Recently Luiz Filipe Scolari finally broke his silence on his time as Chelsea manager, a silence that many must feel really didn’t need to be broken.
He released an attack on the dressing room culture that was present during his time in charge, saying how “it was difficult to control the dressing room” as players like Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack caused him problems due to rivalry for places in the starting line up.
In Scolari’s interview with TB Arena Sport TV, he stated how Deco and Ballack didn’t speak at all following the signing of the Portuguese midfielder, and also how Didier Drogba had demanded a starting place regardless how well fellow striker Nicholas Anelka had performed in his absence.
He continued to explain how he also attempted to swap Drogba for Brazilian striker Adriano, but that Roman Abramovich had vetoed his attempt to do so.
When comparing both players over the last two seasons, Chelsea fans must thank Abramovich for his fine judgement as we saw the Ivorian score 47 goals in his last 80 games for Chelsea, winning both the Premier League and FA Cup last season under the guidance of Carlo Ancellotti, and also the FA Cup the season before under temporary manager Guus Hiddink.
Adriano on the other hand has gone from being held as one the best strikers in the world, to having his contract terminated by AS Roma after periods in Brazil and in Italy, and had struggled to find suitors after his departure.
He has now recently signed for Corinthians, however to say that he would have been more suited for Chelsea than Didier Drogba speaks volumes about Scolari’s judgement as a manager.
Although Scolari had won the World Cup with Brazil, it was a team that possessed huge quality with the likes of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho leading the front line, and so in my mind this makes the achievement slightly less impressive as with a forward line like that at your disposal, it would have been harder not to achieve success.
Many Chelsea supporters see Scolari’s tenure at the club as a failure, and now revealing his desire to make decisions like swapping one of the best strikers in the world with someone who has totally gone off the radar of world football shows just one reason why.
However, to avoid further tarnishing his already diminished reputation in English football, he must keep his ideas for Chelsea to himself as they only further prove just how bad an appointment he was for the club.
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