AVB: I’m staying even if we lose

Andre Villas-Boas has dismissed suggestions he will be sacked as Chelsea manager if his side lose at Napoli tonight and insists he is already planning for next season.

The Portuguese has been under constant scrutiny since succeeding Carlo Ancelotti in the summer and it had been suggested he will be lose his job if the first leg of tonight’s Champions League second round clash goes disastrously wrong.

Yet despite having failed to win in four games, the 34-year-old mounted a robust defence of his ‘project’, claiming Roman Abramovich, the owner, was fully behind him.

The statement carried added weight as Ron Gourlay, the chief executive, and Bruce Buck, Chelsea’s chairman, stood at the back of the room as their manager stared down the doom-mongers — some of whom are seemingly within his own dressing room.

And Didier Drogba, who is almost certain to replace the misfiring Fernando Torres in the Stadio San Paulo this evening, also backed his manager ahead of what is a potentially season-defining game for the club.

But while it would be unwise to underestimate the danger of a Napoli side who knocked out Manchester City in the group stages and possess one of the most fearsome forward lines in Europe in the shape of Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi, Villas-Boas exuded an air of authority under pressure.

“There’s an obvious tendency for that, in the past, to happen,” said the 34-year-old when asked why he would be given time by Abramovich when the likes of Ancelotti, Jose Mourinho and Luiz Felipe Scolari have not.

“But from the messages you’ve received from the club and the board in the recent past, there’s a clear indication that there’s a change in the way we approach the projects for the future.

“We have great belief in what we will do next year, setting up a team to bring us the biggest amount of trophies we can have.

“In terms of the results this year, the speculation is normal given the cultural past of this football club, but you have to understand that there’s a different perspective now.

“I’m really confident about next year. That doesn’t take any responsibility for what’s happening now, but we had a three-year project to change not only the team, but the culture and structure of the club.

“There’s a lot we needed to do, a lot of plans, so that’s why I’m excited about the future.”

Yet Villas-Boas cannot ignore the present.

Chelsea have been woeful of late, lacking any spark as an attacking force while being far too generous defensively.

The fear is that the high defensive line Villas-Boas has introduced will play directly into the hands of Napoli, who are astonishingly deadly on the counter-attack. Add to that the fact that John Terry and Ashley Cole will face late fitness tests and this could be as ugly as Arsenal’s defeat in Milan last week.

Yet this team contains proven winners, in the likes of Drogba, Terry and Frank Lampard. Indeed, that could even be the problem — in what other club would the incoming manager have to prove himself to the players, rather than the other way round?

Drogba, for example, was accused of giving the team-talk at half-time in Saturday’s woeful FA Cup draw with Birmingham — something the club strongly reject.

The Ivorian supported his manager here, but actions speak far louder than words.

“I think we can feel that nobody really believes in us,” admitted the Ivorian, who was sorely missed while on Africa Cup of Nations duty.

“We are used to this competition and we’re going to have to show we deserve to be here. Napoli are at this stage of the competition because they deserve it. This is a cup game and we are going to have to make a good result. We’ll have to be clever and we’re going to do what the manager is going to ask us to do. Like always, of course.”

That was Drogba’s last act before he left the press conference, with both he and Villas-Boas slapping each other’s backs in a bizarre show of unity.

Napoli deserve respect, having risen from the third division back in 2004, when they were declared bankrupt. Their rise has been astonishing.

Yet to put that in context, in 2004 Villas-Boas had just been appointed Chelsea’s opposition scout by Mourinho. As it stands, only he is fully convinced he will not be declared short on credit before the season’s end.