SoccerShout » chelsea

Villas-Boas: Another Way to Pronounce It

phil — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 11:33:12 +0000

I’m reliably informed that in Chelsea fan circles, André Villas-Boas is simply referred to as “AVB”. Me? I’m going with “Bish-Bosh“. Related posts:Villas-Boas: So *That’s* How You Say It How Villas-Boas Plans to Get Torres Scoring Again André Villas-Boas Takes … Continue reading →

Villas-Boas: So That’s How You Say It

phil — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:05:43 +0000

Barney Ronay in The Guardian:

I learned … the correct pronunciation of Villas-Boas, which is “Bee-yash-Bow-yash”. This is quite difficult if you’re a native Anglophone and it is perhaps best to imagine the phrase “bish-bosh” pronounced in the lingering accents of a villainous James Bond-era Russian spy turned slapdash painter and decorator.

An all round good piece, which lingers on his middle-class-ness.

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What Will Villas-Boas do with Drogba?

phil — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:48:27 +0000

I’ve started weighing up the things that Villas-Boas has to worry about in his new role at Chelsea. The first thing that jumps to mind is that the spine of his team is getting quite old:

Frank Lampard is 33
Didier Drogba is 33
John Terry is 30

I think he needs a solid Plan B to Torres up front. It’s not hyperbole to say his lack of goals cost Chelsea the title last year. Will it be Drogba, as it was last season?

I would guess not. Too risky, and it didn’t work out for Ancelotti. Will Drogba stand to be the third striker? Again, I’d say not.

EPLTalk.com has a good run down of the likely destination of The Drog.

How Villas-Boas Plans to Get Torres Scoring Again

How Villas-Boas Plans to Get Torres Scoring Again

phil — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:07:00 +0000

Asked about Fernando Torres, here’s what Villas-Boas had to say:

‘We faced this question last year at Porto with a striker of the quality of Falcao. He was a striker who didn’t find the back of the net in pre-season and was frustrated. We didn’t tune the team to provide to him. We tuned the team as a whole. Once we did that, he scored 30 goals in a season, 60 in two seasons. ‘It’s about fine-tuning the team, not the player.’

Perhaps more than any team but Man City, Chelsea are a collection of individuals. I think this cat is going to be good for the Blues.

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Andy Brassell from the Villias-Boas Press Conference

phil — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:03:11 +0000

It’s a good read and runs a bit deeper than the “call me the group one” quickies in most of the papers.

Plainly, he is completely different from any other 33-year-old. As the flock of photographers swarmed around the top table to see Villas-Boas enter brandishing a Chelsea shirt for pictures, frantic shouts of ‘over here!’ filled the room. His first words calmly cut through the scrum. “We have time,” said the voice.

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André Villas-Boas Takes Charge, Cancels Vitesse Arnhem Kick-about

phil — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:07:34 +0000

Quote from The Guardian:

Chelsea’s players are due to report back for training at Cobham next Monday, and the Vitesse fixture had been arranged under the previous regime for 9 July, just five days later. Villas-Boas considered that too soon for his senior squad to be involved…

Who didn’t think this was too soon to travel to Europe and play a football match, regardless of how much of a kick-about it would have been? Five weeks before Chelsea’s first competitive match. Big decision though given the close proximity to the game. I’m liking this cat more and more.

I see they’re still going to Malaysia and Thailand in late-July though. Maybe he’ll fix that tomorrow.

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