AVB: I’ll survive Euro crisis
Speculation is rife over whether or not billionaire Blues owner Roman Abramovich will keep patience with Villas-Boas should the Portuguese fail to arrest the club’s nightmare start to the season.
Having been dumped out of the Carling Cup by Liverpool this week — albeit with a youthful team — Chelsea could find themselves out of the Champions League on Tuesday if they do not win, or keep a clean sheet, in their final Group E match against Valencia.
Failure to reach the last 16 would be unprecedented during the Abramovich era and would compound a start to the Premier League that sees the Blues 10 points behind leaders Manchester City and outside the top four.
They could lose even more ground if they do not win at Newcastle tomorrow or beat City at Stamford Bridge on Monday week.
That would leave them in the kind of position that has seen Abramovich pull the trigger in the past — but Villas-Boas was adamant he would not suffer the same fate, regardless of results over the next 10 days.
Asked why that was, he said: “Because I was brought in for a three-year project and we believe in it.”
Contracts have not prevented Abramovich wielding the axe in the past but to jettison a man he paid Porto more than £13m for during the summer would be hugely embarrassing for the Russian.
It would also defeat the object of Villas-Boas’ appointment, which was made in order to transform the way Chelsea play over the course of the next three years.
That is proving far more difficult than anyone envisaged but Villas-Boas insisted yesterday his attacking philosophy was not the cause of the Blues’ miserable run of two wins and five defeats in their last nine games.
“The philosophy is not a cancer — we are not speaking about something that is wrong,” said Villas-Boas, who reiterated that his players were fully behind his approach amid fresh reports of dissent.
The 34-year-old also denied Chelsea’s season had reached crisis point, adding: “It’s at crisis point for everyone that speculates with what is happening and with events that are not happening at this football club. But we just have to pull ourselves together.”
One of Villas-Boas’ predecessors, meanwhile, has called on Chelsea to give the Portuguese time to turn things around.
Avram Grant said: “It’s tough times there but they signed a coach that deserves support. The results are not so good but they need to give him time.
“They need to give him all the support that he needs.
“It’s one of the things you need to give a new manager, especially him because he’s young. He’s facing new situations.”
Grant thinks Chelsea will remain behind Villas-Boas.
He told the BBC: “In this situation, you need to be strong. There are serious people in charge and they know the situation is not so good.
“But they know there’s a lot of time to recover. It will be good for everybody to be more patient — patience is always a good thing. I think it will happen.”
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