Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti, has told his players in no uncertain terms that nothing less than winning the Champions League this season will be acceptable. This is an interesting move, which is rarely seen from managers in England as the Italian has now put the pressure right on top of his side who will need to perform throughout the entire competition.
The Champions League is a trophy that has eluded Chelsea in recent years, even though they have come so close to lifting it on a variety of occasions. So much will depend on their arrival to the later stages of the competition and it could be a naïve by the Chelsea boss to make such statements at this early stage.
He said: “The first objective is to arrive at the final, not to win it. That’s what we want to do. It’s not easy, but we have the possibility to do this. I don’t think there is a psychological problem. Chelsea went very close to winning it, they didn’t win, but there is a real possibility we can do very well this season. You have to believe to be the best in this competition.”
Defender, Ricardo Carvalho, added: “To win the Champions League with Chelsea would be great, but you need luck. We have reached the final once before and we want to do it again. It still hurts a lot. I was once in the final and we missed a great opportunity, we were a bit unlucky. But more important is to get there more times and have more chances to win it.”
Chelsea have been dealt a good draw in the group stages and will be looking to become the first side to qualify for the knock out rounds. How they will do this is quite simple, they just have to win every match and play as well as they can do all of the time. This may seem like the most logical way to approach the Champions League but so often in the past teams have missed out because they have not taken the initial group stages seriously.
Skipper, John Terry, said: “We’ve come so close and after so many years of doing so well in this competition and not winning it, this is the chance to finally do it. We’ve got players of the right age and experience and also the right quality to push on this year and make it ours. That’s what we’re looking to do.”
September 16th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
It is hard time ahead for Chelsea