"AVB had played his cards and it hadn't worked. I don't know if he was too young or whether it had come too early for him.
One thing I will address is that a lot of people said when he and Phil Scolari and some of the other managers left it was all down to player power at Chelsea. That's a load of crap. I'm being completely honest. OK, AVB and I were not very close but I don't need to be close to my manager - but I am definitely not the type to act up.
No one at the club was. Even Ash [Cole], who I know wasn't happy not playing week-in week-out, would never have run off and said, 'Please sack the manager, we've had enough of him'. That's plain ridiculous. We are professionals. Can you imagine what Roman Abramovich would've said to him? 'I pay your wages, I make the decisions, now f--- off and play.'"
Lampard
Interesting Quotes from Lampard RE; AVB
posted on 6/9/14
Robbie saved Chelsea
posted on 6/9/14
He did and Roman gave him a Russian thank you
posted on 6/9/14
Gagged and paid off better than gagged and concrete boots
posted on 6/9/14
Lampard's quotes are meaningless, no one is saying or attempting to claim the squad vocally asked AVB to leave.
However, do I honestly believe the players (rightly or wrongly) put the effort in, adhered to AVBs instructions, or didnt add pressure to him through suggestive comments and leaks to reporters....
posted on 6/9/14
comment by Gazza (U1266)
posted 4 hours, 32 minutes ago
Very narrow definition of player power from Lampard.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Exactly.
Btw, I am not using this to suggest arguments AVB should have been sacked are null and void, or that RDM didn't save our bacon...
but Lampard's definition is exceptionally simplistic.
posted on 6/9/14
It was longer than Romans
posted on 6/9/14
Lampard's is specific, implication is more general.
Players aware of who the boss is, and it wasn't them
posted on 6/9/14
The quotes shouldn't be taken literally, more that the players were never in open revolt against AVB because they knew Roman wouldn't allow it.
The newspaper leak thing is hear say, all I would point to is the fact that there were leaks before AVB (hairdresser at Cobham, Coles air rifle) and there have been since he departed, this isn't something exclusive to one manager.
The effort thing is pretty weak, AVB dumped all the experienced players that we were apparently not trying and we still didn't improve.
posted on 11/9/14
JTHT mate for someone normally so intelligent you are being very naive.
posted on 11/9/14