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Updated: 22/02/2012 16:09 | By ESPN staff, www.espn.co.uk

Villas-Boas shrugs off Inter link



Andre Villas-Boas walks off the pitch at full-time, Napoli v Chelsea, Champions League, Stadio San Paolo, Naples, February 21, 2012

Andre Villas-Boas saw his Chelsea side beaten 3-1 by Napoli on Tuesday

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has quashed speculation linking him with a move to Inter Milan by hailing the work of Claudio Ranieri, boss of the Serie A giants.

Villas-Boas is reportedly under serious pressure to deliver results at Chelsea, having not recorded a victory in five games. The Blues suffered a 3-1 Champions League defeat against Napoli on Tuesday, which has only increased the scrutiny on his position.

With Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich notoriously trigger-happy, there is a feeling that Villas-Boas could soon lose his job at Stamford Bridge - and walk into a role with Inter, who are battling through a similarly difficult patch.

The Nerazzurri have slipped 14 points off the title pace after losing four of their last five Serie A games, and currently lie seventh in the table - leaving Ranieri facing a battle to hold onto his post. And Villas-Boas has ruled out the prospect of succeeding the Italian.

"I have the utmost respect for the work of Ranieri, who is experiencing a situation of change at Inter similar to ours," Villas-Boas told Mediaset Premium.

"I think we both will continue to work with our current team, to believe in our work and try to get results. The market rumours are part of football, but I want to build Chelsea's future and I'm working on that. The results are not positive, but we must look forward."

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36Comments
23/02/2012 11:39
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ok chelsea fans ...breakin news just found out that the russian is gonna sack Villas Boas the bad news is he wants Rafa Benitez so he can fine tune your 50m flop
23/02/2012 09:43
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I know Chelsea are not doing good at the moment,its not just the manager its the players aswell, but keep A.V-.B,I think he is a good manager,if he was not any good then Milan would not be interested, Let him do his job, and tell the Ruski keep his nose out of football , let him go and play ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
23/02/2012 09:18
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It's easy to keep quoting player power and blaming the senior players for all Chelsea's previous managerial changes. The press love nothing better than to quote X amount of managers in however many years about clubs. But the reality is not always as the press paint it (rarely is in fact)

 

As for previous managers; Ranieri was not employed by Abramovich so was always going to be vulnerable. Mouriho left when he couldn't get his own way, he wasn't sacked. Grant was unlucky but subsequent events have shown he isn't a top rate manager. Scolari took the team backwards at an alarming rate. Hiddink didn't want to stay. And that leaves Ancelotti who is probably the only true victim of Abramovich. It was a big mistake to sack him (and Wilkins) especially ater just winning our first ever double.

Villas Boas asked for discussion with his team. When a team are in as much disarray as Chelsea he's going to hear things he doesn't like. If senior players were complaining about team selection and tactics when the team were doing OK they would be out of order. But the team's not doing OK, far from it and the senior players have every right to question what is going on.

How many people who currently blame "player power" would be complaining that no one at the club cares if nothing was said about the current shambles? The likes of Lampard and Cole want to be part of a successful set up and should not be lambasted for giving their opinion when asked for it.

And Janet, not sure what you mean about Sturridge? He went on loan to Bolton, improved, and is now a regular. Just like Arsenal did with Wilshere and Chelsea are currently doing with McEachran. What's your point here?

As for Lampard refusing to put in a decent shift, he is near top scorer even though he has started less than half the games. If that's showing a bad attitude then maybe some of the others should copy it!

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Sack half the first team,.. keep AVB,.. give him a three year contract and more millions to rebuild ......I doubt that's going to happen
23/02/2012 08:19
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Its rather unfortunate that it has come to this at my beloved Chelsea. Now a lot of people may not agree with what Im about to say but honestly AVB MUST NOT BE SACKED. WHY? Firstly , this abhorrent "player power " at chelsea that has been the downfall of many a manager thus destabilising chelsea and preventing  the club from progressing must stop.

 

Cloughie would be turning in his grave seeing what the modern day footballer sorry celebrity  has become.

 

These same group of  arrogant pompous selfish self centred overpayed over rated turnips sorry "heroes" and (lOL) "role models" have held this great club to ransom for over a decade now. They have laid waste to the best laid plans for youth development , chelsea had one of the best bunch of young prospects in its academy but player power prevented new blood from coming in. Just look at the treament meted out to Sturridge by these idiots last season, ostracised marginalised he almost left chelsea just like sinclair and soon Mceachran.

And now these maggots who believe they are bigger than the club , bigger than the fans bigger than their owners are doing to AVB , what they did to scolari, mourinho ancelloti till he gave in to their whims even allowing John Terry to give paid tours of Chelseas FC s training ground!! Ferguson would never have conceded , he would have done exactly what AVB is doing now which is "back me or sack me". For the good of this club and for its future AVB must not be sacked.

Yes they have been worthy servants of chelsea fc but they have beeen well paid too some of them are multi millionaires!!! So I ask you why cant 34yr old lampard , 35 drogba 33 ashley, 32 terry, understand that their mutiny is only ruining the club!! You didnt see Giggs or Scholes rise up against the manager when they were dropped and Man U won nothing for two seasons???  They refuse to put in a decent shift hoping that the longer chelsea lose the more pressure on AVB to be sacked , what arrogance !!!

Some fans who have never known nothing but the good times at chelsea dont know what it means to finish 10th but I have .

IF it means winning nothing for two seasons in other to get rid of these arrogant has beens, then so be it. Chelsea needs to rebuild and it must start one day.AVB must not be sacked,

23/02/2012 01:28
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taxi for AVB!, unfortunately the idiot who owns the club can't be got rid of as easy. Abramovich sell the club even if it means mid table obscurity. we are heading that direction as it is. I was one of 14,000 home gates in the 70's & 80's so I don't care about success at any price.. Cech,Malouda,Mikel,Bosingwa, you are not good enough to wear the jersey. Buck, you know as much about Chelsea as my **** knows about the New York Yankees!!!!
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Abramovitch might be rich but whenever I see him I get the impression a village

is missing it's idiot, what a gormless looking speciman he is. AVB is so full of himself

that he doesn't realise how inept he is,he's clearly a theory man with a blackboard. 

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There should be a vacancy at Leyton Orient pretty soon, we have been fart arsing around the

lower divisions for far too long,Hearn can **** off and take his smug grin with him, as a chairman

he's a toss pot along with the cheap second rate managers he brings in,all say aye.

22/02/2012 22:36
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Poor old AVB - A young man taken from Porto then dazzled by all the glitter and hype of  the football press and Chelsea FC.

What did you expect?

The guy is 34 years old with (relatively) little experience.....add to that trying to manage one of the biggest football clubs in the worlds toughest league.....

I'm sure he will be a great manager in the future and this will have been a learning curve for him but to mess about with one of London's finest clubs like an Xbox game is an insult to the fans.

Roman, you will never be happy with any manager you pick so when you finally get one that shows some promise - STICK WITH HIM!
22/02/2012 22:29
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terry sanchez - All I can say to that is that David Nugent has played for England....
22/02/2012 21:53
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Admit it AVB - you've been found out ! Taxi please
22/02/2012 21:34
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I've said it before...... And I'll say it again.. Chelsea should of done more to keep Gus. And give him full control of the footballing side.

A lot of pressure has been placed on this young manager(A V B) that could damage his future development.  He just wasn't ready to take on such a high profile job.

22/02/2012 21:14
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I think avb should accept that this job is not for him and perhaps he should consider a move to milan. Without the backing of your team players the manager becomes an outcast! And the rusults speak volumes about the way chelsea are playing too. Perhaps both roman and avb should come to terms avb was to young and to unexperienced and an optimistic fool. May roman bring in an older experieced manager redknapp at spurs doing great job also martin o neal at sunderland either one of them. We have best manager sir alex me just want to watch the chelsea of old that worked and not this new style that DOES NOT!
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RajZ Singh, how can a player be okay for Bolton and not for a top 4 team, when he built he`s reputation as a  top defender  playing against teams from the top 4 ? He`s played for England for God`s sake , & thats the highest accolade a player can recieve ! I agree with Alex `s post on here, the nonsense people post on here is getting worse.
22/02/2012 20:55
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Many problems surfacing now at Chelsea although if the Russian had any foresight he would have addressed the situation last season when the side were starting to look ragged and realised that if culling was required then appoint an experienced manager with the authority to boss the senior players.

The current position is the worst of all scenarios, a manager who has been alienated from his squad, a clueless owner and a team of discontented players many of whom are either well past their best and several others useless.

Ideal solution to the problems facing the club would be to, sack AVB, retire the Russian gnome but persuade him to leave his money, Goodbye and thanks to Terry, Cole , Malouda, Mikel, Cech, Kalou, plus too many others to mention and then start over and accept that it might be a couple of years before they are challenging again.

 

22/02/2012 20:36
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I am not a chelsea fan but i think you have to stick with your manager you are not going to win any thing this year but you can start to build for the future from the younger players i think some of the older players will go in the summer your owner is going to stick AVB look at man utd alex was getting sacked if they had not won in the fa cup rest is history arsenal have been steady with A WINGER ha ha there is to many managers sacked to quick they need more time  

22/02/2012 20:28
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It's a managers job to get the best out of his players. Ferguson has spats with his players from time to time, always has, but nobody can deny he always get's the best out of them. If a manager can't do this then he isn't doing what he's paid for. Not every club can sign new players so a manager must learn to work with what he has.
22/02/2012 20:23
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Did anybody notice when Mata scored last night and the Chelsea players celebrated, Ashley Cole was nowhere to be seen.   No wonder AVB has problems with his team.   It seems as if half of them don't even want to win, they are like a load of spoilt school kids.   Lampard being the worst.  They should all grow up.   Every manager has had problems so it can't be all AVB's fault.   It was said at the time that John Terry helped to get rid of Mourinho, but not sure if that was true.
22/02/2012 19:25
22/02/2012 19:24
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James F ...What a mug you are. Do you not think that every other top team buy's success ? How many millions have Manchester Utd spent over the course of the Premiership ? Obviously Manchester City more recently. Liverpool ? Or do you think Suarez and Carroll came up through the academy. And, Arsenal look at all the trophies they have won - ok, forget Arsenal, because Wenger's as tight as a duck's ....they fall by the wayside every year. And i suppose you think in Europe all the clubs just swap players between themselves.

Yet again, anti-chelsea nonsense spouted off by another bitter and jealous "fan", who needs to appreciate Chelsea are now in a transition period, after half a decade or more of top players understandably reaching their peak.

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