And the new Chelsea boss says he will not blame his
players if they fail to meet his targets. The World Cup-winning
Brazilian makes it clear that he has little time for the arrogance
of Mourinho, the self-appointed ‘Special One’.
He said: “I am not Jose Mourinho, so why compare me
with him? “Mourinho says ‘I will win 10 championships’. “But I am
more modest than that. I am from south Brazil and in my culture I
never say ‘I will win this, this or that’.
Scolari is determined to throw off the shadow of
Mourinho and get down to the serious business of pitting his wits
against his Premier League rivals.
One of the advantages of speaking to someone in their second,
or, in Luiz Felipe Scolari's case, fourth language is that they
occasionally let slip an inadvertent indiscretion. Sitting in the
bar of the Baltschug Kempinski hotel, on the banks of the Moskva
River, the Chelsea manager patiently and painstakingly explained
his vision for the club in his rapidly improving English, offering
a slightly different one from that of his employers.
Chelsea's club anthem is Blue is the Colour, but given their
desire for global domination, Garbage's The World Is Not Enough,
from the 1999 James Bond film of the same title, would be more
appropriate. If not quite a Bond villain, Peter Kenyon, the chief
executive whose stated aim is to make Chelsea the world's leading
club by 2014, has been compared to Austin Powers's Dr Evil.
It was refreshing, therefore, to hear Scolari bring a tone of
realism to a club noted for their grand ambitions, pointing out
that it could take Chelsea 50 years to match the status of
Manchester United. As well as delivering trophies and entertaining
football, part of the Brazilian's remit is to improve Chelsea's
image, a daunting task to which he has made an impressive start.
Honest, humble and incredibly eager to please, Scolari is a welcome
addition to the pantomime that is the Barclays Premier League.
“I want to make Chelsea loved around the world, like Barcelona
and Manchester United,” he said. “It's a surprise for me that
people say Chelsea are unpopular, because when we went to China,
they love Chelsea. There were many people there. It's a big
surprise people don't like us in England. Here in Russia, in
Malaysia, it's even better, but maybe not yet in Brazil or South
America.
“Chelsea is a club that is a growing name. Before, it was Real
Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Milan. If we win one or two
big competitions, I'm sure we'll have fans all over the world.
Maybe it won't be the same as Madrid, Manchester or [AC] Milan
because our history is not the same and you don't make a history in
two, three or ten years. Maybe in 20 or 50 years, Chelsea will be
on that level.”
After unintentionally putting Kenyon straight, Scolari went on
to contrast himself with José Mourinho, in whose shadow he will
reside until he wins the Premier League or Champions League.
Without quite labelling the Portuguese arrogant, Scolari made it
clear he is far more modest, pledging that he will never boast
about his achievements.
“I am not José Mourinho, so why compare me with him?” he said.
“Mourinho says, 'I will win ten championships.' I don't say, 'I
will win ten.' I say, 'I will try.' I am from South Brazil. We're
different. I'll say, 'We will try to win all the competitions,' but
in my culture, I'll never say, 'I will win this, this or that.'
“I'm more modest. Maybe Mourinho says, 'I win', and afterwards
if he does not win, it causes problems. Because the manager doesn't
play, it's the players and if they make a mistake, you then have to
say, 'It is the players who are bad,' and I will never do that. You
are the man who must take the responsibility.”
Scolari will use different methods and claims that the days of
huge spending are over despite the club's interest in Robinho, the
Real Madrid forward. “Since I came to Chelsea we have only spent
€10million [about £8million] for Deco,” he said. “Who else have we
bought? [José] Bosingwa was before me. Maybe they spend more money
before, but now they don't spend the same because they already have
a base. They need a coach to develop young players and I am that
coach.”
Scolari also has a job on his hands lifting the morale of
Chelsea's first-team squad after revealing that many of them are
still shattered by last season's penalty shoot-out defeat by United
in the Champions League final. The 59-year-old has been shocked by
the mental frailty of some of his players, but will not tiptoe
around them for ever.
“The players are still affected by last season's
disappointments,” he said. “If you're talking about penalties, some
players refuse to take one. I need to change this mentality, where
some players are afraid of penalties because they don't want to be
right or wrong.
“Throughout the world, if you ask the players about me, they
say, 'I like Scolari because he is a true man, he speaks honestly
in front of you and he's very good as a person.' I will try to
remain the same until my last day in Chelsea. If I need to say
something to a player, I will say it to his face. I'm not afraid to
upset the players.”
