By Kc Emmanuels
Former Chelsea and England left back Ashley Cole has come out to state the real reason why Portuguese Andre Villas-Boas was sacked from his managerial post at Chelsea just nine months into his 3 years contract at the club.
Quite a number of arguments have ensued as to the real reason behind his impromptu sack with many laying the blame on the door step of his power tussle with some senior member of the squad.
Ashley Cole- the man who was at the centre of it all has however, come out to state the real reason why Villa Boas got the early sack from the Russian owner Roman Abramovich. Cole has come out to say that some selection of players didn’t want to work for AVB, a situation which would change the moment Roberto Di Matteo took over.
“There were some players who didn’t want to work hard for Villas-Boas. Cole said.
“But as soon as Roberto Di Matteo arrived, that all change.”
Cole’s revelation would be a big indictment of the Chelsea squad as it does not speak well of a club of Chelsea calibre if players begin to have a hand in manager’s sack.
Andre Villas-Boas a former scouting manager of Jose Mourinho joined Chelsea officially on 22 June 2011 from Portuguese side FC Porto after guiding them to a treble of Portuguese super cup, Portuguese cup and the Uefa Europa Cup in the 2010/2011 season.
It is believed Chelsea indirectly paid FC Porto close to 13.3million as compensation to activate his release clause.
There were questions of ability to manage the Chelsea squad back then as some of the Chelsea senior players were almost of his age. As earlier feared Villas-Boas began to have issues with most of the senior players.
The likes of Alex, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Ashley Cole were left on the bench on multiple occasions even in crucial match and it wasn’t long when Chelsea began to find result hard to come by.
He oversaw 40matches as Blues’ manager winning 19 and loosing 10. The 3-1 lost to Napoli in the Uefa Champions League quarter final and the subsequent loss to West Bromwich Albion in the league was the last straw that broke AVB camel’s back.
His sack saw his assistant and former West Brom manager Roberto Di Matteo took charge of the team though on an interim capacity. Di Matteo appointment as expected brought a surge of form and the team will go on and win the Champions league, beating favourites Barcelona and Bayern Munich on route lifting the trophy.
Villas-Boas has gone on to coach Chelsea’s London rival Tottenham Hotspur but was sacked just a year and half into his contract. He is currently the head coach of Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg who are currently topping the Russian Premier league.
Ashley Cole on his part has since join AS Roma of Italy after seeing out his contract at Chelsea in the summer and his revelation would not come as a rude shock as it has been well documented the amount of power senior the player wielded at the club back then to get their wish granted.
