AVB OWN GOAL
Chelsea’s chiefs furious at boss for Torres comment
ANDRE Villas-Boas’s future at Chelsea looks bleaker than ever after remarks from an interview on Portuguese radio made a bad impression in the Stamford Bridge boardroom.
The club’s hierarchy were left distinctly unimpressed with their manager’s comments on TSF, particularly perceived criticism of Fernando Torres, who Villas-boas likened to past misfits Andriy Shevchenko and Mateja Kezman.
This development came on a day when Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho was in London and, according to reports in Spain, looking at houses. Mourinho is expected to leave Madrid in the summer and admits he would like to return to the Barclays Premier League, where he had three successful years at Chelsea, guiding them to their first title in half a century.
Villas- Boas worked in Mourinho’s backroom team but the pair fell out at Inter Milan and are no longer on speaking terms.
Chelsea won for the first time in six games on Saturday, helping to ease the pressure on their manager after a stormy week when he argued with senior players over team selection against Napoli. The Blues lost 3-1 in the first leg of the Champions League first knockout stage, days after failing to beat Birmingham at home in the FA Cup.
Through weeks of disappointing results and performances, VillasBoas had confidently claimed to have the full backing of owner Roman Abramovich to complete his ‘three-year project’.
This he said despite an informal approach which is understood to have been made to former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez to ask if he would consider a short-term deal until the end of the season.
Abramovich’s faith may weaken further after the controversial interview which was aired in VillasBoas’ native Portugal on Monday and questioned £50million record signing Torres. ‘ We have been through the Torres situation before with Shevchenko and Kezman,’ said Villas-boas.
‘We continue to work on his motivation, his specific movements on the field and his trust. There is only one atmosphere which will make him regain his trust, and t hat is a competitive atmosphere.
‘For me, there was a key moment f or Torres: his sending- off against Swansea. He was playing well and he was motivated at the time, he had returned to the goals, also in that match.
‘ He scored in the 15th minute against Swansea and was sent off in the 35th minute and gets a threematch ban. There was also an international match in between, so he did not play for Chelsea for one month.
‘I do not know how much that affected him but when he got back, we had two disappointments in terms of results and he returned to this disbelief in himself.’
Villas-boas also said in the Portuguese interview that he was no longer sure if Abramovich (left) would stand by him, something which may be truer now than it was before he spoke.