Out of the Blue , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Gary Thacker

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

226 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

By the early months of 2012, it was clear that the appointment of Andre Villas-Boas as head coach at Chelsea wasn't delivering the required success. Instead, the club was spiralling towards its worst season of the Roman Abramovich era. On 4 March, Villas-Boas was dismissed, with his former assistant Roberto Di Matteo made interim head coach until the end of the season. Struggling in the league and with their place in the Champions League in peril, it was an appointment designed to make the best of things until a permanent replacement could be sought in the summer. Instead, under Di Matteo's guidance, Chelsea embarked on a run of performances that not only led to an FA Cup triumph, but resurrected their European hopes with improbable victories over Napoli, Benfica and Guardiola's all-conquering Barcelona before, against all odds, winning the Champions League by defeating Bayern Munich in their own stadium. This is the story of a triumph that came out of the blue.

Informations

Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	11 avril 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781801502450
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Gary Thacker, 2022
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801500814
eBook ISBN 9781801502450
---
eBook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Mourinho 1.0 to Mourinho 2.0?
Dips, Dramas and the Group Stage
Bleak Winter and the end of AVB
Stumbling Steps along the Wembley Way
See Naples and Live!
Eagles, Cockerels and Flights of Fancy
Un-be-lievable
Domestic Matters
Written in the Stars
Photos
This book is dedicated to my wife Sue, to Megan and Luke, Lydia and Gregory, and my beautiful granddaughters Eve and Polly.
* * *
It is also dedicated to all those who always supported and believed in me.
You are my strength.
And to those who only ever doubted me.
You are my inspiration.
Acknowledgements
MANY PEOPLE have assisted in the production of this book.
The following have generously agreed to be interviewed, and allowed me to use their wise words:
Alan Addicott - assistant sports editor on The Sun between October 2010 and November 2014
Kieran Allen - project manager at a promotions and events company; Chelsea fan and son of Danny Ridgeway
Ryan Baldi - author, and sportswriter for the BBC, The Guardian , and The Independent as well as other magazines and websites
Mike Collett - Reuters global soccer editor for 25 years until retiring in 2016
John Helm - commentator for ITV on the 2008 Champions League Final
Uli Hesse - German author, journalist and editor
Seb Hutchinson - freelance sports commentator
Lu s Mateus - Portuguese journalist, football writer, analyst and pundit
Jason Pettigrove - content editor at FC Barcelona
Joe Ridgeway - manager at an electrical contractor; Chelsea fan and son of Danny Ridgeway
Danny Ridgeway - retired college principal; lifelong Chelsea fan who saw his first match in February 1962
Jonathan Northcroft - Sunday Times football correspondent
Ian Ross - former journalist for The Times, Daily Telegraph and The Guardian
Andy West - Spanish football correspondent for BBC Sport and commentator for La Liga TV
Mark Worrall - author and long-time Chelsea fan
Special thanks also to:
Sky UK Limited for supplying the author with access to archived television footage
Stuart Horsfield, Steven Scragg, Aidan Williams and all colleagues at These Football Times for their help and unstinting encouragement.
Finally, thanks to all at Pitch Publishing for their professionalism and dedication.
Sincere thanks to one and all.
Introduction
AS ALMOST any football fan knows, the game can often be a strange mixture between the predictable and the unexpected, where the outcome is often teetering on a knife-edge, an eternal battle between a seemingly inevitable pathway and an invading element of chaos, keen to turn the expected into merely what might have been. On occasions, the fate of an individual game, or even a tournament, can appear to have been written in advance; conceived, predetermined and planned to the most minute detail by some celestial hand beyond our meagre human comprehension. At other times, events can suggest that such a thing is the case, only then to be harshly disavowed by an apparent quirk of fate, a twist of the knife, a malicious reality now revealed. All that seemed right is now wrong. All that seemed certain is imperilled. All that seemed to be coming together is now torn asunder.
In 2008, when Chelsea faced Manchester United in the Champions League Final, the latter was the case. The game took place in Moscow, and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was in the stand to watch the team his largesse has brought together deliver European club football s ultimate honour to him in the capital of his home country. It seemed to be written, as John Terry stepped up to convert the penalty that would take the trophy to Stamford Bridge, despite more than a few twists and turns on the way. Come the pivotal moment of the encounter though, chaos kicked down the door, and fate turned its face away from those wearing blue. The rain, a slip, a mishit and a few tears ended the story and denied what seemed to be the inevitable playing out of fate.
At other times, that celestial script is adhered to, and not even the coquettish caprices of chance dare to interfere. In such games, any human agency is just an unknowing, but obedient, adherent to a script, no matter how improbable the unfolding story appears to be. There are no genuine ad-libs, no improvisation, no off-the-cuff extemporisations. What is perceived as individuality is, in reality, mere slavish compliance to the preordained. At these times, there s one path and everyone is following it. No matter what may be seen to offer a detour from that path it will, it can only ever, be a deceptive diversion, leading eventually back to the inevitable. Sometimes, it s written. Sometimes.
Four years after Moscow, following a series of games that pointed the club to the door marked Exit on numerous occasions, Chelsea once more had reached a Champions League Final. This time, the home advantage lay with their opponents. Facing the might of Bayern Munich in the Bavarian fortress of the Allianz Arena, all the smart money was on the German club winning the trophy. A huge banner behind one of the goals declared Our City. Our Stadium. Our Trophy for any who might be clinging to a fantasy-like dream of an upset.
Overdrawn at the bank of good fortune following the epic and heroic backs-to-the-wall confrontations with Pep Guardiola s Barcelona in the semi-final, Chelsea surely could not go to the well again without the bucket coming up empty - could they? Well, sometimes, these things are indeed written. The tale of how Chelsea arrived at, and then won, the 2012 Champions League Final reads like a farfetched tale, an outlandish yarn with interwoven threads that stretch boundaries of belief, but perhaps one that, putting it simply, was truly written . If someone wrote a film about a football team who somehow managed to win the Champions League, Frank Lampard said later, I think that was the year that we did it. 1 Surely no Hollywood scriptwriter would ever consider such a story though, it s far too outlandish. Only reality can conjure up such events. It was a triumph that came out of the blue.
1
Mourinho 1.0 to Mourinho 2.0?
Of all the European finals I covered - Champions League, Cup Winners Cup, UEFA Cup and even Inter-Cities Fairs Cup I think the devastation of defeat was more poignant in Chelsea s case than any other. 2
John Helm
THE RUN to Moscow had been taken over, midstream, by Avram Grant, when the tenure of Jos Mourinho had come to an end. As has been the case with many of the clubs managed by the Portuguese, the established pattern whereby early success is inevitably followed by discord, disagreement and dismissal applied at Stamford Bridge. After delivering back-to-back Premier League titles in 2004/05 and 2005/06, plus an FA Cup triumph the following year and two League Cups, by the 2007/08 season the downslope had definitely been reached.
That season s Champions League campaign had opened with a dispiriting 1-1 home draw against Norway s Rosenborg. It marked the end of the road. Mourinho left, with the club issuing that most universally inappropriate statement on 20 September 2007, announcing that the departure had been by mutual consent . Rumoured to be a personal friend of Abramovich, Grant had been employed by the club as director of football since 8 July of the same year. Perhaps the owner had seen the writing on the wall with the incumbent coach, and was getting his ducks all lined up for when the inevitable parting of the ways happened. When Grant took over the manager s chair - in a move that was echoed some years later, when Roberto Di Matteo was brought in to work as assistant to Andr Villas-Boas - the club promoted Steve Clarke, former player and coach under Mourinho, to the position of Grant s assistant. Well known to the players, and respected, it was a shrewd decision that helped lubricate the wheels of change.
Whatever the case of that, Grant was shrewd enough to appreciate that there was precious little wrong with the squad that a little soothing of bruised egos and installing of a confidence that had wilted under the dog days of Mourinho s reign wouldn t solve. Adopting a steady as she goes sort of philosophy, with Clarke very much seen as the training ground leader, Grant s calming hand on the tiller saw Chelsea recover from the stuttering start of their Champions League campaign to reach Moscow where, but for that slip by Terry, the Israeli may well have achieved legendary status at the club, and certainly retained his position.
As it was, the rain that had poured down on the Luzhniki Stadium pitch, slicking up the playing surface and leading to Terry s missed penalty, also washed away Grant s tenure as manager. Whether merely the victim of inclement weather and ill fortune or not, the Abramovich temptation to change managers was always on a hair-trigger setting.
With Grant gone, Chelsea cast their eyes over to South America, and their