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(9 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)
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I’ve just returned from the Cobham Hilton at the behest of CFCnet and have come away impressed by what I saw. Big Phil Scolari looks every part the self assured, confident manager that our Club needs.
As CFCnet pointed out in a recent article by Paulo Conceicao, Big Phil’s English is fine. He’d never win a competition reading Shakespeare and his English will certainly need to improve, but as a starting point, it’s good enough. He spoke English throughout the main part of the press conference.
He also said he’d been given (by the Club) twenty books about Chelsea to read - that should be enough to improve both his English and read about the best football team in the world. Slam dunk!
The media pack were surprisingly soft in their approach, almost deferential. There was a lot of respect in the room. Only time will tell whether this respect is false and just the opening salvo in a long drawn out cold war. We’ll see. Certainly the Martin Samuel’s of this world, the Paul Haywards etc were quieter than normal.
James Lawton, every Chelsea fan’s worst journalistic nightmare and the sort of pompous bore who’ll write thirty words when ten will do, was notable by his absence. That’s probably a good thing because he’d have ended up in the hotel duck pond.
A couple of highlights: “Frank wants to stay”, “I never told Ronaldo to leave United”, “Didier has a small problem with his knee but seems happy”, “I’m in charge of the technical aspect of Chelsea” etc etc.
The best part of the conference was when Tim Ewart of ITN asked Scolari if he was special like Jose Mourinho? The answer, “Yes” - cue roars of laughter - and then the retort “I am special for my friends, my family, my country….but as a manager so-so” cue more laughter.
I could write much more about the press conference but why not watch a piece for yourself. A 4 min clip of the press conference can be viewed courtesy of Patrick Purcell from the Daily Mirror. Thanks mate.
CFCnet would also like to thank Paul Hayward of the Daily Mail and Fernando Duarte of Brasil’s Globo newspaper for taking the time to chat to us. True gents.
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