Former Chelsea managers Carlo Ancelotti and Ruud Gullit have recently spoken out in support of Andre Villas-Boas, who has come under fire following a poor run of results at Stamford Bridge.
Both Ancelotti and Gullit insist that the players are to blame and not the manager, which is a view that many fans and pundits have also argued. For a number of years the Blues have been labelled ‘too old’, but whilst managers have been and gone the squad has largely remained the same. The repetitive pattern of events is getting increasingly tiresome and it’s about time the board back their manager and take steps to rectify the real issues at the club.
Ancelotti, AVB’s predecessor, said:
“Villas-Boas cannot work miracles. This is an old team now.”
“It is exactly the same team as the one I left, with the exception of Juan Mata and Raul Meireles. The problem is not Villas-Boas, it is with the team that he has.
“Andre is young and inexperienced, but he has done well and he is talented. I feel Roman (Abramovich) needs to give him time to sort it out and make his ideas work.”
He added:
“The problem is in the organisation and with the players – all the things that they have to change to make it better.
“Maybe he does lack experience. But they knew that when they appointed him. He needs time.”
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Whilst Gullit believes that Chelsea may have to say goodbye to some old favourites for the good of the team:
“Because guys like Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, John Terry and Frank Lampard have won many awards, it is hard to say goodbye.
“At least Fernando Torres told the truth about the slowness of their play.
“Maybe it’s not so smart a thing to say about your fellow players, but he does have a point.”
Villas-Boas is attempting to change the whole ethos of the team and that is going to take time, especially with a squad that has become as stale as ours and allowed to slip behind the other top clubs in Europe. He’s already shown that he has an eye on the future by bringing in promising talents like Oriol Romeu, Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku, whilst promoting Daniel Sturridge to the first team when most were uncertain if he would.
For too long the buck has stopped with the managers, who mostly have to forsake their own vision to suit the senior players at the club and it’s about time a manager was given the license to pick the players that he wants to play the system he wants, not change his vision to suit a set of players that are on the way out.
Our squad is in need of major work in terms of both additions and blood-letting, but the board need to stand by a manager to do this as the balance of power at the club has too long been tipped in favour of the players.
