Andre Villas-Boas Strikes Back

I love it and do actually think it’s necessary. With all the shit that’s been printed over the years about “player power” etc. at Chelsea, I think it’s ok for the manager to respond in such a way to a question about the topic.

Lay down the law. He’s the boss; not the players. If they want to be little Tevez bitches, then off with their heads. We’ll find others, betters.

"Two players have already departed, and further will depart in the future and wont make part of the project: which more or less they expect. But this is the reality of any football team."

If AVB wants to be the Darth Vader to RA’s Emperor, I’m quite alright with that.

Speaking to the press is like throwing a rock into a pond, it can create a lot of ripples. I hope, for AVB’s sake anyway, that he has read Roman correctly. If not, he’s done himself in with these comments.

morinho would have done the same to stamp his feet. It is my way or no other way kind of,just like mancini is doing with tevez right now. Players power (forming a cabal kind of) must be broken,they can’t always hold us to ransom (legends or not).
We want new legs and fresh blood with sharp minds that will give us good and beautiful football. We want to see goals and shouts likewise. We have lost respect to smaller clubs and we keep playing draws or lose. Enough of bull s**t from the players.

Was well known for going after the press and trolling them in Portugal. I think that might be all he knows.

I do think that AVB doesn’t have the peices he needs to make the team work in the way he wants to right now. That isn’t his fault. I actually don’t think we are all that different from Arsenal (in terms of quality of player and fitting into the system, not everything else) right now. After watching them play Milan, they didn’t look so different than we did against Everton. Look, everyone likes to make fun of Wenger, but the guy can win. Arsenal just don’t have the players to do it right now. I don’t think Chelsea do either.

Player power has removed many a manger. Player power hasn’t delivered a Champions League victory. Roman might have figured out that his itchy trigger finger may have created a monster that needs to be stopped.

I’m not happy with the way the team is playing. I don’t think anyone is. Over at Chelseablog I was very vocal about removing managers when things were going wrong. I wanted both Scolari and The Toad out. When everyone starts complaining that the players aren’t giving enough effort… that means the manager needs to go.

Yet, with AVB I’m not sure that it means he has to leave. The facts are different, the spine of the team is old. If this team isn’t going to be a flash in the pan they are going to have to make the transition from one generation to the next. That happens now. AVB has shown he can win. At this point I want the team to make it to 4th place, and I want the young’uns to develop, and I want Josh to be amazing for Swansea. Then I want a cleanout in the summer. Drogs is gone. Lamps and Terry seriously consider their futures. Ash might be gone. We find a replacement for the Boss. Maybe Torres goes if we can get money for him.

We get a team that wants to play AVB’s system with a high line, and we go from there. Until that point it is going to be ugly. At least the Mancs can’t win the CL, and the wrong Mancs won’t win the league.

This would certainly disrupt the team & the harmony & all that. But this looks like the strongest statement AVB could make to assert his authority to team. If he has full backing of RA (provided min qualification to stay in job is 4th place at least) & if the players are aware of this fact; they will know that it’s either AVB’s way or highway.

I see a few players (who are either misfit for AVB or for those who are creating nuisance against AVB) to be exiled in Siberia soon. While I am not the biggest fan of AVB, I am sure he is smart enough not to challenge a boss as powerful as RA in early stages of his managerial career – while his team is on the brink of disaster.

in his abilities, but can you honestly critisize players for questioning his decisions when you see what he’s done with Cahill? This guy has got to be pissed. It’s not like AVB inheirited Cahill. He went out and got him a few weeks ago and promptly sat him in the stands. Then he moves to the bench and stays there when Terry gets injured! This guy played every minute for Bolton and broke into the England squad with the Euros only a few months away. He’s got to feel like he is losing his newly attained spot as a starting CD for England. He could have stayed where he was and been free to sign with anyone in July. I’m quite sure AVB didn’t mention to Cahill that if he signed with Chelsea he’d be shinning the bench with his ass for the remainder of the season unless both Terry and Luiz go down with injuries. It’s things like this that cause problems in the locker room and it is a sign of bad management. It’s one thing if he’s not getting it done on the pitch, but he’s played 1 game and hasn’t even subbed in the others.

I am well versed in the ways of a false prophet as I have a very good memory of one Scolari who came with talks of philosophy and revolution and tactics and all and we know where he ended up. I am not a coach but I have been tearing my hair out since his inception at the decisions he made and continues to make. He comes in and we all know about the player power and the fact that he is young, so we were all expecting some whole-sale changes to the team. But he wants to have a period of assessment. You will always struggle with players close to your age, and it was well discussed, but he did not jetison them he kept them, then he played Bosingwa instead of Ivanovic at RB, then he preffered Meireles to our greatest asset Lampard. Then after discovering the talent of Romeu, he proceeds to bench him to jolt his confidence. His substitutions have been awful and the high line experiment, made us have the leakiest defense from the meanest defense the season before. He is in trouble, he is out of his depth, and the players know it.

I dont see how struggling to get champions league football and playing the same team every week is much of a project. It’s not as if he has introduced loads of youth either!

I’ve just seen this one:

“If the players want to be part of this club’s future, they have to support the project with their performances,” Villas-Boas said. "If some of them don’t support me, that’s normal.

“Two players have already left and there will be further departures in the future. Contracts will have to be addressed and changes will be made. We have to defend the Chelsea badge, because they don’t pay us to be a failure and everybody understands the demands to be successful at this club.

“You don’t contemplate rewarding people who under-perform in any football team and our objective now is to get the best possible position in the Premier League and continue to fight for two trophies. In the situation we are in, we have to demand we do a lot better. We really need some results to put us back on track.”

I hope he knows what he’s doing.

Roman has my back, so get on board or you’ll be shipped off to Siberia. No one is

do we consider a loan deal for him since he is not quite ready for the hit man job in front of goal?
AVB should be left to complete the purging that we need in chelsea and lead us to a new dawn of football. I also think the coach needs to be more careful with the selections he makes and his substitution,he kills games sometimes with his wrong substitute.*

*I guess many coaches falls victim of this too.