Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has suggested that the club’s hierarchy should make it clear that they back his long term vision for the club. According to the Daily Mail.
Villas-Boas has repeatedly fended off dispersions on his long term future at Stamford Bridge and maintains that he has the full backing of owner Roman Abramovich.
The Portuguese manager is growing tired however of mounting speculation that he is on borrowed time by dropping a hint to his employers: “These words would be more valuable coming from the top. I cannot keep saying them.”
Villas-Boas has presided over the club’s least successful period since Russian billionaire Abramovich took control of the club in 2003. The West London outfit have accrued a miserly 3 points from their last 4 league games and have not won since 14 January.
They currently lie fifth in the Premier League, are out of the League Cup and face an FA Cup fifth round replay at St Andrew’s after being held 1-1 by Championship side Birmingham City at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Speaking on the day before the Blues Champions League game with Napoli, AVB insists he is in the middle of a three year restructuring process that will “sustain” their long term success.
“In terms of the results this year,” added Villas-Boas. “The speculation is normal given the cultural past of this football club, but you have to understand that there’s a different perspective now.
“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. That’s why I’m excited about the future.
“Having said that, we have to build a team to win trophies.
“We’re no longer in the Carling Cup and don’t have a chance to win the title. But we are still confident we can do well in the Champions League and the FA Cup.”
The club’s joint top scorer Daniel Sturridge had insisted earlier in the day that they are not “a divided unit”.
“We are a family and we’ve got a good unit going,” the 22-year-old told Chelsea TV. “Maybe we will see that in the next few games.”
Fellow Blues striker Didier Drogba said: “We feel that no one really believes in us.
“We are going to show we deserve to be here. It’s a top game and we are going to have to get a good result.”
Drogba denied that he gave a half-time “team talk” to Chelsea when they were a goal down in Saturday’s FA Cup tie against Birmingham before coming back to draw.
Cameras picked up footage of Didier Drogba giving a pep talk in the Stamford Bridge tunnel just before the start of the second half.
Drogba’s apparent motivational speech will have done nothing to quell talk of growing rifts between Chelsea players and the manager but the Ivorian said:
“The manager made the speech at half-time. He has leaders in the squad and we are here to help him.
“We wanted to gee the team up at half-time and nothing more.”
