Are Chelsea preparing for the arrival of Frank Rijkaard?
This article is a submission for the Soccerlens Football Writing Competition; to participate, please read the details here.
Written by Franky.
When Roman Abrahamovich months ago already, in May decided that Jose Mourinho had to leave Chelsea F.C, after having missed out on the UCL finale once more, there were only little options. Options as in possible managers for the toy club of the billionaire. Actually there were only two managers worthy enough for Roman’s dreams.
In 2004 the Russian oil tycoon invested around 1% of his estimated worth in a football club and immediately enjoyed the glamour boy status, not only because he made his trips to Stamford Bridge in his private helicopter. There was no doubt about it that Chelsea had become a private prestige project and it would become a fairy tale: Abrahamovich wanted to win the Champions League twice in the next ten years.
Millions of Pounds flew in the club and squad and results followed soon. The tycoon was happy, but not for long. There was something more, something many people oversee nowadays: the Russian, who always is rather closed about his professional activities, already had gathered quite some experience in owning a top football club, as the owner of CSKA Moscow. He knew that in 98% of the time, managers are set to be fired. But not the owner.
That experience in mind, he brought both the German international Michael Ballack and his favourite Andrij Shevcenko to the club in the summer of 2006, adding his personal favourites to Jose’s squad. A power battle between the owner and the Manger, Mourinho, was slumbering. Both knew things wouldn’t last long anymore and every tale has an end.
Mourinho enjoyed an acceptable (for Roman) start of the Season 2006-2007 and he even listed Michael Ballack among his 9 untouchables. But then came the feared English Christmas break. Handicapped by several injuries, Jose’s and Chelsea’s reign came to an end. For the first time the Portugues tactician experienced what that many have done before: 7 games within 3 weeks and most of all, no time for the stars and injured players to recover. The points lost over Christmas 2006 would lead to the first big, bust up between manager and owner. And later to Mourinho’s sack.
The tactician knew those things can happen in football and asked for more money during the January transfer period. The tycoon suddenly had to deal with a non performing manager in his emperium. He listened to the arguments, excuses but went his own way and made a decision based on the experience of managing multi-billions company, rather than doing what the club needed, buying new, high quality defenders. The wallet stayed closed and Mourinho had to finsih his season without extre defensive squad width.
The end of Mourinho was near, but Chelsea fought until the end and the execution was postponed. Until after the Champions League semi finale. The title went to Manchester United and suddenly names started to be mentioned publicly at Stamford Bridge. Managers were seen visiting London… and Chelsea. The most notorious one being Jurgen Klinsmann, who had resigned from his Germany job after he reached the semi finals of the World Championship in 2006.
Among all the rumoured names, Klinsmann actually was the only one who could be considered a worthy candidate. Not because of his managerial experience or his name, top club managers such as Trappatoni and Eriksonn both were available.
Klinsmann was the only one who had a real chance, a chance because of his tactics. A well organised offensive style, maybe someone who could bring the Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger style and pace to Stamford Bridge. But the German denied, returned to his wife and kids in sunny California, and Mourinho finally stayed on board at Chelsea.
The announcement that Mourinho was going to be manager for the Season 2007-2008 followed rather late, early July, and was far from a sign of confidence in the former UCL winner. Mourinho had a contract with the club and would be the manager for the next season. Period. No word more, no word less. Just a contract.
Why did it take that long for Stamford Bridge to confirm Jose’s contract and hadn’t this happened immediately at the end of the season? Because of La Liga, the Spanih football league.
Traditionally La Liga ends 2-3 weeks after the Champions League finals and if there were another worthy candidate, he was still competing for the Spanish title when Jose, SAF and Arsene already enjoyed the sun and probably several bottles of £400 red wine each.
Frank Rijkaard at that time still wasn’t sure about his job at Barcelona when the Premiership ended and with Real Madrid being in pole-position one can surely expect that the Chelsea, Roman lobby was active to lure to Dutchman to Stamford Bridge.
Why Rijkaard? Rijkaard has everything Roman expects from a coach. As a player he has won the Champions League with Ajax Amsterdam and won twice the European Cup with AC Milan.
He made a tremendous managerial debut, as Dutch coach leading them to the semi finals of Euro 2000 and then resigned after having lost the semis. Later he won the UCL with Barcelona in 2005-2006. More important than his managerial record is Rijkaard’s football philosphy.
The Dutchman comes from the Ajax school, and has Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff as examples. He will always play forward, with the team as an offensive unit. Aimed at scoring goals, unlike Jose who’s tactics were built around not conceding goals. Exactly that what Sven and Trappatoni don’t have, that special flair, nose for the goal. Even as a player Rijkaard was dangerous and scored regularly (81 times in 414 games as a professional - FYI he was a central defender converted to a holding midfielder).
The perfect combination for Abramovich: a talented, experienced coach who has won everything already and who wants to entertain the crowd with goals. Just like in a perfect football tale.
Goals and success.
Avram Grant has no chance, he is only ad interim manager at Chelsea. But Kenyon and Co are not allowed to admit this, because it would harm the club, the squad’s performance. Just as it would have if Chelsea would publicly have admitted Jose got the sack. Already now some players were close to rebellion. The likes of Drogba, Essien and Carvalho probably would never have made it on to the biggest stage without Mourinho’s confidence and support. Nor would they want to play for a care taker. Especially not when no suitable high profile manager available is.
And then it happened. Ajax Amsterdam was eliminated from this year’s Champions League and the UEFA Cup. And Ajax’s (former) coach suddenly became available. Henk ten Cate, Frank Rijkaard’s right hand when Barcelona won the Champions League. The person who will assist Grant not only with his coach services, but also with his knowledge of the highest European stage, the Champions League. A coach who was ready to leave his manager job of one of the most famous Dutch clubs, Ajax, to work in the shadow of a nobody.
Finding himself in the same position as Avram Grant some months ago when he became Director of Football at Chelsea: able to control the manager, to put pressure on the squad and undermine the manager’s position. A much needed thing when Rijkaard gets the sack at Barcelona in some weeks (or months).
There’s no doubt either that ten Cate would agree with working as assistant of Rijkaard, like in Barcelona times.
Abrahamovich wants no nobody in control of Chelsea. Friendship doesn’t count in Abrahamovich’s business plan, he’s a multi-billionaire who only wants the best people in his team. Friends get honorary jobs, but not the axe.
If Grant would stay manager, with his little [European] experience on the highest stage he soon would get sacked too. If Abrahamovich wanted an intermediate coach he might as well have asked Steve Bruce, who at least is respected in England, instead of a nobody. But Grant matched the profile to push Mourinho out of Stamford Bridge and maintain the peace in the squad.
Until someone else is available. Until Frank Rijkaard can come to Stamford Bridge.
Franky writes at the OTHER Manchester United blog.
This article is a submission for the Soccerlens Football Writing Competition; to participate, please read the details here.
- Barcelona victims of ego and press
- Barcelona and Ronaldinho vs Eto’o
- Barcelona Necesita Deco
- Ronaldinho is no longer the future of Barcelona
- Writing Competition Closed
Discussion - 17 Responses
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Frankie - this is SO weird. I was just preparing an article on exactly the same topic.
The point I would add is that Rijkaard is known to be unhappy with the code of conduct crap and that this has surely increased after Laporta and Puyol confirmed that a paper copy of the code of conduct would be delivered to the dressing room in the next week or so. Laporta is not unwilling to ostracise Rijkaard and so it would not be a massive surprise to see him tempted away.
However, perhaps another question is the following: if both Milan and Chelsea come in for Rijkaard (which is very possible), whom will he choose?
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptA well organised offensive style, maybe someone who could bring the Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger style and pace to Stamford Bridge. But the German denied, returned to his wife and kids in sunny California, and Mourinho finally stayed … […]
Is this really news? Suprised, how is it going on Barca?
Another international break and the tabloids have to start another bullsh*t story. Henk Ten Cate may well join Chelsea but this has nothing to do with Rijkaard. Last season it was Ronaldinho, Eto’o and Deco who according to the British tabloids, were also supposed to be moving to England and yet they all stayed at Barça. How long before the Roman wants Messi stories?
Well I bet you Roman does want Messi; that doesn’t mean he’ll get him.
Do you seriously think that Frank Rijkaard will stay at the club for the entirety of this and next season? I don’t think he’ll be sacked - it’ll be a mutual parting, but irrespective of any personal problems, it is rare for a foreign manager to embed himself into one club for a long spurt (Wenger is an exception) - it’d make much more sense for Rijkaard to look for a new challenge at Chelsea or Milan (and he has the Milan connection). Why is that so difficult to conceive? No-one’s saying he’s going to leave this instant, but Ten Cate being at Chelsea certainly paves the way for a possible move.
Hugo, with the way Barça are playing at the moment I don’t see Rijkaard going anywhere soon, if he was unhappy with things he could have easily walked out at the end of last season. I’m not saying it is impossible, I have no crystal ball to say what will happen between now and the end of next season, and as we all know football is full of surprises. I just believe the tabloid stories are pure conjecture and these stories tend to appear when there is nothing else to write about, as in the summer and during international breaks.
A swap Mourinho-Rijkaard always seemed logical to me. No matter what has happened, Mourinho started at Barcelona and he also is hate by Real fans. And after years of offensive Dutch coaches, who rather underperformed I can perfectly imagine that Laporta would opt for a manager who has the winning spirit but plays a little less spectacularly.
Bachtiar and Nig, no news, no gossip… read it as an ‘editorial column’.
Gossip, tabloid-worthy bullsh*t stories would have been along the lines of ‘Ronaldo and Mourinho visited a Lisbon table dance bar last night and left together in the early hours through the back exit with 3 girls’.
Btw… who calls SL a tabloid? I see no page 3 girls in this entry.
This is possibly the most complete garbage I’ve ever read.
- His name isn’t “Abrahamovich”
- He never arrived at Stamford Bridge in a helicopter (ever)
- He didn’t decide Mourinho would have to leave in May (maybe January, maybe after the Villa game in September, but not May).
- He brought in Ballack and Shevchenko in only his 4th of his 5 years at the club
- He never owned CSKA Moscow
- He never had any previous experience at any football club
- He never managed multi-billion companies. He owned them and got someone else to manage them
- Klinsmann was never met in London. It was in America
- Trapattoni may well be available but he’s 68 and in Salzburg. I think you meant Lippi (age 59 - still too old)
- Rijkaard did not make a tremendous managerial debut. In his first season he was relegated with Sparta Rotterdam
- It’s doubtful Ten Cate would be pleased to be #2 to Rijkaard. He left CL and La Liga Champions Barcelona when in the same position in order to get a #1 spot at Ajax. Why should he go backwards again?
Given all that, the rest isn’t even good English let alone anything more than platitudes. It’s just complete and utter drivel from first word to last.
Good luck on that writing competition entry, Franky. The wooden spoon prize is surely yours.
Off topic: I would hate to see Mourinho take over at Barcelona. No doubt he’s a brilliant tactician, but he’s very defensive minded. Not to start an argument over “effective” football v “beautiful” football but to me, it would just be a waste of the huge offensive potential present in the current Barca squad. Not to mention the youngsters (only rivalled by those at Arsenal and Manchester United IMO) slowly being integrated into the squad. It’s hard to predict the course a board room will take, but it just seems more logical that if/when Rijkaard (who you can hardly call ‘underperforming’) leaves, they will opt for a coach that carries on with this offensive legacy. They definitely have the squad for it and I’m pretty sure the fans have come to expect it of their team as well. Just ask the Manchester United fans, I’m sure they’re glad they were able to avoid dropping a lot of points, but I’m pretty sure they are even happier that Man U finally seem to be moving away from the scrappy (or sometimes downright boring) 1 - 0 wins.
On topic: good article, kind of curious myself how things will change at Chelsea. It’s pretty obvious that Grant won’t be there for a very long time. With the finances and player potential present at Chelsea, Rijkaard could probably realise Abramovic’s dream of winning things with attractive football…but then again, it’s a funny old game, even the world’s best striker somehow managed to turn crap when joining the blues
[…] Are Chelsea preparing for the arrival of Frank Rijkaard? […]
Sid - I’ll leave aside the rest of the venom (my focus is to choose to filter through inaccuracies and read for the gist) and just focus on this:
“It’s doubtful Ten Cate would be pleased to be #2 to Rijkaard. He left CL and La Liga Champions Barcelona when in the same position in order to get a #1 spot at Ajax. Why should he go backwards again?”
Hasn’t he just agreed to work at Chelsea under an unknown, Avram Grant?? So why would he be so very averse to working under Frank Rijkaard at Chelsea? Or is a case of Ten Cate staking his independence from Rijkaard in particular? I’m curious.
[…] were expected to be quiet this week, I went ahead and have a guest post at Soccerlens, wondering if Chelsea’s preparing the arrival of Frank RIjkaard.Don’t believe all the writing competition gossip and rumours, I already had promised Ahmed to […]
- Rijkaard made his debut as Coach with the Dutch national team.
- Owning something and letting others manage it, is called manage as well. It’s a century old Roman war principle, the term first nailed by Julius Caesar: Divide et Impera.
- ten Cate left Ajax for a role as #2 in the shadow of a nobody.
- Nope, I meant Trappatoni.
- Think a control freak such as Roman would not try to have obtained more control in CSKA than just a sponsor deal? Dream on, he’s a tycoon. He wants to know everything before opening the wallet. Think one would not think twice and investigate before banging $54m in a sponsor deal? Yes, that’s also (gathering) experience.
- Who cares when he brought Ballack and Sheva? Thing is, Mourinho didn’t want them, it was the oligarch’s power play.
- No one knows when he decided Mourinho had to leave. May is a guess because both UCL and Prem were lost. The Villa game was not important, more important was the direct attack in the days after (A-Class eggs)
- I wonder why Abrahamovich (I’m a ManU fan, I’ll call Romain whatever I want) invested 600.000GBP in a helipad on top of the Chelsea Village Hotel (Sunday Mirror, 28 March 2004). Surely not because his Sussex - Stamford trips took him more than an hour, and not because he regularly already flies to Weybridge for breakfast.
Otherwise there was a style figure in the entry, it was about the fairy tale.
Sorry about the Klinsmann error, I would have sworn the lunch was in London, as Klinsmann was in the capital visiting the company I work for end May. My bad.
Last but not least, no worries about the writing competition, Ahmed knows I just wanted to contribute hors competition. Heck, I write for an indirectly competing blog, with fan flair. There’s no way I’d want to be a regular contributor (on contract) on this popular blog where many times commenters forget it’s a blog, it’s supposed to be opinionated and doesn’t require a MBA in English. But even people writing in their fourth language are allowed to badly research and submit an entry.
Why don’t you submit an article? I’m happy with my wooden spoon. Actually I need one as the kitchen equipment goes to my soon to be ex.
Tottaly right about the Page 3 girls Franky. Ahmed, you should do something about that;)
To answer your question in the title: YES!! I am sure that if Rijkaard does not win a couple of trophies this season he will swap with Mourinho. An yes, I would also hate to see Mour at Barca. I have said before in a post that if anyone can make Barcelona play ugly footy it has to be the Special One, because it would be a special feat.
franky - nig was talking about your news sources, not SL
and yes, maybe I should setup a page 3 for SL? Keep the random pics off the main page, so to speak?
[…] the full story here Der Beitrag wurde am Wednesday, den 10. October 2007 um 03:43 Uhr veröffentlicht und wurde […]
I think Roman Abramovich will offer Frank Rijkaard the Chelsea job and if Rijkaard doesnt win the La Liga trophey, then he will take manager at chelsea but that is my opinion…
I would love to see henk ten cate and frank rijkaard work together again but also chelsea need a new stadium