You mean 10 days ago when AVB branded the Spurs link as total 'lies'? :$
We bought him in to play that way yes but we did not bring him in to alienate the players and try to play the big man. Soon as he started treating the players like **** he was always going to get the fans on his back and rightfully so.
He's the manager, and as such IS the big man. Any other group of players wouldn't have been so sodding fragile with their egos. He treated them like professionals when actually it turned out they were a group of 10-year olds trapped in professional footballers bodies. Villas-Boas treated them no differently to how Ferguson, for example, would have done. He doesn't need to justify his decisions to the players: he's their boss, not their mate.
What making Anelka and Alex train with the youth team when they done nothing wrong at all, you think that is the correct way to go about things then?
You act as though you know exactly what happened. If I'm not mistaken, AVB was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement when he left Chelsea. Without the ability for him to defend himself, we only know the players' line on this. For all we know, Anelka and Alex did something that totally justified their relegation to the reserves.
I suspect that AVB made an error of judgement with that. Anelka and Alex probably did something stupid, and AVB, knowing that he was already losing control over a group of players who were being unprofessional and childish, tried to make a statement. As it happened, relegating them to the reserves was the wrong move and far too harsh, but the critical point here is that he wouldn't have had to resort to something that dramatic if the players knuckled down and actually did their bit as professionals. As it was, they threw a collective strop, and and that forced his hand. This is my theory, extrapolated from what I know, and I'm at pains to point out that I'm not presenting it as fact.
I know players made mistakes i am not denying that but AVB made his first **** up in his first press conference when he said "everyone will have a chance to prove themselves". He then persisted to play Meireles over Lampard when Meireles's performances were shockingly poor. Yes ok that is his call 100% but someone like Lampard who has done so much and the fans see him getting dropped for someone playing worse than him was always going to be the wrong call. He then decided he did not want Anelka and Alex which again is his call 100% but he didn't throw them in the reserves Godcubed you got that wrong, it was with the youth team. They were banned from using all first team facilities, even Tevez didn't get that treatment lol.
Sigurdsson - AVB swung deal | Tottenham Hotspur News, Fixtures, Results, Transfers | Sky Sports
Just seen this on the website, fair play.
You fail to realise AVB had to make changes and he arguably did do it too quickly, but it had to happen at some point. Lampard was 33 back then and although he has had a very good Chelsea career, he is not the player he once was, hence why AVB was looking to phase him out.
The Alex and Anelka scenario all I can say about that is there was more to it beneath the surface, unfortunately we will probably never know the reasons but I feel AVB was doomed from the start with his task and many big ego's in the dressing room.
I know players made mistakes i am not denying that but AVB made his first **** up in his first press conference when he said "everyone will have a chance to prove themselves". He then persisted to play Meireles over Lampard when Meireles's performances were shockingly poor. Yes ok that is his call 100% but someone like Lampard who has done so much and the fans see him getting dropped for someone playing worse than him was always going to be the wrong call. He then decided he did not want Anelka and Alex which again is his call 100% but he didn't throw them in the reserves Godcubed you got that wrong, it was with the youth team. They were banned from using all first team facilities, even Tevez didn't get that treatment lol.
Like i said from day one he should have shipped out 2-3 more experienced players and that would have laid down a real marker from day one. He done it at Porto getting rid of Meireles and Bruno Alves and he really would have stamped his authority on the side if he got rid of players like Malouda, Bosingwa, Drogba, Lampard etc.
Now you're arguing about selection, which in this debate - which is about player alienation and the childish behaviour of said players - is moot. Every so often a manager picks a player consistently that the fans don't understand. In this case, though, it makes much more sense: it seems likely that AVB thought that Meireles had the tactical and positional discipline Lampard supposedly lacked, as well as the energy to work in AVB's high pressing system. Whether you, as a fan, agree with that decision and those conclusions is again beside the point. The point is that Lampard, as a professional football player, should be able to deal with a rotational role, particularly when he's 33, the age at which most players are backups or at least winding down. Take Paulo Ferreira as an example. I don't - and never did, particularly - rate him as an excellent player, but he's happy taking an even more background role than Lampard was, with absolutely no fuss. Moreover, if he has had qualms about such a reduced role, he has presumably taken it through the correct channels rather than making it public.
Reserves, youth team, you're splitting hairs and ignoring the points I made. It's more or less the same team, contrary to what FM might tell you.
Perhaps they deserved it? We don't know, as I already stated. Again, you're just assuming he didn't want the two of them, rather than the possibility of them actually deserving their punishments. Tevez didn't get that kind of treatment because he ****** off back to Argentina. He couldn't not use the facilities from thousands of miles away.
So on one hand you're having a go at him for not being hard enough, and on the other you're condemning him for being too harsh?
This is ridiculous. If Chelsea players throw a strop at being dropped, can you imagine the shitstorm that would have occurred if he'd made wholesale changes right away, not to mention the drop in form?
Its pretty convenient to blame Chelsea's senior players whenever something goes wrong... Its been done all the time whenever we are on a run of bad form or sack a manager. Just saying