SOCCER: ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS has set himself the ambitious task of transforming Chelsea's players into "social role models" as he seeks to stamp his authority on powerful figures within the squad and revive the club after the least successful season of the Roman Abramovich era.
Chelsea’s seventh manager during the oligarch’s eight-year ownership acknowledged he must win silverware early in his tenure if he is to see out his €5 million-a-year contract, which runs to 2013.
Much will depend on the 33-year-old’s ability to eke out the best from senior players, some of whom are nearly as old as the Portuguese and worked with him in his previous capacity as an opposition scout.
Disaffection within the dressing-room was instrumental in Luiz Felipe Scolari’s abrupt departure from Stamford Bridge two years ago, yet, whereas the Brazilian’s reputation had been established as a World Cup-winning coach, Villas-Boas is confident he will be able to impose his thinking on the set-up at Chelsea despite boasting only 20 – albeit supremely successful – months as a manager with Academica and Porto.
“We have to raise players’ ambitions and motivations to be successful,” Villas-Boas said. “We can grab at the amount of trophies we have won in the last six years, and that is a good reference point, but we push ourselves now for a new challenge.
“The players are responsible and professional enough to respect the manager’s position. These are players who deserve respect from me, also, but we want them to triumph as people and as social role models. If they do that, they triumph as players out on the pitch as well.
“Most of them are experienced and have grown to think that talent is just talent, but we think there is something extra we can get out of them: by freeing them up and focusing on ambition and motivation.
“I have spoken already to a couple of the players on the phone and they told me this is like a fresh new start.”
That can be construed as a challenge thrown down to the senior squad. The idea that Villas-Boas can reinvent the image of the playing personnel is bold given the high-profile off-field controversies which have dogged the likes of John Terry and Ashley Cole.
There is an acceptance at the club that standards of discipline slipped at the Cobham training base during recent regimes, with the new manager to outline his own code of conduct – a throwback to Jose Mourinho’s spell in charge, a period in which Villas-Boas was directly involved – when the first-team squad return for pre-season training next Wednesday.
There will be no pandering to egos within the squad. Terry, Villas-Boas said, would remain as captain only “as long as he can perform to the utmost of his ability, as he has in the last six years”.
Such an approach will appeal to the hierarchy, who see in Villas-Boas a young, dynamic manager to contrast markedly with previous appointments, and a forward-thinker eager to impose his ideas on the club from top to bottom.
While he intends to assess the playing squad from next week, he anticipates having a major say on incoming transfers, a role previously taken on by the departed sporting director, Frank Arnesen – Michael Emenalo is expected to be confirmed in a similar role this week. Roberto Di Matteo has been confirmed as his number two and Steve Holland promoted from reserve to assistant first-team coach.
Abramovich, who sacked Carlo Ancelotti only 12 months after the Italian delivered Chelsea’s first league and cup Double, will expect instant results or else Villas-Boas can expect the same fate as his predecessor.
“Who expects to stay as Chelsea manager if they don’t win anything?” he said. “You are expected to be successful straight away, to win straight away and on a weekly basis. There’s no running away from that challenge. That’s what I face. I’d be surprised to be kept on if I didn’t win.”
* Guardian Service
