Ray Wilkins leaves

[Hutch]

Breaking news on Chelsea TV:

Ray Wilkins contract will not be renewed. This takes effect immediately

WILKINS LEAVES CHELSEA

Chelsea Football Club chief executive Ron Gourlay has announced today that the board has decided not to renew Ray Wilkins' contract. This will take effect immediately.

Gourlay said: 'On behalf of everyone at the club I would like to thank Ray for everything he has done for Chelsea Football Club. We all wish him well for the future.'

LINK

Edited November 11, 2010 by Hutch

[Mod]

oh blimey, I wonder why?

[Gem]

What the f**k??!

[Nibs]

Breaking news on Chelsea TV:

Ray Wilkins contract will not be renewed. This takes effect immediately

LINK

Eh? That's a bit out of the blue isn't it?

Can't understand that at all. I've been critical of Wilkins in the past, but he seems to have been doing well under Carlo.

Wait to see what comes out I guess.

[TheWestwayWonder]

Yeah, some answers or detail here would be nice. Butch has been a rock for this club since the Scolari tenure (wont ever forget his one game in charge against Watford) and a constant fixture that I dont want to see leave.

I dont want to jump to conclusions but that release sounds distinctly as if the club are the ones doing the dumping. I hope its only becuase he has gotten a head managers job somewhere else.

[TheWestwayWonder]

Also, why does his contract expire mid season? Was it around this time, 2 years ago that Steve Clarke left?

[abramovich]

This is very odd.

What's going on at the club?

[Hutch]

Nobody seems to known anything yet. Ray was sitting with Carlo Ancelotti watching the first half of the reserves game v Bayern Munich, and was apparently given the news at half time.

More info, so say Chelsea TV, on Blues News at 6:30.

[clubhappy]

Just dosent add up, something obviously happened .

Sad day .

[ossie13]

Strange timing???

[Kalou Time]

If it isnt broke, dont fix it comes to mind

[TheWestwayWonder]

Like CH says, sounds like it was an incident. From another forum:

bensmith_times

Early indications suggest Wilkins' departure from #cfc may have had something to do with an incident that took place last night

???? Not like Butch to be going out and making trouble. Seems like a tame guy. What the fark

[Gilvorak]

What a bizarre decision.

[sexelk]

seems like a polite way of saying he was fired

like others have mentioned, something must have happened cause i'm sure it would have come out before that his contract was due to expire

[sexelk]

actually sky claim his contract was up for renewal

[Tea Bar Boy]

What is going on ?? Very angry at this first reaction unless he has done something very very wrong

Hope he wasn't Star's mate at the hotel ..........

Edited November 11, 2010 by Tea Bar Boy

[Hutch]

actually sky claim his contract was up for renewal

Which is exactly what the club have said:

Chelsea Football Club chief executive Ron Gourlay has announced today that the board has decided not to renew Ray Wilkins' contract. This will take effect immediately.

All Sky have done is dressed their version of the story up with a little more background info.

Wilkins leaves Chelsea

Assistant boss leaves with immediate effect

Chelsea have announced assistant manager Ray Wilkins is leaving the club after they decided not to renew his contract.

The news comes as a major surprise with Wilkins playing a major role in the Stamford Bridge club's recent success.

Wilkins' contract was up for renewal but having not been offered fresh terms he

has left the Premier League champions and FA Cup holders with immediate effect.

Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay told the club's official website: "On behalf of everyone at the club I would like to thank Ray for everything he has done for Chelsea Football Club.

"We all wish him well for the future."

Wilkins, who started his playing career at Chelsea, was in his second stint as part of the coaching team at Stamford Bridge.

The 54-year-old was part of the backroom staff under Gianluca Vialli and after spells at Watford and Millwall he returned in September 2008 as assistant first team coach to Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Wilkins took caretaker charge of the side for one game against Watford after Scolari left the club in February 2009.

He assisted Guus Hiddink until the end of the 2008/09 season and stayed on in the role when Carlo Ancelotti arrived at Chelsea.

Wilkins played a key role in helping Ancelotti settle in at Stamford Bridge and he saw the club claim a Premier League and FA Cup double last season.

LINK

[PloKoon13]

This is bad. Butch seemed to have a great partnership with Ancelotti.

I wonder if Steve Clarke would be interested in a return...

[Alex]

"left the club with immediate effect" does not imply it was simply the end of his contract. Even if his contract was to run out at the end of the year and they told him it would not be renewed i can't see Ray being the kind of person to just up and leave. Espicially at Chelsea. I would think he would stay till the end of the season.

Unfortunatley it does seem that something has happened.

[The Moos]

Seems like he got fired.

If so, then something must have happened. He was doing a good job, wasn't he?

Guess we'll find out soon enough just what went wrong. Atleast I hope so because this all seems very strange to me.

I wonder who will take over. Can we get Clarke back perhaps?

[Andreas]

What the hell?

[Skiddlywoah]

Clarke is a good shout. How about Zola. Or Petrescu?

[bluemoon]

Seems a strange one lads. Popped on to see if any of you had any idea as to what had gone on.

Wonder if the media will make out you are now a club in crisis as if it was us it would probably make the front page?

All the while Tottingham stumble and fall their way around the league with 2 points from twelve and 'Appy 'Arry and his media mates ignore the fact they haven't beaten a side above 13th in the table as of Tuesday.

[Andreas]

Do you reckon we will see Maldini come in? There is no secret that him and Ancelotti really enjoy working together and him being about 42 years old now it could very well happen.

[forbzy]

No doubt the full picture will emerge in the next few days/weeks. I'd be shocked if it was as simple as Butch's contract not being extended. Looks more likely at this point that he was sacked. Obviously the board has prior experience of handling these sort of situations badly in the past but I'm going to reserve any judgement until I know more.