Scolari: Worst manager in Roman's time... Behind
Mourinho, The Tinkerman Ranieri and even Avram
Grant...
That is compared to the 78.2 per cent effort Jose
Mourinho put together in his first season at Stamford Bridge. The
statistics are based on performances after 15 Premier League games
and take in results in the Champions League and Carling Cup.
Next best after Mourinho is Tinkerman Claudio Ranieri
with 77.3 per cent of games won in Roman Abramovich’s first year.
And he got the chop at the end of the season.
Even flop Avram Grant managed a combined win percentage
of 63.6 last term. Scolari copped another blow yesterday when he
was told not to expect a rouble of Red Rom’s billions in
January.
Chief executive Peter Kenyon made it clear the club
will not finance any signings. But Scolari is still reeling at
losing out on Robinho to Manchester City in August and was looking
to strengthen.
Chelsea may be nicely placed in the Premier League but
they could still fail to qualify for the Champions League knockout
stages and are already out of the Carling Cup.
Kenyon confirmed: “I don’t think we will be doing any
business in the January window because the type of players we are
looking for are not available. “We also have players with long-term
injuries coming back so we’ll have more availability in January and
February. We put our squad together in the summer and we’re
concentrating on the one we have.
“We’re making sure our players get back from injury. On
that basis, we think we have a good enough squad to help us improve
on last season.” Chelsea handed former boss Grant £15million for
striker Nicolas Anelka from Bolton and a further £9m for defender
Branislav Ivanovic in January. Chelsea could even afford to keep
Serb Ivanovic in mothballs for nearly nine months before he got his
first outing.
Kenyon claims his new-found prudence means Abramovich
will not have to subsidise Chelsea FC from his vast wealth for the
first year since he took over. The Blues chief executive added:
“The long-term plan was always to be profitable,non-loss making and
self-funding. It’s the right thing for Chelsea.
“That has not been dictated by Roman. “He’s absolutely
committed to the club and absolutely passionate about it. But he is
also a very good businessman. “Which is why he had enough money to
put £600m into the club in the first place.
“If you look at our record over the last few years,
we’ve been spending less on transfers. “That’s not to say that we
won’t do in the future. But, again, I think we want some long-term
players. “I think we’ll be pretty busy in the summer but that’s the
right time for Chelsea to be busy.”
Scolari will have to bank on the returning talents of
Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Essien and Juliano Belletti. He will also
need more input from Didier Drogba to strengthen the push to regain
the Premier League title from Manchester United.
Kenyon added: “I don’t think anyone would deny we’ve
had some disappointing results and Sunday’s is still a bit raw.
“But it’s not yet Christmas and we were top of the league on Sunday
night. “You get weeks like that and we’re not used to it too often,
thank goodness, so it’s not something we want to get used to.
“The bar at Chelsea is like it is at United — it’s
higher.”
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