Good to see the paper’s are still on form as far as stretching every conceivable word coming out of Chelsea, from statements of optimism to threats of worldwide domination, is concerned.

Scolari says “We have four competitions this season and I will try to win four competitions” and it suddenly becomes “We can do the quadruple.” I mean, I know he always pulls the old “I don’t speak very good English” chestnut, particularly when it suits him to do so, but you’d think the British press would have a slightly better command of the Queen’s own wouldn’t you?

You see, when Scolari suggests if the players can get themselves into finals then he knows how to win them, to me, that’s a direct challenge to his own players. He’s not only challenging them though, he’s letting them know he’s confident in their ability to do it – and in his own ability to finish the job off if they give him the opportunity. Sadly, the subtlety of his man management is lost on the boys from the press, who wet themselves in unison while telling the world he’s ‘signalling the start of hostilities’ by throwing down the gauntlet to the opposition.

I’ll be the first to admit Scolari’s CV, albeit pretty sound, hasn’t inspired me in terms of what we’ll actually win in the forthcoming season, but thanks to the blatant exaggeration from the media, it’s made me pay a lot more attention to what he actually says – and I’m pretty happy with what I’m seeing.

Not for him TSO’s full-on bragging of what he’ll achieve and bigging the players up so their confidence expands to the point of arrogance, more subtly letting them know he believes they’ve got the ability but he expects them to prove it.

Even where the press are concerned, he’s so far shown he’s nobody’s fool because his aren’t the only words to be taken out of context - a fact he was obviously well aware of when he refused to get drawn into it. And when it comes to the likes of Kenyon and co, whilst I’ve little doubt  Scolari’s style of play will be a vast improvement on last season’s (largely because he’d have to go some way to get us playing a lot worse), when it comes to being ‘told’ how he should be playing, I’ve even less doubt he could care less what Gollum has to say on the subject.

I’m warming to him.

Filed under: Rants