In part one, I discussed how Barcelona have come to enjoy magnificent success due to their earlier relationship with Dutch footballing personalities, Chelsea are now enjoying the same relationship with Dutch football, through Piet de Visser and through Roman Abramovich. It was Piet de Visser that was responsible for the transfer of Arjen Robben from PSV to Chelsea, de Visser was also instrumental in planting the idea to build Chelsea’s state-of-the-art training complex in Cobham, Surrey in a bid to mimic the dutch philosophy of investing in youth. Another Dutch icon that is associated with Chelsea, but, with an association dating back before Roman Abramovich, no, not Winston Bogarde, Ruud Gullit.
Ruud Gullit as Chelsea manager attempted to create his own brand of football he called ‘sexy football’ at Chelsea, Ruud Gullit being Dutch and the power we’ve seen that Dutch coaches and players have had outside of their country on the footballing world was well placed to teach the footballing ideas he had learned here, what even makes Ruud Gullit even more interesting as a player is his involvement in another of history’s greatest footballing sides, Arrigo Saachi’s 90’s Milan team.
Arrigo Saachi an Italian was much like most of us reading this, an avid football fan, he wasn’t in the inner circle of the game, he didn’t play professionally, in fact he was a shoe salesman, a shoe salesman who decided at 26 to pack up everything he was doing and try to become a manager. Saachi had his own unique, innovative thought provoking ideas and they proved successful, he navigated his way from a shoe salesman to becoming A.C Milan manager, and it was as Milan manager that he decided he wanted to add a piece of Dutch Total football to his team, which saw him buy a trident of Dutch players that would go on to be the heart of another of the greatest sides in football. The 3 players were Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit, players that would go on to help Milan win two back to back successive European cups, a side that also included once defensive midfielder Carlo Ancelotti.
Carlo Ancelotti as AC Milan manager was very successful creating a special side with essentially three number 10’s in a narrow 4 man ‘diamond’ midfield, Ancelotti’s team was known for its fantastic style and he had led AC Milan to two European trophies. I think it’s been confused as to how much Roman Abramovich wants to create his own great footballing side, rather than just win the Champions League, if the Champions League was as imperative, surely he would have stuck with José Mourinho, but, as it was reported the football under José Mourinho isn’t in any way comparable with the great sides we have discussed.
In terms of development Chelsea can somewhat compare themselves to a situation Barcelona had been in. When Cruyff returned to Barcelona as a manager, Barcelona would go on to have their most successful period winning a host of trophies in a short period, Cruyff would be Barcelona’s most decorated manager, but, after falling out with chairman Josep Nunez, Cruyff and Barcelona had parted ways, a period of stability and a winning formula had come to an end, similar to Mourinho’s period at Chelsea. Barcelona would go on winning, but, cycled through managers whilst doing so in a more unstable period in terms of managers, similar to Chelsea right now.
Barcelona had become stale, a new Barcelona had been planned by incoming president Laporta, a component of Saachi’s Dutch Trident, Frank Rijkaard was hired as manager for the New Barca, Frank Rijkaard who had just been fired from relegating Sparta Rotterdam in Holland. Will Marco van Basten who had a bad experience at Ajax be hired as well? A major influx of players were brought in including Ronaldinho a Brazilain prodigy who played on the left side of an attacking three, can anyone say Neymar?? La Masia, Cobham. There are so many components to the story, I have talked about Barcelona and PSV without mentioning Bobby Robson, who went on to mentor, José Mourinho and Andre Villas Boas.
The main thing I wanted to illustrate are the foundations being laid under all of the higher level aspects that they want to criticise Chelsea for, currently Chelsea is intertwined with some of the world’s greatest footballing philosophies and it’s sure to bear fruit soon. Roman Abramovich is patient when it comes to that, all this illustrated by the new house he has recently built for himself at Cobham.
Zoffie, are you really Roman in disguise? You have created two fantastic articles, putting forward some excellent points in a logical and readable way.
These are possibly two of the finest articles on Roman’s work at Chelsea I have ever read (Keep up the good work!!).
It would be interesting to read your views in RA’s involvement in the changeover of managers, particularly the Ray Wilkins situation. Does he really give Ron Gourlay direction or is Gourlay (and the Board) operating without Roman’s influence?
Cheers dude, excellent articles, nice one! 🙂
The team to win the Champions League (maybe not next year, but soon thereafter) is:
Cech
van der Wiel/Ivanovic/Luiz/Bertrand
Dzagoev/Ramires/McEachran
Torres/Lukaka/Sturridge
Great articles!! Every chelsea fan should love roman. Without him we’re a middle of the table team….FACT
Fantastic article, Roman all the way, big ups writer
Zoffie, I agree with so much that you say due to it being mainly history and you cannot argue with fact. I do however find it strange that Chelsea only have two young Dutch players coming through their youth ranks of any note in Jeffrey Bruma and Pat Van Aanholt. Van Aanholt for me looks like the real deal but I am yet to be convinced by Bruma. Early days for the lad I know but I have seen both young English and foreign centre backs as good if not better than Bruma at this stage of his development. I feel the dirth of real world beating young talent coming out of Holland just now is clearly shown by Roman’s particular interest with young South American players over the last 18 months or so. You will correct me I am sure but I cannot think of a young Cruyff, Gullitt, Van Basten, Berkamp or Rijkaard (to name but a few), coming through just now.
The Dutch model has certainly been adopted by Roman but I question whether there is a current Dutch player with the exception of Sneider that Roman would even consider for this current Chelsea team. A debatable point I accept but one not too far from the truth in my humble opinion.
challenging for top four team actually unlike city……
Alan Frank, I’m a big fan of yours because you were at the heart of Total Football.
I watch a lot of youth football, there’s a tournament going on in Amsterdam right now.. you know the Copa Amsterdam for u19’s that we won last year.
You are right that there is a lul, when I was younger, I used to watch out for the Portugese & the Dutch youth teams, but this next generation aren’t a patch on the vDV era, in fact they are jealous of The talent coming through in Belgium.
I don’t think the idea is to get are own Cruyff, and if it is, I don’t think he’ll have to be particularly from Holland.
Are scouting hasn’t been Dutch focused, but we were interested in Mikel & then, when he played really well in the World Cup u17’s in Holland De Visser was there & is a huge reason why we pushed so hard to get him.
Kalou was bought because of his performances in Holland as well.
De Visser likes Brazilian talent. I guess if there was a super star dutch talent coming through we would snap him up, like we did when De Visser advised us to get Robben.
Zoffie, I have always been confused as to why these things happen but era’s of producing World class talent seem to come and go and no one can put that down to purely financial reasons. When I was in my early teens and out of the home nations Scotland had some of the finest players in Britain. Players like Ian Ure, Pat Crerand, Dennis Law, Jimmy Johnstone, Dave McKay, Ian White etc etc. Now one can look back and say that Scotland haven’t produced a World class quality player since Kenny Dalglish over 40 years ago. Why? The same basic stock is there. Likewise look at France now compared to 10/15 years ago or Italy. Holland are in the same position whilst Spain is thriving? I have never fully understood why this happens. I accept everything you say about the Dutch ethos when producing systems to develop young talent and I fully recognise how Roman has introduced this into Cobham. I think where Roman’s plan does fall down a bit is there doesn’t seem enough emphasis on employing ex players for lead coaching roles within the club. I watched Franco Zola’s under 17 Italian team win the World youth tournament 3 years ago where they beat Chile in the final. The squad he had assembled for the tournament were outstanding and he had them set up so well. Players like Zola, De Matteo, Poyet and maybe even Dennis Wise, I believe, should have been retained by the club in coaching capacities at the end of their careers. With the current Barcelona team at the height of their abilities which is going to continue for a few more seasons Roman is going to have to unearth a few absolute diamonds from somewhere to realistically compete with them. That starts, I believe with the Manager. It is the reason that I personally would like to see Guus Hiddink come in as Director of Football but with the fresh ideas and abilities of the young Villas Boas from Porto. Having been recognised as a 16 year old scout and tactician by Bobby Robson the guy is an absolute phenomenon. His current Porto side have been making history this last season and with his development of youth with an attacking game he would be an ideal young Manager with an older guiding influence in Hiddink for Roman to look toward. Whatever happens though, all Chelsea fans should be so grateful to have such an owner as Roman Abramovich. In all of my years of supporting Chelsea the Abramovich years have certainly been some of the most enjoyable. I just wish Peter Osgood and Charlie Cooke were around today in Chelsea blue.
Fantastic read, both parts. I notice that our links with Vietesse are being used to loan players to. I don’t know where Vietesse is located geographically in Holland but couldn’t we set up a branch of our academy out there to rival that of PSV and Ajax whom have great youth systems. Also, why don’t we use CSKA more. I mean, Roman has great ties with them, couldn’t we use them as a club to send young talent to for them to progress and even learn playing European football?? Also, I hear Barcelona have the best youth academy in South America. I hear its so far advance its better than any academy in Europe. Can’t we set up a similar system out there? I know we have scouts across the world, but if we have a system in Africa, South America and Europe then surely we will be primed to pick up the best young talent in the world, and then bring them to Cobham, like Barcelona do at La Masia. Also, the youth development depends on playing one system from youth to first team, like Barcelona, all the drills are the same, same tactics, same roles etc. I watch a few youth/reserve games and the way they play varies. If we are to create an identity then we we have to install it throughout the academy, say 4-3-3 with two wide men and one up top. Play this way, from u10s, so everyone knows how to play with each other so transition will be easy. Barca players do it so effortlessly. One thing though, we can’t expect results straight away, Barcelona had to wait 19 years to build the team they have now. We won the youth cup last year and all felt like we had achieved what Barca did – how many of that team got anywhere near the first team? Josh. And even then he plays a different role for the first team than that he has played all his life.
Also I agree, Holland’s youth are still coming through, but the real young talent is now coming through in the likes of Belgium, Serbia etc. These European countries have really invested in football development – especially in Eastern Europe. That is partly down to UEFA. I mean, there are a number of countries that always produce great talent – England being one of them. Brazil, Argentina, Holland, Italy, France etc and that is reflected in World Cup wins (obviously Holland haven’t actually won it). I know England have only won it once, but we always produce world-class players, our last squad that went to the WC failed miserably but on paper, it was one of the strongest 11s in world football. Now, investment in African, Eastern European and Asian football is seeing countries out there producing fantastic players. Look how many African players there are in the PremierLeague now. So, its not so much the dutch system but it shows that if you are committed enough then it can be done. Look at the Belgium team coming through, Lukaku, Dembele, Vetonghan, Hazard, Kompany, Vermaelan, Witsel, De Bruyne, Defour, Van Buyten etc. In my opinion, the problem is, that the likes of Holland and Belgium cannot compete domestically with Spain, England and Italy. I mean long gone are the days where Ajax and PSV were a force. Now, the big clubs swoop, take their biggest prospects – before they have properly developed and turn them into feeder clubs. Thats what UEFA FFP is trying to protect, teams like Ajax who are producing the top players in Europe benefit from actually being able to build a strong team and compete. Does this mean we should go after Van bastan, surely, other managers can come in and play good football, whats more important is getting someone in who is committed to introducing youth in over a period of 5 years.