Vince Grella To Chelsea
The Blues' ego-heavy personalities have been warned not to get offside of their new manager...
Blackburn Rovers midfielder Vince Grella believes Guus Hiddink, the new Chelsea boss, is "the right man" to sort out the London giants' under-performing squad.
Grella was a key member of the Australia side Hiddink led to the finals of the 2006 World Cup, and he reckons the stars at Stamford Bridge had best be on their guard.
“He has a lot of experience. He is also a very strong personality, has a lot of charisma and knows how to handle big-name players. He is the right man for the job at Chelsea,” the 29-year-old said in The Sun.
“Discipline is one of his strong points but he also knows how to get the best out of players. He can have a joke with them, sure, but will also get on their backs if he needs to.
“He had a laugh with us, yet if he felt a player needed it he would also get on to him. He’s one of the best, with perfect awareness of tactics and of the opposition.”
Blackburn Rovers midfielder Vince Grella believes Guus Hiddink, the new Chelsea boss, is "the right man" to sort out the London giants' under-performing squad.
Grella was a key member of the Australia side Hiddink led to the finals of the 2006 World Cup, and he reckons the stars at Stamford Bridge had best be on their guard.
“He has a lot of experience. He is also a very strong personality, has a lot of charisma and knows how to handle big-name players. He is the right man for the job at Chelsea,” the 29-year-old said in The Sun.
“Discipline is one of his strong points but he also knows how to get the best out of players. He can have a joke with them, sure, but will also get on their backs if he needs to.
“He had a laugh with us, yet if he felt a player needed it he would also get on to him. He’s one of the best, with perfect awareness of tactics and of the opposition.”
Chelsea Aren't A Team, hiddink said
'The Goose' saw some impressive individuals on his first visit to the Blues' training ground, but no collective as such...
Guus Hiddink was announced as Chelsea's interim manager this week, and yesterday he attended his first training session since arriving at his new club.
The Dutchman took plenty of positives from his orientation day at Cobham, but he also identified the need to unify the 'team' he has inherited from Luiz Felipe Scolari.
"They are very committed, I have seen them training but sometimes you can have a little bit of a different approach to get even more efficiency out of the players," Hiddink told Chelsea TV last night.
"That's what I'm aiming for and if you can add those individuals together and make a team, then everyone can bring a little bit more.
"I don't like to give anyone much time, not me and not the players. It is too easy to talk commitment because everyone has an obligation to be committed, but in the tactical and the strategic approach during the game we might gain some profit."
Guus Hiddink was announced as Chelsea's interim manager this week, and yesterday he attended his first training session since arriving at his new club.
The Dutchman took plenty of positives from his orientation day at Cobham, but he also identified the need to unify the 'team' he has inherited from Luiz Felipe Scolari.
"They are very committed, I have seen them training but sometimes you can have a little bit of a different approach to get even more efficiency out of the players," Hiddink told Chelsea TV last night.
"That's what I'm aiming for and if you can add those individuals together and make a team, then everyone can bring a little bit more.
"I don't like to give anyone much time, not me and not the players. It is too easy to talk commitment because everyone has an obligation to be committed, but in the tactical and the strategic approach during the game we might gain some profit."
Zola Speaks Out Over Chelsea
The charming manager of the Boleyn Ground outfit has reaffirmed his loyalty to current employers West Ham United, but insists he is flattered that the Chelsea fans still hold him in high regard...As the home fans trickled into Stamford Bridge to attend the club's last fixture against Hull City, so too did banners and flags indicating the supporters' stance on Luiz Felipe Scolari's torrid tenure, together with their choice of who they felt would be the best candidate to serve the club.
The names of Gianfranco Zola, Roberto di Matteo, and Steve Clarke were draped over seats and the stands. The message was clear.
A drab 0-0 scoreline wrapped up a frustrating day for the Blues, Scolari was quickly relieved of his managerial duties, and again the calls for former favourite sons such as the aforementioned trident increased in volume.
Russian national manager Guus Hiddink has been appointed to the role on a temporary basis but, speaking for the first time since his name was linked so relentlessly to the Chelsea hotseat, Zola today revealed how "pleased" he was that the home crowds still hold him close to their hearts.
"Well, I am pleased," he said, concerning his name scrawled on the many Blue flags on matchday 25 in west London. But he insisted he is committed to his east London project at Upton Park.
"I am at a club where I, and Steve Clarke, we want to do well. The only things I can express is that they [Chelsea] do really well.
"It is very pleasant because it means they [the fans] have a lot faith and trust in you and means we are doing a good job over here. I am grateful, I wish them to do well, but that's all."
West Ham host Middlesbrough in the fifth round of the FA Cup this weekend, and the pre-match press conference was supposed to focus on the fixture ahead, but reporters continued to train their line of questioning on the likelihood of his future return to his former club.
"Look, I'm very happy with the project at West Ham. I've still got a lot to learn in the job, and a lot to give the club."
Many commentators have cited the departure of Steve Clarke as a key factor in the decline of Chelsea's fortunes.
"I don't like talking about that, but for me Steve Clarke is a big part of the job we do here. He is really top, really top," Zola said.
Regarding Scolari's replacement, Guus Hiddink, the pint-sized Italian concluded: "Guus' credentials are very good. I wish, honestly, that he does a good job."
Harry Redknapp Backs Guus Hiddink For Long-Term Chelsea Role
'Arry reckons the Blues' interim appointment will remain in west London well beyond the end of the season...
Chelsea confirmed yesterday that Guus Hiddink will succeed the sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari as Chelsea manager, but only until the end of the current campaign.
However, Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp has opined that he would be very surprised if the well-travelled Dutchman wasn't still at Stamford Bridge come August.
"I think he is here to stay. I just cannot see Hiddink suddenly upping sticks and moving on when the season’s over," Redknapp said in The Sun.
"Hiddink and [Chelsea owner] Roman Abramovich are close and they have been particularly close since Jose Mourinho left the club.
"Hiddink is also a world-class manager, not the sort of bloke happy to come in and hold the fort for someone else to arrive in the summer and say ‘thanks very much, I’ll take over from all your good work now’."
The main concern some pundits and punters have with Hiddink's appointment is that he will remain the full-time coach the Russian national team.
Hence, there are questions as to whether the 62-year-old will be able to fully devote his time and mind to Chelsea, but Redknapp has dismissed that notion.
"These days it is feasible to be a club manager and an international coach if you think about the logistics involved," he said.
"At a club like Chelsea there is a team of internationals. So every time we get round to international week, most of the squad disappears to every corner of the world.
"Hiddink knows come international week he can join half the Premier League’s players at Heathrow and fly off to coach Russia."
Redknapp even went on to suggest that coaches juggling international and club roles could become commonplace in the upper echelon of European football.
"You can almost imagine a Premier League boss also managing England but there is one big difficulty with that scenario," he said.
"The manager in question would be pilloried if he only picked players from his club and if he didn’t he would get stick by angry footballers when he got back. It’s a no-win situation.
"But Hiddink should be able to combine the two. And I think that once he gets here, Guus will be here for a long time."
Chelsea confirmed yesterday that Guus Hiddink will succeed the sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari as Chelsea manager, but only until the end of the current campaign.
However, Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp has opined that he would be very surprised if the well-travelled Dutchman wasn't still at Stamford Bridge come August.
"I think he is here to stay. I just cannot see Hiddink suddenly upping sticks and moving on when the season’s over," Redknapp said in The Sun.
"Hiddink and [Chelsea owner] Roman Abramovich are close and they have been particularly close since Jose Mourinho left the club.
"Hiddink is also a world-class manager, not the sort of bloke happy to come in and hold the fort for someone else to arrive in the summer and say ‘thanks very much, I’ll take over from all your good work now’."
The main concern some pundits and punters have with Hiddink's appointment is that he will remain the full-time coach the Russian national team.
Hence, there are questions as to whether the 62-year-old will be able to fully devote his time and mind to Chelsea, but Redknapp has dismissed that notion.
"These days it is feasible to be a club manager and an international coach if you think about the logistics involved," he said.
"At a club like Chelsea there is a team of internationals. So every time we get round to international week, most of the squad disappears to every corner of the world.
"Hiddink knows come international week he can join half the Premier League’s players at Heathrow and fly off to coach Russia."
Redknapp even went on to suggest that coaches juggling international and club roles could become commonplace in the upper echelon of European football.
"You can almost imagine a Premier League boss also managing England but there is one big difficulty with that scenario," he said.
"The manager in question would be pilloried if he only picked players from his club and if he didn’t he would get stick by angry footballers when he got back. It’s a no-win situation.
"But Hiddink should be able to combine the two. And I think that once he gets here, Guus will be here for a long time."
Quaresma Will Boost Chelsea
Chelsea centre-back Ricardo Carvalho thinks that the arrival last week of fellow compatriot Ricardo Quaresma on loan from Inter Milan for the rest of the season can help provide a real boost at Stamford Bridge.
"Quaresma is a very fast and explosive player who is a real warrior on the pitch," Carvalho told Four-Four-Two magazine earlier.
"So he will be able to handle the physical nature of the Premier League. But at the same time he is a very technical player and can score goals, which will be good for us.
"He will be a huge help to us at this time of the season. He is a very attacking player and that is what we need at Chelsea at the moment."
With former Portugal national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari managing Chelsea now, Quaresma is also the sixth Portuguese player currently at Chelsea, and Carvalho insists that the winger would continually discuss English football with his team-mates when with the Portugal national team.
"At different times with the Portugal national team he would always ask about English football and was interested in what it was like," the defender added.
"He could have come here last summer but he ended up going to Inter Milan with Jose Mourinho. But it has not worked out for him there.
"Scolari knows Quaresma well and this is an advantage for us. He also knows a lot of players here already, but he will need time to adapt. He will add more pace, which is important. Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba will love playing with him because he gets a lot of assists."
Quaresma arrived at Stamford Bridge just minutes before the transfer deadline closed, with Tottenham Hotspur also being reportedly interested in the player's services. Carvalho hopes that he can contribute to the strength that Chelsea will require to achieve any success this season.
He himself is keen to get back and get 'stuck in' again as well, saying, "We have to be strong between now and the end of the season after the defeat to Liverpool. I just want to get back to help out."
"Quaresma is a very fast and explosive player who is a real warrior on the pitch," Carvalho told Four-Four-Two magazine earlier.
"So he will be able to handle the physical nature of the Premier League. But at the same time he is a very technical player and can score goals, which will be good for us.
"He will be a huge help to us at this time of the season. He is a very attacking player and that is what we need at Chelsea at the moment."
With former Portugal national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari managing Chelsea now, Quaresma is also the sixth Portuguese player currently at Chelsea, and Carvalho insists that the winger would continually discuss English football with his team-mates when with the Portugal national team.
"At different times with the Portugal national team he would always ask about English football and was interested in what it was like," the defender added.
"He could have come here last summer but he ended up going to Inter Milan with Jose Mourinho. But it has not worked out for him there.
"Scolari knows Quaresma well and this is an advantage for us. He also knows a lot of players here already, but he will need time to adapt. He will add more pace, which is important. Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba will love playing with him because he gets a lot of assists."
Quaresma arrived at Stamford Bridge just minutes before the transfer deadline closed, with Tottenham Hotspur also being reportedly interested in the player's services. Carvalho hopes that he can contribute to the strength that Chelsea will require to achieve any success this season.
He himself is keen to get back and get 'stuck in' again as well, saying, "We have to be strong between now and the end of the season after the defeat to Liverpool. I just want to get back to help out."
Inter Didn't Give Chelsea Chances to Quaresma
New Chelsea signing Ricardo Quaresma is eager to show his worth with the Blues but also blamed his failure at Inter on a lack of playing time.He was branded the biggest transfer flop of the Serie A season by sections of the Italian media, and wasn't well liked by most Inter fans either, so Ricardo Quaresma will not be too displeased with his loan move to Chelsea until the end of the season.
In his first interview as a member of the Blues, predictably enough he was not too kind on the Nerazzurri.
"Throughout my career and for all the teams I've played I have always tried to give my best," he said. "Now that I'm in the Premier League, another important league like Serie A, I have to show what I can do.
"At Inter they did not give me too many chances to show myself. Now I want to show I am good enough for Chelsea."
He did thank his former team for giving him a big opportunity: "It was a good thing for me to go to Inter, but right now I want to thank [Luiz Felipe] Scolari and everyone who made it possible for me to come to England."
Quaresma managed 12 Serie A appearances in his first few months at Inter. Coach Jose Mourinho left him out of the Champions League squad, and after that it was no surprise that he left, although not many expected he would join Chelsea.
Chelsea Are The Victims
Chelsea's trip to Liverpool on Sunday was not a happy one, as Luiz Felipe Scolari's side headed back to London five points off the pace after losing out to a late Fernando Torres brace.
But there was another Spaniard in the Reds' ranks who contributed just as much to the post-game headlines, and it wasn't Xabi Alonso's playmaking skills that got people talking.
The Basque star made up the other half of the 50-50 challenge that resulted in Frank Lampard's hugely controversial sending off early in the second half, when both players charge at a loose ball in midfield.
Television replays showed that Lampard won the tackle cleanly, but that didn't stop Mike Riley from pulling out the red card and forcing Chelsea to play out the game with ten men.
Ashley Cole reckons such an incident is typical of the way referees treat the Stamford Bridge club, and he pointed to Tottenham Hotspur defender Alan Hutton's unpunished butchering of Shaun Wright-Phillips last season.
"All our players watched what happened with Shaun Wright-Phillips and no one gets booked or questioned about it," said the England left-back in the The Daily Mail.
"We do one little tackle and we seem to be getting yellow and red cards."
What Cole failed to mention was that he was rather lucky to escape charges of improper conduct after ignoring the match official who booked him for his reaction to the Wright-Phillips incident.
The 28-year-old's claims are further tested by the FA (Football Association) disciplinary panel's decision to overturn Lampard's red card, while Jose Bosingwa was let off for his vicious stamp on Yossi Benayoun.
But there was another Spaniard in the Reds' ranks who contributed just as much to the post-game headlines, and it wasn't Xabi Alonso's playmaking skills that got people talking.
The Basque star made up the other half of the 50-50 challenge that resulted in Frank Lampard's hugely controversial sending off early in the second half, when both players charge at a loose ball in midfield.
Television replays showed that Lampard won the tackle cleanly, but that didn't stop Mike Riley from pulling out the red card and forcing Chelsea to play out the game with ten men.
Ashley Cole reckons such an incident is typical of the way referees treat the Stamford Bridge club, and he pointed to Tottenham Hotspur defender Alan Hutton's unpunished butchering of Shaun Wright-Phillips last season.
"All our players watched what happened with Shaun Wright-Phillips and no one gets booked or questioned about it," said the England left-back in the The Daily Mail.
"We do one little tackle and we seem to be getting yellow and red cards."
What Cole failed to mention was that he was rather lucky to escape charges of improper conduct after ignoring the match official who booked him for his reaction to the Wright-Phillips incident.
The 28-year-old's claims are further tested by the FA (Football Association) disciplinary panel's decision to overturn Lampard's red card, while Jose Bosingwa was let off for his vicious stamp on Yossi Benayoun.
scolari will leaves chelsea ??
Following Chelsea's mauling at the hands of Manchester United on Sunday, people are beginning to ask, "Is Luiz Felipe Scolari really the right man for the Blues?"The board at Stamford Bridge seem to be mulling over the same question, and it is thought that another change of management will ensue if is no new silverware in the London club's trophy case by the end of May.
But Scolari is totally indifferent to whether or not he remains with the Pensioners - although the Brazilian stressed that he is perfectly content with his current situation, despite the on- and off-field issues.
“I don’t care. If I lose my job, I have another job. Maybe tomorrow, maybe after one year or two. I’ve worked for 25 years, so no problem,” he said in The Sun.
“I like Chelsea. I like Cobham, where I live, I like the school my son is at, I like my job here, the people, even the press. It’s not a problem for me. I like every day in London. “But if I go back to Brazil, I will like Brazil the same. When I was in Kuwait, I loved Kuwait. I had three fantastic years in Saudi Arabia. I love life, finish. If I lose or not lose my job, I will be the same.”
Chelsea now sit four points adrift of the Premier League leaders, Liverpool, and they face Southend United this evening hoping to squeeze through to the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Chelsea Dump Drogba For Southend
The Sun reports that Didier Drogba has been omitted from the Chelsea squad that will face Southend United in tonight's FA Cup third round replay.The Ivorian striker earned criticism from all quarters after the Blues' defeat to Manchester United on Sunday, in which he was convincingly beaten by Nemanja Vidic and youngster Jonny Evans.
And now Luiz Felipe Scolari, the London club's manager, has recalled Nicolas Anelka to lead the line at Roots Hall, despite rumours of a massive row between the two ahead of the Old Trafford disaster.
The ex-Brazil coach's insistence on using either Drogba or Anelka, but never both, has been the cause of some consternation among pundits and the general public - not to mention the players themselves.Drogba has been heavily tipped to depart Stamford Bridge after a number of incidents over the past few months, and this continuing uncertainty over his place in the first team could seal the deal.
The 30-year-old has attracted plenty of interest from abroad, with AC Milan and Inter both regularly linked, while Olympique Marseille have enquired about bringing back their former star on loan.
