THE ONLY MANAGER I FEEL I LET DOWN
There is only one manager I feel I let down in my career, and that was Gianluca Vialli.
It was Gianluca who convinced Chelsea to sign me from Blackburn rovers. They paid £10million and I signed a six-year contract, with me and Gianluca posing for pictures together at Stamford Bridge, each holding one end of a scarf.
That was July 5, 1999 — the first day we had met in person — and immediately this was a manager whose faith I wanted to repay with mountains of goals.
As we know, that didn’t happen. I had a difficult debut season in a Chelsea shirt. And yet, Gianluca was so good to me. Some managers might have shunned me, criticised me in their press conferences, called me a waste of money. But not Gianluca. he put his arm around me. he eased my conscience. he tried to make me feel like I wasn’t letting him down, even though I knew I was.
After training, Gianluca would stay behind to do one-on-one sessions. Sometimes our focus was on my finishing. Sometimes the runs I should have been making. But I remember one lesson on volleying vividly. Gianluca told me I had been snatching at shots because of the chances I had been missing. he said, with volleys, the trick is to slow it down, trust your technique and focus on the pureness of the strike rather than trying to blast it in. Chelsea sold me to Celtic for £6m after a single season. But I took Gianluca’s teachings with me and one of my best ever goals was a left-foot volley in a 4-3 Champions League victory against Juventus of all clubs. I’m not sure Gianluca would thank me for this, but it was because of him that I was able to score that strike against his beloved Juve. The tributes in today’s paper will tell you everything you need to know about Gianluca. A great player. But a total gentleman. I was privileged to get to see that side of him first-hand.