Can Scolari do better than Grant?
Chelsea have named their new manager – Portugal boss Luiz Felipe Scolari. Scolari will take over at Stamford Bridge on 1 July.
Congratulations Chelsea fans – regardless of where one stood on Avram Grant’s impact on Chelsea’s performances last season, at least everyone can agree that Scolari has excellent managerial pedigree and will command the respect of the players in the Chelsea dressing room.
Chelsea statement:
“Felipe has great qualities. He is one of the world’s top coaches with a record of success at country and club level. He gets the best out of a talented squad of players and his ambitions and expectations match ours. He was the outstanding choice.
Out of respect for his current role and to ensure minimum disruption to this work there will be no further comment from Chelsea nor from Felipe about his new role until his employment with us commences.”
But all the debate – over his lack of European club-level managerial experience, the language barrier and the instability caused by a change of guard for the second time in less than one year – is secondary to the one question that matters most:
Can Scolari take Chelsea one step further than Grant?
Keep in mind that under Grant, Chelsea went to penalties in the Champions League Final and went to the last day of the season for the league title. Of course you know that. But keep those performances in mind when discussing Scolari’s potential impact?
Can Scolari help Chelsea beat Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool?
How will his managerial style stack up to Rafa, Wenger and Ferguson?
Can Scolari bring Champions League success to Chelsea?
The floor is yours. Please keep it civil 
Topics: Arsenal, Chelsea, English Premier League, Features, Liverpool, Luis Felipe Scolari, Manchester United, UEFA Champions League
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hiring a manager with no European Club experience is going to be a disaster.
June 12th, 2008 @ 00:23So that explains why Big Phil was advising Ronaldo to join Real Madrid. To remove a big thorn in Chelsea’s aspirations for glory next year.
June 12th, 2008 @ 00:47simply put, no. I follow Chelsea intensely as you know Ahmed, and he has no european club experience. We needed Hughes, Ancelotti, or Rijkaard. All of them are very good managers, and we got stuck with a good manager, but no club experience. The only way this works out, is if he can bring Ronaldo with him.
June 12th, 2008 @ 02:19i think we will see some more portoguese and brazilians in chelsea. Scolari personally isnt my fav coach. he is good but unproven at club level. Will he do better then grant? I think he wont because man.u, liverpool and especially arsenal will be stronger next season and there are teams like man city and tottenham that are spending heavily. We should get into the CL semi’s at least though.
June 12th, 2008 @ 04:24He’s good at international level, but he’ll probably have to prove himself in club level. But he’s got the knack to bring out the best from his players, which is what we need at Chelsea.
Maybe he’ll rope in Portugese and Brazilians (Deco, Quaresma, anyone?)
June 12th, 2008 @ 05:46Deco – what for? Lampard, Ballack, Essien and Mikel will stay, so they don’t really ‘need’ Deco.
The Brazilian connection might see Ronaldinho / Kaka moving to Chelsea.
June 12th, 2008 @ 06:23Deco would bring a little more imagination to the efficient Chelsea midfield – which reminds you more of German efficiency than Brazilian/Latin magic. Abramovich wants both imagination and efficiency. He wants his teams to win plaudits for the aesthetic quality of their play and not just titles which reflect relentless efficiency.
I think Scolari will do well. In particular, he will overhaul the pragmatism of Chelsea’s play.
He’s a fine addition in the managerial stakes for the EPL. A big personality. As well as having a number of the best club sides in Europe, the EPL also has some of the best coaches in European club football (Wenger, Ferguson, Ramos, Benitez and now Scolari). Arguably only the likes of Mourinho, Ancellotti and Rikjaard (and maybe one or two others) are missing.
Ferguson v. Scolari sounding off against each other and the fourth officials on the touch-lines: now that should make for interesting viewing.
June 12th, 2008 @ 08:28Scolari is a title winner, a hard fighting coach, his past proves it.
June 12th, 2008 @ 11:45In Brazil he won, among other titles, the Brazilian Cup (their FA Cup, or something) with a 2nd division club, and toppings: against one of the finest 1st division clubs… Picture it as if that darn Barnsley battled chelsea and WON (sounds familiar), but in a final.
He managed to grab the world cup in 2002 with a hopeless brazilian side.
He’s got the guts for knockout tournaments.
Plus he’s an adedpt of robotic/efficient football with rare sparks of beauty and art, brazilian press (and the other clubs) hated him for that… Chelsea, anyone?
I’m just saying this so you can see the real reason why he’s the new chelsea manager: Winning the UEFA Champions League, Our Lord Roman Abramovich’s childhood dream.
This isn’t without its risks and challenges, but c’mon, putting Grant and Scolari’s name in the same sentence is an insult to grammar and decency!
June 12th, 2008 @ 13:20I can’t wait for the poaching wars between Inter and Chelsea to begin– and how long does it take for UEFA to rig the Champions League draw and slot Chelsea and Inter in the same group??
http://startingeleven.blogspot.com/2008/06/chelsea-hires-scolari-best-portuguese.html
Chelsea must keep Steve Clarke. He knows the club, the players and the EPL inside out. He was invaluable to Mourinho. He will be invaluable to Scolari.
Mike:
June 12th, 2008 @ 13:34I’m not sure that they can end up in the same Champions League Group. Aren’t Chelsea on the back of their performances over the last 5 seasons (3 CL semi-finals and one final) now going to be put in pot 1, along with Inter? Even better than meeting in the group stage, how much juicier for them to meet in the knock-out stages. How about the semi-finals?
I have no doubt Scolari will do well as the new Chelsea manager, but only because he has expendable amount of money. The only reason he won the 2002 World Cup is simply down the Ronaldo (Brazialian one). During qualification for the tournament, they were the closest they have ever been to not qualifying for the the World Cup losing to teams like, Bolivia 3-1 under his management. Through out every qualification for the World Cup prior to the 2002 World Cup Qualification they had lost just one game. Under Scolari for the 2002 tournament they lost 6 qualification games, resulting in qualification being sealed in the last game. A very lucky manager, if Ronaldo hadn’t come back from injury when he did it could have been very embarrassing for Brazil. Not a patch on Ferguson or Wenger
June 13th, 2008 @ 15:36Chelsea erred by sacking Grant. He came on board when Chelsea was wallowing after the departure of Mourinho and he steadied the team, leading them all the way to the CL final. Scolari does not look like the messiah to me… He is a decent coach who has worked with world class players… That does not make him a world class coach. Arsene Wenger is one… (Hurts me to say that, I’m a Man Utd fan!)
June 23rd, 2008 @ 12:00In fact, most of you are wrong. So far, we have beaten most of the teams before the ‘real’ game begins. It looks as though Man U will lose this season.
We, I, believe in Scolari
Go CHELSEA. Woot.
August 12th, 2008 @ 13:02