Findcate

By the time Chelsea’s managerial pursuit had officially begun, with the sacking of Avram Grant in May, it appeared that they had limited options to choose from. Sven Goran Eriksson, thought to be Roman Abramovich’s first choice back in 2003 after ‘purely a social meeting’, had already been courting the Mexican FA after being axed by Thaksin Shinawatra. Frank Rijkaard was mentioned, but he hasn’t enjoyed as much success as he did whilst Henk Ten Cate was involved with the coaching at Barca.

Ten Cate is also a man who, ironically, has also just been sacked by Chelsea. Marco van Basten had already signed a contract to take over at Ajax after this summer’s Euro tournament, back in February. Similarly, Jurgen Klinsmann was already in line to replace the retiring Ottmar Hitzfeld at Bayern Munich, a deal that was arranged at the turn of this year. AC Milan claim that Carlo Ancelotti has been pursued by Chelsea, yet would he have even been the right man for the Russian owner so adamant on his footballing investments playing an attacking brand? Ancelotti has come under fire for favouring a defensive style of football, and could well have ended up like Capello under the Madrid regime of you’re out if you win ugly.

You have to give credit where it is due though, and Scolari did mastermind three successive international tournament knock-outs to the English national team. It just strikes me as odd that if you are scouting the Euro internationals for footballing talent, in terms of both players, and managers, then why not go for one of the up and coming coaches who are certain to have successes in front of them given the right opportunities.

In the English leagues stability and success seem synonymous. Look at Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, and even, to a lesser degree, Hereford United and Graham Turner. All at their clubs for 22, 12, and 13 years respectively. Wenger was a little known French coach with experience in the Japanese J League and French Ligue Une, and Ferguson had enjoyed successes in the Scottish Premier division.

Tags: ac milan, ajax, arsene wenger, avram grant, bayern munich, boise, carlo ancelotti, cate, chelsea, defensive style, first choice, ford, frank rijkaard, french coach, french ligue, goran eriksson, graham turner, henk, hereford united, j league, jurgen klinsmann, knock outs, manchester united, marco van basten, ottmar hitzfeld, roman abramovich, sir alex ferguson, ten cate, thaksin shinawatra

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Just so long as Abramovich does not expect wins of this magnitude to become a habit. At heart this is still the Chelsea of Mourinho, based on sound defensive principles with Mikel’s assiduous tracking-down of Elano, City’s Brazilian inspiration, as crucial as their attacking excellence. Impressive though it was, moreover, Saturday’s performance needs to be kept in perspective. City’s manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, was not being disingenuous when he declared “we made Chelsea look better than they are today”.From Chelsea’s point of view what made the result significant, in addition to the winning margin, was the eagerness with which their players sought further goals long after the contest had been decided. This would not have been Mourinho’s way. Once Didier Drogba’s second goal had given Chelsea a 3-0 lead before the hour the game would have been rapidly wound down as the team played out time.Grant sees things rather differently which is why he is now in charge. “We are concentrating on attacking football,” he said. “How to move right, how to behave right, how to get the best out of the players and make them better. I know we cannot do it in every game over the 90 minutes but I think we need in modern football for people to come and have fun.”Under Mourinho fun was strictly rationed, like sweets in wartime, and despite Grant’s good intentions Chelsea will still experience occasions when the frolics have to take second place to achieving a satisfactory result. Nevertheless, Stamford Bridge should be in for a few more fun days to judge from the way the full-backs, Juliano Belletti, Paulo Ferreira and, when fit, Ashley Cole, are allowed to overlap in attack whereas previously they were tethered to the halfway line.Saturday’s success, however, was rooted more in Chelsea’s mastery of the midfield in which Frank Lampard was outstanding with Michael Essien not far behind. There was a telling moment in the ninth minute when Dietmar Hamann completely sold himself as he went to challenge Lampard and found himself tackling thin air. Seven years earlier, on a similar grey October afternoon at Wembley, Hamann had set in train events which led to Eriksson becoming England manager when he ran the midfield for Germany in a World Cup qualifier and scored the winner, Kevin Keegan resigning when the game ended. Now Hamann suffered echoes of Germany’s 5-1 defeat by Eriksson’s England a year later.Manchester City remain a pratfall waiting to happen but their early-season form under Eriksson had been impressive, not least because of the discipline and composure he had brought to the defence.”Maybe there has been too much talk about us playing good football,” he said, “and I will not blame anyone for that but if you don’t defend well then these things will happen that have happened today. If you give Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Joe Cole all the time and space we gave them they will kill you, and they killed us. I am not talking about the four defenders. If you defend in football today you have to defend with 11. We did exactly the opposite.”Bereft of midfield cover City’s back four were drawn and quartered, most notably by Lampard’s superb diagonal ball, which sent in Drogba for Chelsea’s second, his cushioned pass having set up Essien for their first. Drogba scored again after Lampard, who looked offside, had seen his shot parried by Joe Hart, and the Ivorian’s nod-down released Cole to score a fourth. Essien then created a fifth for Salomon Kalou and a sixth for Shevchenko.By this time Javier Garrido, allegedly City’s left-back, might as well have worn a notice saying All Through Traffic. Not that Chelsea needed any guidance. They were having fun.Man of the match Frank Lampard (Chelsea)

Tags: ashley cole, chelsea, england manager, ford, goran eriksson, henk, lampard, pace, spira

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That the Israeli triumphed so impressively could be attributed to the efforts of two of his predecessor’s staunchest allies. Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba were immense again, the midfielder central to the first three of Chelsea’s goals, the forward driving home numbers two and three. While some wondered whether the betrayal of Mourinho would have come so early in the season had this pair been fit from the start of it, this was undoubtedly a day for Abramovich and Grant to savour.’I smiled,’ said Grant. ‘I enjoyed it for the winning and the way of the winning. I enjoyed that we are in the middle of a process and we continue to do it step-by-step. Maybe today it was two steps.’We have concentrated on attacking football, on how to move right, on how to behave right, how to get the best from the players and how to make them better. That’s what we want from them, but I think it’s more important that they ask it from themselves.’Sven-Goran Eriksson enjoyed not a minute of it. ‘I’m very disappointed,’ said the City manager. ‘It’s the first time in my life that I lose 6-0 and I’m sure it’s the first time for most of my players. I was very kind to Avram today. I didn’t want to be that kind. I’m sure he will do well, but we made him and Chelsea better than they should be today; we were awful defending. It is a wake-up call for all of us.’Henk ten Cate had spent much of his first week of hands-on training delivering a wake-up call of his own to the Chelsea squad. The %26#163;40,000-a-week ‘assistant first-team coach’ began riling them on Monday when he halted his first full session to chastise some for laughing. Matters worsened on Thursday when the Dutchman put the team through a full programme of sprinting, box-to-box running and a 10-versus-10 half-pitch game the morning after their Champions League victory over Schalke. This is a radical departure from Mourinho’s calibrated regime, in which players engaged only in light sessions post-match.How much smoother the regime change at City, where Eriksson has turned over half his playing staff, established an economical counterattacking style and guided the club to long-forgotten heights. His men started the stronger here, filtering the ball to Elano at every opportunity. Like much of the Premier League before him, John Obi Mikel struggled with the quick-witted Brazilian, hacking him down twice in early breaks. One of the playmaker’s deft chips put Stephen Ireland free on goal where a too-delicate header was parried away; a thunderous 35-yard free-kick was wonderfully clawed out of the top corner by Petr Cech.Between those opportunities, though, possession and pressure was mostly Chelsea’s, their power regularly taking them to the edge of Hart’s penalty area. After 16 minutes, Mikel combined with Lampard to release Michael Essien, who strode onwards, collected himself and dragged the ball low across Hart and in. A similar sally into the space between Micah Richards and Javier Garrido all but allowed Drogba to add a second. It was only a postponement.Richards ill-advisedly wound up Lampard in a tangle for possession and, after both had been booked, Chelsea’s captain extracted beautiful revenge. Collecting possession from Salomon Kalou 40 yards out and with his back to goal, the midfielder turned and spun a pass of forensic precision behind the City defence. Unlike his opponents, Drogba saw it coming and cantered on to strike through Hart’s legs.The game was now stretched and Kalou almost extended Chelsea’s advantage. At the other end, Ireland was a foot away from reducing it when teed up by Garrido and Michael Johnson’s quick interplay.It was only an interlude. As Thaksin Shinawatra, the City owner, took his turn at looking glum, Drogba and Kalou worked Lampard into a shooting position and though Hart parried that effort away, the ball fell to Drogba to carry back across the area and wallop past the City goalkeeper in the 56th minute.Unused to such deficits, the visitors continued to push forward, leaving larger and larger gaps for their opponents to exploit. After an hour, Drogba nodded Joe Cole into a particularly broad one and the right-winger ramped up the volume again. Kalou took the total to five from one fine Essien pass, Andriy Shevchenko made it six with another.’Boring, boring Chelsea,’ sang a contented home support still not ready to put Grant’s name into voice. A few more of these and they just might.Man of the match: Frank Lampard (Chelsea)

Tags: cate, champion, champions league, chelsea, dutchman, goran eriksson, henk, lampard, pace, premier league, smile, team coach, ten cate, thaksin shinawatra

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But no. The Mill saw the light. The Daily Mail’s problem pages revealed how Roman Abramovich has wandering eyes and can’t help flirting with Dutch lovelies. Frank Rijkaard is the latest stunner thought to be on Chelsea’s never-ending shopping list. With the imminent arrival of Henk ten Cate from Ajax, it was assumed that Roman would bring in Guus Hiddink, but the Mill reads that Ajax striker Klaas-Jan Hunterlaar will be dragged into the Stamford Bridge vortex of doom, followed by Barcelona-based supermodel Rijkaard in the summer. One onlooker, who wasn’t there, is thought not to have said: “They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. They looked so in love.”The Mirror’s agony uncles report that heartbroken Martin Jol has found out that - as Barry White once said - love is really a hurting thing. Big Marty Jol wanted to walk out on ungrateful spouse Spurs and straight into the arms of Ajax, but his dreams of a place in the sun were gazumped when Ajax appointed their youth team coach instead.Staying with White Heartbreak Lane, the Super Soaraway says Russian captain Andrei Arshavin could be on his way to London for a stormy fling with the Lillywhites. Talks have begun with the right-sided midfielder from Zenit St Petersburg who led his country against England last month, after which he said of potential love-interest Paul Robinson: “England do not have normal keepers. Robinson is not the strongest representative of his profession.”Dear Deirdre, I like to call my own penis “the Hulk”. Am I normal? writes JD (The Bench, White Hart Lane). And yet again from the house of pain, the Express are claiming Sven-Goran Eriksson wants occasional England scamperer and trousersnake-namer Jermain Defoe to move to Manchester City. Sven, not shy of a little roleplay himself, will try to bring Defoe to Eastlands in the January transfer window for %26#163;12m.”I am a rich, successful and handsome man but my demanding nature keeps putting potential partners off. I’ve had a series of short and stormy relationships, but I’m so impatient that if I don’t get exactly what I want, I dump them and just pick up someone else.” No, not the Mill writing about itself (though it might as well be). The Express say Simon Jordan is about to appoint Neil Warnock as the successor to Peter Taylor as manager at Selhurst Park.And for a few “Lite Bites”(TM), Sheffield United and Wolves are vying for the signature of Manchester United midfielder Darren Gibson. The 19-year-old, who decided to play for the Republic rather than Northern Ireland, is on loan at the Blades, but Mick McCarthy wants to lure Gibson away by leaving a trail of dolly mixtures from the car park at Bramall Lane to his office at Molineux. Aston Villa hope to complete the deal this week for Togo midfielder Moustapha Salifou, who is still waiting for international clearance.

Tags: ajax, cate, chelsea, ford, frank rijkaard, goran eriksson, henk, hiddink, manchester united, roman abramovich, rumours, team coach, ten cate, way to london

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