Andre Villas Boas - Was he a blessing in disguise?

[Erik]

I've had a thought, AVB's failing caused a domino effect straight through the club. After his sacking the players buckled up and won a champions league and fa cup because of it, and in that time we revealed a hidden gem that had been staring us in the face for a very long time...... Roberto Di Matteo.

I'm pretty sure had AVB done okay in the job and say come around 2nd or 3rd with no competitions won he'd still be here right now trying to get rid of some of the CFC legends who the clubs foundation is built around mainly Lampard,Terry and Co.

He'd still be here giving those croaking interviews while Di Matteo who would have probably left the club by now due to not wanting to just be second fiddle to Villas Boas.

So thanks Boas for making us and Abramovich realize that a major overhaul is not what is needed but rather fine tweaks to the squad. Your failings have strengthened us further more. Champions League winners with quality names such as Hazard already here and Hulk to come we're on course to retain the champions league and hopefully win the title, all in the hands of a real chelsea legend.

Now have fun at the Spud's with their average squad and tight @rsed chairman :P

[SydneyChelsea]

I have no doubt that Andre Villas Boas has the potential to be a great manager. In his brief time in a job he has shown tremendous insight into football. Like the great managers he is both complex and simple in his methods.

However as we saw his interpersonal skills might be lacking. He isn't a consummate charmer or people person like Mourinho or Ancelotti are. However, Capello or Ferguson certainly aren't. They are managers who will live or die by their ability to get results and their reputations. Andre doesn't have the personal skills, so he needs to be more pragmatic to win trust with results.

Spurs will be a bigger test than even Chelsea, in the sense that there will be fewer mitigating circumstances this,time.

[mad_mac]

It will be interesting to see what happens with Spurs under AVB. The thing I feel he has going for him is there are less influential players in the dressing room at Spurs, and they have not won anything compared with what he faced at Chelsea.

Like it or not, we do have some very infuential players at Chelsea. Mourinho has even said he finds the strong players in the dressing room and gives them power to lead the team. I feel that Carlo continued that mentality, and I don't think Grant had a choice. Scolari, the less said the better. Whether or not those players have become too powerful is another matter (I refuse to believe Terry was at the middle of getting rid of Jose).

Anyway, if Levy does give him some backing, and he does get free reign of the club's first, reserve, and youth teams he will get a lot more power than he ever had at Chelsea. A lot of IF's there, but it's all hypothetical at this stage.

[Uno]

I think Spurs are a much better match for AVB.

Lets be honest here, as well as Robbie did at the end of the season, if he was given the same instructions from the board at the start of the season as AVB was im sure the same would have happened.

As much as we might not want to think about it, there are certain players in the dressing room that hold a hell of a lot of sway, maybe too much.

You cant tell me it was a coincidence that Ashley was playing sh*t and then all of a sudden starts putting in class performances again.

[g3.7]

I think Spurs are a much better match for AVB.

Lets be honest here, as well as Robbie did at the end of the season, if he was given the same instructions from the board at the start of the season as AVB was im sure the same would have happened.

As much as we might not want to think about it, there are certain players in the dressing room that hold a hell of a lot of sway, maybe too much.

You cant tell me it was a coincidence that Ashley was playing sh*t and then all of a sudden starts putting in class performances again.

I can, and I will.

actually, of course it's not a coincidence. he was poorly managed, then he was well managed. that probably helped.

di matteo may not ultimately be a great manager for us this season, but he'd have done immeasurably better than avb.

don't forget, avb wanted to keep the old guard and claimed the aim was to win the title when he arrived. as his reign got worse and worse he kept reducing the target. if you go back and look at the interviews / press work etc you'll see it's all there.

avb had far from an impossible job. in fact the board's desperation to keep him in the vain hope things would improve is the sole reason he wasn't sacked earlier. he was given all the time in the world to set things up in the summer, £40m to spend on players that were indisputably his choices (i.e. not including lukaku etc) and a squad that finished second.

he took that and, amongst other things, put us behind an arsenal that had just lost fabregas and nasri (for the first time since they won the title) and behind spurs for the first time since 1995 (I think).

oh he also saw us lose at home twice to the worst liverpool side since... well actually the worst liverpool side in my lifetime. and the worst aston villa side in my lifetime.

etc.

[Uno]

Correct me if im wrong (which im not) but we were thrashed by liverpool under RDM as well.

[That Boy Brandinho]

Correct me if im wrong (which im not) but we were thrashed by liverpool under RDM as well.

Not in the match that mattered.

[g3.7]

Correct me if im wrong (which im not) but we were thrashed by liverpool under RDM as well.

in a dead game with a shadow side.

[Uno]

Thats no excuse. And there were points to still be played for. We have a decent squad so a defeat like that shouldnt happen.

[blizeH]

I swear you just argue for the sake of it at times.

Also, I really wish you'd stop f**king fawning over AVB, he's gone to join Tottenham now, after we replaced him with someone who helped us win the FA Cup and the CL. Time to move on 'u no it makes sense'...

[youlots]

I swear you just argue for the sake of it at times.

Also, I really wish you'd stop f**king fawning over AVB, he's gone to join Tottenham now, after we replaced him with someone who helped us win the FA Cup and the CL. Time to move on 'u no it makes sense'...

Well said.

[Zeta]

That game against Liverpool WAS still important. Sure we'd secured UEFA cup football by winning the FA cup, but there was absolutely no guarantee at the time that we would win the CL and the league was the only way of making certain that we got a CL spot. So to say that the game didn't matter is very wrong indeed.

[yorkleyblue]

As it happens, it WASN'T important. Even if we'd won it, we would STILL have only been 5th. So to say "So to say that the game didn't matter is very wrong indeed. " is very wrong indeed!

[blizeH]

We would have had to rely on both Arsenal and Spurs slipping up though (which they didn't) - we finished 5 points off fourth, so ultimately the Liverpool game was meaningless.

I know it wasn't meaningless at the time, but Robbie had to make a decision - go all out in the league and hope the three teams above us slipped up, or go all out in the biggest cup final we've ever had, which would result in the same outcome as finishing fourth and a whole lot more.

Hindsight I know, but I'm very glad Robbie made the decision he did...

Edited July 10, 2012 by blizeH

[Zeta]

Retrospectively, yes. But at the time clubs were dropping points left right and centre, there was certainly a chance we could still overtake Spurs into 4th. Just because it's unlikely doesn't mean the players shouldn't have given their all until it was mathematically impossible to get 4th (and even then it can be aruged that they are paid enourmous sums of money and fans pay a lot to go and see them, they should try their hardest in every match, regardless of whether it's "important or not".

So yes, you can sit there with hindsight and say it was meaningless, but at the time it had plenty of meaning. So to say that " So to say "So to say that the game didn't matter is very wrong indeed. " is very wrong indeed!", is very wrong indeed.

[g3.7]

Thats no excuse. And there were points to still be played for. We have a decent squad so a defeat like that shouldnt happen.

it is a perfectly valid excuse. the game was meaningless. avb turned us into a clown outfit and it seems certain fans still want to jumnp through hoops for him.

half the players looked clearly pissed. I wonder why? maybe something to do with that minor pot we won a couple of nights before... nah...

[That Boy Brandinho]

Thats no excuse. And there were points to still be played for. We have a decent squad so a defeat like that shouldnt happen.

It is a perfectly valid excuse. Retrospectively, the match's outcome had no impact on our league finish. At the time, we couldn't have known that, but that's beside the point given that we had clearly decided to write off the league at that point to focus on winning in München. If you recall the circumstances of the match, dire mistakes by Essien and Turnbull (two players who wouldn't have been on the pitch had we cared about the match) were directly responsible for two goals. The match meant nothing. We handled Liverpool when it counted.

[Guest RFC_CFC]

Chelsea went on to win the Champions League after Villas-Boas was sacked. He says: "I think it's excellent for Chelsea to have won a trophy they have desired for so many years and there were so many ambitions towards winning it."

And adds: "I'm just grateful that I was able to work there and in some way put it on the road to that."

Also pretty much confirmed Modric is leaving.

[shedpensioner]

By the time we lost to the dippers in the league, we couldn't finish any higher than 5th because we had lost to the barcodes the week before!

So it was a game that we had to fulfil and no more than that!

[The Brit]

still deluded...trying to claim credit for us winning two trophies...what a tool

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/9392657/Tottenham-manager-Andres-Villas-Boas-claims-a-share-of-the-credit-for-Chelseas-Champions-League-success.html

Edited July 11, 2012 by The Brit

[Gem]

Totally forgot Liverpool thumped us at the end of last season.

[Katon]

still deluded...trying to claim credit for us winning two trophies...what a tool

http://www.telegraph...ue-success.html

That's the newspaper's interpretation, yes, but they seem to be sensationalizing the quote for prettier headlines. Look at what he actually says -

''You could say part of what they achieved is also down to that squad being put together by myself, but what was done after was down to Robbie's work and the work of those magnificent players."

So he says that you could say part of it was due to him, but what happened after he left was down to RDM and the players. That's about the least self-aggrandizing thing a Tottenham manager's said in years - he's certainly not trying to claim credit for anything in the CL after getting through the group stages.

[The Brit]

I'm not so sure about that...what squad did he put together? most of the players used were already here...anyway, now he's having a pop at roman for sacking him...very little acceptance that he was to blame for our sh*t season and looks to just be pointing the finger at everybody else...good luck Sp*rs...you're going to need it.

http://www.dailymail...Abramovich.html

Edited July 11, 2012 by The Brit

[Davey Baby]

He says: "I think it's excellent for Chelsea to have won a trophy they have desired for so many years and there were so many ambitions towards winning it."

And adds: "I'm just grateful that I was able to work there and in some way put it on the road to that."

Chelsea were highly motivated to win the CL, like no other trophy and like no other team. There was so much history for us in this competition, so many wrongs we wanted to put right. We were nursing a sense of grievance, and that can be a highly motivational force. Players like Lampard, Ashley, Essien and Mikel wanted it bad, and he left them all on the bench, for the game against Napoli, which we lost 3-1, instead pitching Meireles and Malouda in midfield and Boswinga at right-back. Senseless. The desire was there and he couldn't tap into it. That's how stupid he was. Lampard, Ashley and Essien were back for the second leg and what happened? What f**king happened? Why? Because they wanted it bad.

Edit: Spurs are welcome to him in my book.

Edited July 11, 2012 by Davey Baby

[CFCCAN]

What do they say in business...'never burn your bridges'......f**k I think he just blew his to smithereens with his comments about Roman...guess we won't be seeing him returning to the Bridge as an employee ....in any capacity.....