'I'm very saddened by it,' Ray Wilkins says of his recent exit.
'My whole family is. We've been Chelsea-ites for years and years.
But I'm realistic enough that football doesn't surprise me any
more.' Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian
In his smartly tailored pin-stripe suit, Ray Wilkins looked very
much at home back in front of the cameras in the Sky Sports studio
today, discussing the prospects of three of his former clubs in the
last 16 of the Champions League. Not quite as much at home,
however, as he looked until six weeks ago, occupying the dugout at
Stamford Bridge, wearing a tracksuit in the colours of the club he
joined when he was 10 years old.
Then one Thursday, of course, he was called in from the training
ground and told that his time as assistant to Carlo Ancelotti was
over, for reasons that remain unexplained even to him. It was the
start not just of a dip in form for Chelsea, many of whose players were as
mystified as their manager by the decision, but of a run of bizarre
dismissals of English coaches who appeared to be doing a good job
for their clubs.
"These things happen in football," he says. "Mr [Roman]
Abramovich wanted to make a change, so he made a change. And when
you've spent as much money as he has, then you're entitled to do
so. On the others, I thought Chris [Hughton] was doing a wonderful
job at Newcastle. It's coming up to January, so whether Mike Ashley
thought he wanted to give the money to someone else to spend is up
for debate. But I thought Chris was doing really well. He had the
dressing room, they were pumped up and playing really well for him,
so I was very, very surprised. With Sam [Allardyce], it's new
owners. They come in, see the guy that they want to bring in, and
almost dismiss the job that he's done already – and it has been a
fantastic job that Sam's done at Blackburn, on limited resources.
It was a strange one."
Is this a dangerously volatile time for the top tier of English
football? "Yes, I think so. People do get jittery, and to stay in
the Premier League is paramount now, the money being what it is. So
they do panic. There are too many knee-jerk reactions."
With 11 clubs as a player and five as a coach or manager in the
37 years since he made his debut as a Chelsea prodigy, Wilkins has
seen most things in football, from the heights with Manchester
United, Milan and England to the more modest environments of
Wycombe Wanderers and Leyton Orient, for whom he played a handful
of games in the last days of his playing career. Nothing that has
happened to him has put a dent in his unfailingly polite,
phlegmatic and tactful manner. But the end of his time at Chelsea
was the most surprising departure from Stamford Bridge since Brian
Mears allowed Eddie McCreadie to walk out over the matter of a club
car, leaving behind a side, captained by the 18-year-old Wilkins,
who had just won promotion to the old First Division.
"I'm very saddened by it," he says of his own recent exit. "My
whole family is. We've been Chelsea-ites for years and years. But
I'm realistic enough that football doesn't surprise me any more. So
we'll just have to get on, and if the next challenge comes round
the corner, we'll just have to see what it is."
Meanwhile, he is watching matches and commenting on them from
the perspective of the assistant manager of the team who won one
Premier League title and two FA Cups in the past two seasons. And
Chelsea's draw today, against FC Copenhagen, pleased him as much as
if he had been still helping Ancelotti take the training sessions
at Stoke d'Abernon. Of the four English contenders, he is convinced
that the west London club are the best placed to go all the
way.
"They've got power, pace and a burning desire to succeed in
Europe," he says. "They're geared to go the whole way, specially
with the draw they've just had. I feel with Manchester United at
the moment they look as though they might concede goals, and I
haven't see that for a long time. They seem to be quite open in the
way they're playing. They're undefeated in the Premier League, but
when I've seen them they've looked as if they could ship a goal,
whereas Chelsea are rock-solid, especially when everybody's fit –
and Alex will be back at that point. So they'll have [Branislav]
Ivanovic, Alex, John Terry, Ashley Cole and [Petr] Cech in goal,
and if there's a finer back five playing, I haven't seen it.
"It's paramount in Europe, keeping that clean sheet. I love
watching Tottenham play this year, and Arsenal, too, but they look
as if they can concede a goal. Out of the four, it's only Chelsea I
can see keeping a clean sheet if they really have to."
Spurs' destiny, he believes, depends on the outcome of the first
leg at San Siro. "If Milan win the game without conceding a goal,
it will be tough for Tottenham at White Hart Lane because Milan
will set themselves up defensively and they'll be rock-solid. And
with the likes of Robinho, Pato and [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, there's
always the possibility that they can nick one as well. So I think
Tottenham have to score an away goal."
The tie pitting Arsenal against Barcelona reminds him of two
seasons ago, when the Catalan side went through to the final at the
expense of Chelsea, at the time when he was assisting Guus Hiddink.
"It's the toughest draw for anybody to have got. I saw them against
Real Madrid recently and they took it to a different level. Arsène
[Wenger] won't do what [José] Mourinho did last year because he
loves to see his team play football.
"When Inter had the guy sent off in the Camp Nou, it suited José
down to the ground – 'Now we'll go back to the edge of the 18-yard
box and you try and break us down.' It seems to be the only way to
beat them. When they lose the ball, it's as if they say: 'Let's get
it back within six touches.' They did that against us in the
semi-final, and it was so difficult to play against. They just fly
at you."
Two of the Premier League's European Cup contenders will meet at
Old Trafford on Sunday, in the clash between United, with whom he
had just been named the supporters' player of the year when Milan
lured him away in 1984, and the club of his heart.
"It's come at a great time," he says. "We'll be in for a feast.
It's a good game for Chelsea to have at the moment, coming off
their performance at Tottenham last weekend, and they'll be buoyed
by the prospect of Frank [Lampard] coming back. When you've got a
guy whose scored 20 goals a season from midfield for the past six
or seven years, it's a massive loss. Everybody has injury problems,
but with Frank out they've lost goals from the middle of the field.
When he's back to match tempo, he'll be a real threat again.
They've had a lot of players unfit, and there have been some
playing with injury. They've had a little bit of a bad period but
the signs on Sunday were that they're coming through it.
"The last six or seven years haven't been too successful for Man
United at Stamford Bridge, but they always seemed to nullify each
other away from home. Chelsea had the ability to take the ball off
Man United at Old Trafford, and vice versa. But I've got a little
feeling that Chelsea might nick this one on Sunday."
Looking back, his three years in Milan evoke a special fondness.
"That was a different time. Different challenge, totally different
culture. We had our daughter there, so we carry a little bit of
Milan around with us. And only 30 matches a year, home for
Christmas and Easter. They're warm people, the Italians, and they
don't forget."
The next challenge, however, is always the important one.
"Hopefully it's not too far away. I want to get in there. I'm a
football person. When I ended up playing for Orient and Wycombe, I
was still waking up every morning so grateful that I was a
footballer. I don't think there's a better life. I've been blessed.
So you expect to get kicked in the proverbials every now and
then."