LUIZ FELIPE SCOLARI has revealed that a strop from the famously moody Nicolas Anelka had a hand in costing him his job at Chelsea.
The French forward was nicknamed ‘Le Sulk’ throughout a career which carried him to the very top, but included as many moans as it did cheers.
Scolari found out the hard way how difficult an enigmatic talent could be to manage after being handed the reins at Stamford Bridge.
Once he discovered that Anelka was not prepared to follow his instructions and move from a central role to a slightly wider one, the World Cup-winning coach admits that the writing was on the wall.
Scolari, who lasted just seven months in his post after joining Chelsea in the summer of 2008, told ESPN Brasil: “I had Anelka playing up front. Nine. Top scorer in the league.
“The players return, I make a meeting, and in the meeting I say: ‘Look, now that the players have all returned, [Didier] Drogba is back after two months, we will try to work a situation involving the two attackers playing one by the side, one in the centre, changing positions’.
“Then Anelka, the league’s top scorer, said: ‘I do not play on the wing’. Well, that’s when I said: ‘You don’t play on the wing, one’s going to be on the left, it’s over, I’m not going to stay here arguing with you guys’.
“And there began a series of other things.
I left there and our team was third in the league, three or four points behind top. Qualified for the round-of-16 or quarter-finals of the Champions League. But there was this bad environment, that situation.
“I don’t know if I had continued what would have happened. But it was interrupted. There, I got upset.
“They’ll say: ‘Oh, because you didn’t speak English perfectly’. Of course, I did not. I didn’t speak English perfectly. But I understood perfectly.
We understood, with my English, and the English that was spoken there, we understood perfectly.”
Scolari was sacked by Chelsea in February 2009 having won 20 of his 36 games at the helm and suffered just five defeats.
He has since taken in spells with Bunyodkor, Palmeira, Gremio and a second stint with the Brazil national side.
His last post saw him win three titles in China with Guangzhou Evergrande before walking away at the end of his contract.
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Well done Sir.
You are a credit to your parents and show people that though they can suffer depression that they can still manage it. Your laying it out straight. Great meas in you.
Nice one. Great to see someone like this talk about these problems
Who are the bottom feeding monkey shite who neg a comment like this?
I just gave my last comment the thumbs up….s’nice
Fair play to Alan coming out and talking about depression. A brave thing to do for such a high profile figure
@James – Regarding the thumbs down, i read a post recently where someone said they didn’t mean to ‘thumb down’ a comment, but the problem was that they were viewing the Journal on a smartphone and they would press the thumbs down by accident when they were scrolling through the comments.
At least i hope that’s the case for Emsy’s post :-)
Well done Quinny! For a player who’s nickname was cheeky and to to survive for so long in a career that’s perceived to be “macho” it’s an even bigger credit to you for speaking out. Hopefully it’ll make life easier for others to do the same.
Great stuff. Each day is an opportunity for “self help” or “self pity” the decision comes slowly to those with depression. Thankfully by talking about it people turn a huge corner and help others. Well done.
Another great sportsman hitting his depression head on, depression is of biblical proportions in this country and only now are we talking about it, the reasons why people hid it in the first place in actual fact was because they really did not know what they had…. Nothing to be ashamed of. I am 44 , ex soldier, hard as nails ( well not really) been suffering for 7 years , no meds at the moment as I have an underlying problem… But hey bad days are bad, good days are few but help is coming soon.
Well done Alan . I hope the media give it huge coverage especially in the sports pages as alot of the time they are the only pages young people read and they do need to understand more than anything else that depression is nothing to be ashamed of or fear . Sadly our graveyards are full of young men who were to afraid to seek help
Great post Jerry, well said
If Quinny saves one person from years of depression and missed positive experiences what a man he is and deserves all life can bring him keep it up lad : )
Great to see sufferers open up and talk so frankly about it. As someone who suffers from depression, I take great comfort in watching someone get it out in the open. Depression comes in many forms and at different levels of severity.
Stereotypically we think of sufferers locked away in a dark room, crying and drinking heavily, listening to Morrissey. In reality, it’s very different. Reason , logic and rational thinking are thrown out the window and instead you are bombarded with negative thoughts, that you believe. Men are much more likely to suffer as we think that looking for help is a weakness, and that we can do it by ourselves. We can’t.
The road to recovery isn’t as daunting as you may think. Pick up the phone and talk to someone.