The Spoiler
The Spoiler

Chelsea appoint manager with less European club experience than Grant

June 12th, 2008 · 2 Comments

The Spoiler

Is Big Phil the right man for the job?

Luiz Felipe Scolari

So Chelsea ended months of umming and ahhing last night by appointing Luiz Felipe Scolari as their new manager. The Portugal boss told us that talk of Cristiano Ronaldo’s post-Euro 2008 future could disrupt the team, but he appears to have no qualms over making his own departure public midway through proceedings.

But are Chelsea making a big mistake passing up the opportunity to appoint Roberto Mancini, who won three straight league titles at Inter Milan, or Frank Rijkaard, who won a La Liga/Champions League double while playing utterly sexy football?

Yes, Scolari won the World Cup while managing Brazil, but with the players he had at his disposal and the terrible showings by France, Argentina, Italy and Spain, was that really an amazing feat? After all, it had been done four times before and will be done again many times in the future.

Would Chelsea fans be so welcoming if Otto Rehhagel - the man who took Greece to Euro 2004 glory at Scolari’s expense - was appointed? Probably not, even though his achievement was arguably more impressive than that of the Gene Hackman look-alike.

Avram Grant’s appointment was met with disgust by Chelsea fans but even he had won league titles in Europe (well, Israel, but they play in the Champions League) and achieved reasonable success in international football - going unbeaten with the Israeli national side in a World Cup qualifying group containing France and Switzerland.

After weeks of big names and endless speculation, The Spoiler can’t help but feel Chelsea settled for the wrong man.

Have the Blues made the right call in appointing Scolari? Let us know with a vote and comment below.

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Posted: June 12th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn

2 responses so far

  • 1 S // Jun 12, 2008 at 8:59 am

    So the anti campaign starts already, full marks.

    May need to step it up a bit though, you’re not going to destabilise the club by this tip tapping.

  • 2 Blueinbangkok // Jun 12, 2008 at 9:19 am

    Supporters of other ‘big 4′ teams would have loved Grant to stay on ad infinitum, and as this article illustrates are genuinely miffed by the fact that Chelsea have made an excellent appointment. We live in interesting times!

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