

If it is true, as the vibes increasingly suggest, that disaffection with Villas-Boas has reached a point where the resentment of some players is being replaced by something uncomfortably close to outright pity for a man out of his depth, each new visit from the owner must bring a new pang of dread.

It is a chill even such an iconic figure as Kenny Dalglish must have felt at his troubled weekend when the word came from across the Atlantic that, if Liverpool have largely absent landlords, they are still very much aware of the rise and fall of the club's corporate image.

In this case, an editorial lecture from the New York Times on the need to clean up Liverpool's profile to the point where it might sit more comfortably with that of their stablemates, the Boston Red Sox baseball team, was surely as threatening to Dalglish's peace of mind as the latest evidence that the signings of Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing are beginning to resemble some of the last words in football inflation.

Dalglish at least has the underpinning of the Liverpool support, a luxury that Villas-Boas can only envy as he sees – and hears – large sections of Stamford Bridge withdrawing a benefit of the doubt that was hardly overwhelming from the start.

His tendency to hit the wrong note is a weakness that leaves him a little more vulnerable with each disappointing result.

When Ancelotti suffered a reverse his touch was infinitely more relaxing. After one defeat at Wigan Athletic the man who won the Double at the first time of asking was at his most disarming. "The big secret," he declared, "at times like this is not to make a drama of a single defeat. You have to remind the players of who they were a few hours ago ... you have to remind them that even the greatest teams sometimes have to lose." At such times Ancelotti drew the benefit of a great playing career.

Villas-Boas, of course, never played the game professionally. Nor did his mentor Mourinho, it is true, but then Mourinho is a genius who makes his own rules and creates his own experience.

Certainly, for Villas-Boas the brilliant momentum he achieved at Porto has at times appeared to be no adequate substitute for the kind of understanding an Ancelotti might have brought to the feelings of his players at some of the rougher passages of Chelsea's season.

The idea that players should involve the coaching staff in their goal celebrations seemed like nothing so much as an invitation to rejection. Players, inevitably, live in their own closed worlds, and at certain times outsiders – even if they happen to be coaches of impressive pedigree – only intrude at their peril.

There are other and perhaps more substantial issues, the tactical confusion, the persistence with the agonised Fernando Torres, the strange exile of new signing Gary Cahill, the disconcerting level of Jose Bosingwa's current form, and the sense of Daniel Sturridge's growing dissatisfaction with his banishment to wide positions. None of these is a portent of any early breakthrough.

Abramovich may growl that whatever he does he is damned. He may also count up the occasions he has been urged to be patient. Better, though, to remember that mere time is never an asset if you've neglected to put the ducks in a nice, coherent row.

[Craig_H]

He keeps playing a 433 and getting overrun in midfield. It doesn't work and it wont work the players he has but he doesnt seem to have any other system he knows

I love it. Previously he had the problem of his defence holding too high a line and being caught out time and time again - he eventually caved in and changed it, only for a newer and more serious problem to occur

[-V-]

And by players he has I mean a Striker who cant score to save himself. They lose the midfield battle and therefore need to outscore opponents

[Imy]

Being undermined by both senior players and senior ownership does not help him.

If he does make it to the summer he needs to clear out the senior players like Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Torres etc. He needs players that'll play for him, players that he chooses (like Meireles and Mata).

Can't see it happening though, the Chelsea fans would be up in arms if Terry and Lampard were both sold.

[-V-]

He keeps playing a 433 and getting overrun in midfield. It doesn't work and it wont work the players he has but he doesnt seem to have any other system he knows

[RichC]

I honestly don't think he'll make it to the end of the season, they've spent a lot of money as you've said and really the only one that has looked decent from them is Mata.

[Chris]

We seem to get loads of grief for what we've spent but they must have spent about £100m net in the last 13 months and seem to be getting worse and worse.

He does seem a bit clueless, they are afterall a team who finished second last season and while their squad does need a lot of work I dont think he's getting anywhere near as much out of it as he should, even the games they win they dont really deserve to like at Wolves and home to Sunderland.

Think he'll be gone in the summer unless something special happens in the CL, you never know I suppose, Napoli have been utterly dismal this season so they could get through that, draw the winners of Lyon/Apoel and they are suddenly in the semi finals. They'd obviously get walloped by Barca or Real but he might get enough of a run to save himself, cant see it though.

[Skrtelmania]

The court case has finished which is why Roman has been down to the training ground peering over the managers shoulder.

Apparently there was a bust up on the day after the Everton defeat, AVB had a go at the players and they had a go right back at him .

You just know Roman wants to be manger, I'd ****ing love that to happen. If you want a job doing etc...

[Phoenix07]

Abramovich is also involved in a court case at the moment and may be getting away from it all. Unluckily for Villas Boas, it happens to be when Chelsea's form has been indifferent.

[Alex]

So....

Are we glad we stuck with Kenny?

I feel a bit relieved we didn't go for the flavour of the month. It seems like he's been a bit undermined by the CFC establishment.

I don't think he is as bad as he looks. He is stuck with a load of players (Lampard/Bosingwa/Drogba/Terry/Cole/Malouda) that are getting on, and hung over still from the Jose era still. They seem resistant to change, and if reports are to be believed, they seem to be briefing against him about not being fussed if he is sacked.

Maybe the job came too early, and he just isnt old enough to command respect among the senior members of the squad (I would have said pros. But there is no way Im calling Terry a pro)

Speaking to a mate of mine who supports Chelsea he seems to think the writing is on the wall for him though. Especially as Roman has been to 5 out of 6 training sessions last week.

Feel sorry for him really, as the media seem to hate him too now. Constantly comparing him to Mourinhio is a joke.

[Bender]

It was revealed today that sacking Ancelotti, who got them finishing second, and hiring AVB keeping them just within CL so far cost Chelsea 27m pounds

abramovich has spent over £1billion on chelsea

[Daniel 7]

So....

Are we glad we stuck with Kenny?

I feel a bit relieved we didn't go for the flavour of the month. It seems like he's been a bit undermined by the CFC establishment.