Scolari -"English football is great but I had to go!"

Luiz Felipe Scolari has given an interview to FIFA.com and has opened up about his time at Chelsea. He said:

"The board were worried because we hadn’t beaten any of the big teams. I can understand that but we were only two or three points off the lead. And there were all these questions about the atmosphere, because there were one or two issues with some of the top players. That’s because I took a stance that other coaches wouldn’t have taken.

I didn’t have total control. There was this resistance to me, mainly because there were two or three players who tried to impose their authority in a way that wasn’t right. The only thing is that I made them an important part of my plans, and that hadn’t been the case before. I wanted them to get back to their best, not just for Chelsea but for the rest of their careers, and they couldn’t see that. They wanted to play every game and that was one of the problems I had.

Whenever European clubs appoint South American coaches they always have doubts about how they work. My working methods were not the kind you’d usually associate with English football. In South America we do a lot of work on the basics. When we have a whole week of training sessions, for example, we get the first-team players and the reserves together, and that doesn’t really happen over there. That was another of the reasons why I didn’t stay.

I just carried on with my job though, and I know that some of the players improved as a result. Look at [Nicolas] Anelka. He wasn’t getting a game and then all of a sudden he was Chelsea’s top scorer. Ashley Cole couldn’t use his right foot and later he even scored with it, and all [Salomon] Kalou could do was run fast. He couldn’t dribble very well, so we taught him to dribble round poles. Ok, I know they were only poles in the ground but it helped him to start dribbling round opponents, which is something he does now without any problem.

And then there’s [Didier] Drogba, who had a serious knee injury but is fine now thanks to the work I did, not just the club’s doctors. I refused to let him play with an injury and I had problems with him because of that. But in 20 or 30 years' time, there’ll be two or three of them who’ll still be walking absolutely fine.

They’ll remember me then, for sure. I’ve never spoken about this before and I’m not bringing it up now to justify myself. I understood the reasons and I accepted them. I was sad because I was enjoying the job and I wanted to stay on. I think English football’s great, but I had to go and I did.

A substantial interview from Scolari. What's your take on all this, the claims about players going against him, how he has improved certain players?.

I don't have any argument at all with the fact he had to go and it was one of the best decisions Roman and the club have made as look where we are now!

KTBFFH