The 2011/12 Gary Speed Memorial Thread

[The Quasi Juice]

Call me old fashioned but paying 13.2m just to get a new coach is still a shitload of money. He better bring Chelsea some trophies.

Edited June 21, 2011 by The Quasi Juice

[stokeriño]

Yeah, well... All us Chelsea fans can do these days is shrug our shoulders and say "that's how Roman rolls".

[MDK]

Call me old fashioned but paying 13.2m just to get a new coach is still a shitload of money. He better bring Chelsea some trophies.

You are old fashioned.

Back in my day he'd have signed for a pint of bitter and a packet of pork scratchings.

[Matt]

To be fair a manager is more important than an average first team player and I think Chelsea would be prepared to spend 13.2m on a winger that only started 50% of the time.

[stokeriño]

To be fair a manager is more important than an average first team player and I think Chelsea would be prepared to spend 13.2m on a winger that only started 50% of the time.

How about £18m on a winger that only started 10% of the time?

Paging Yuri Zhirkov...

[Matt]

To be fair a manager is more important than an average first team player and I think Chelsea would be prepared to spend 13.2m on a winger that only started 50% of the time.

How about £18m on a winger that only started 10% of the time?

Paging Yuri Zhirkov...

As I hit "post", Zhirkov immediately came to mind.

[MDK]

48 appearances in two seasons isn't bad, is it? So wikipedia tells me.

[stokeriño]

Edit: Nevermind, was looking at only league stats...

Suffice to say, I wub Zhirkov but he does get injured a hell of a lot.

[Liam]

And to be honest, Zhirkov is a really good player. Could have done so much better than just ended up sitting on the bench (admittedly injured predominantly >_>) at Chelsea.

[Matt]

48 appearances in two seasons isn't bad, is it? So wikipedia tells me.

Given that Chelsea will have played about 120 games in that time and most of those 48 will be sub appearances, yeah it probably is pretty bad.

[stokeriño]

(Y)

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

The Reading boss was talking about Villas-Boas on talksport last night. He knows him pretty well because of old scouting assignments or SOMETHING. Anyway it could turn out that this guy may be the bestest, most loveliest, grooviest manager that there's ever been. (Y)

[Lineker]

Andre Villas-Boas has been confirmed as Chelsea's new manager.

The former Porto boss has signed a three-year deal with the London club and will begin work immediately.

Villas-Boas, 33, is the same age as players Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba but won the Portuguese league, league cup and Europa League last season.

"Andre was the outstanding candidate for the job. He is one of the most talented young managers in football today," Chelsea said in a statement.

"He has already achieved much in a relatively short space of time. His ambition, drive and determination matches that of Chelsea and we are confident Andre's leadership of the team will result in greater successes in major domestic and European competitions.

"Andre will bring his coaching experience back to a club he is already very familiar with, having previously worked here for three years. He has always been highly regarded at Chelsea and everyone here looks forward to welcoming him back and working with him."

Chelsea paid the £13.3m compensation to release the Portuguese coach from his Porto contract, with Villas-Boas succeeding former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti, who was sacked after a trophyless season.

Former Chelsea boss John Hollins believes Villas-Boas could prove to be a shrewd acquisition for the west London club, who are yet to realise owner Roman Abramovich's dream of winning the Champions League, and were beaten in the semi-finals by Manchester United last season.

"He could be fearless," Hollins told BBC Sport. "I think it could be a breath of fresh air, bringing in a fresh approach to this maybe tired football team.

"This guy is as young as some of the players are so he will be on the same wavelength with them, but is it going to be a three or four year programme as opposed to having to win something in his first year? That is the one thing we don't know yet, but he has won three competitions in Portugal just like that so he could be a whizzkid.

"It's a gamble but I think it's calculated gamble. I still don't know if Guus Hiddink will be coming as an advisor to the young man, if he does that will only strengthen the position."

Under Villas-Boas last season, Porto were unbeaten in the league, with 27 wins in 30 matches, becoming only the second Portuguese club to complete a league campaign without losing a game, after Benfica in 1972-73.

A scout for compatriot Jose Mourinho at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan, Villas-Boas began his managerial career with Portuguese club Academica in October 2009.

Academica were winless and bottom of the first division at the time but finished the season in 11th place.

They also reached a Portuguese League Cup semi-final before Villas-Boas left to take over at Porto in June 2010.

Villas-Boas, who speaks fluent English, also worked with Sir Bobby Robson during the former England manager's spell in charge of Porto.

[Summers]

Potentially a very, very, good appointment.

[Starvinho]

It's a big step-up for a such a young manager but everything I've heard about him seems to be very positive. He could be the breath of fresh air that Chelsea need to take them to the next step, or he could be a disaster and be gone in 6 months. His first few games are gonna be crucial.

[stokeriño]

Stokerina's priorities... She approves of AVB because she saw him on TV yesterday and deemed him to be 'cute'.

[Crybaby Bunting]

So after buying him for £15m-ish they only give him a 3 year contract?

You'd have thought they'd have wanted him on a contract that ran as long as possible so he doesn't do the same thing and move to Real Madrid or something like that

[stokeriño]

So what you're saying is they should be preparing for circumstances in which AVB wants to leave Chelsea prior to being sacked.

I think they're all realistic enough to know that will never happen.

[Hobo]

It's a big step-up for a such a young manager but everything I've heard about him seems to be very positive. He could be the breath of fresh air that Chelsea need to take them to the next step, or he could be a disaster and be gone in 6 months. His first few games are gonna be crucial.

That's just a padded out way of saying he could do well, or not do very well.

[stokeriño]

Better than what Souness said about him. He could have said "I hate his stupid face" and it wouldn't have changed the tone of his comments a great deal.