The powers-that-be at Stamford Bridge aren’t really bothered by the minor tournament taking place in Austria and Switzerland right now. To them, it’s nothing more than an inconvenience that gets in their way of appointing a new manager and letting him spend, spend, spend in the transfer market. ‘Big Phil, why haven’t you spent any money today?’.
Gilberto Madail, the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, isn’t at all happy with Chelsea’s conduct in the past fortnight. The Guardian report that he lays the blame for his nation’s quarter-final exit squarely at the feet of the west London club, not that they will give a hoot what he has to say we’re sure.
“It wasn’t the best moment for us and for Chelsea to announce Scolari’s appointment,” said Gilberto Madail, the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, in the wake of his team’s 3-2 quarter-final defeat by Germany on Thursday night.
“I know Scolari had nothing to do with it and I was surprised not by the appointment, because Scolari is a great coach, but at the timing chosen. I wish Chelsea would have consulted us before so that we could have chosen a better time.”
Chelsea, however, were bewildered by Madail’s words. “We did everything above board and correctly,” said a club spokesman. “It was the appropriate time for both parties to announce it and it had been agreed in advance. The PFF were informed.”
While it’s often difficult to take Chelsea’s side in these debates, especially as they are prone to rule-breaking, perhaps the president should look closer to home. Indeed, whether the Blues had made an announcement or not, the Portugal keeper would still have been dodgy and the defence would have struggled with set-pieces. Are Chelsea culpable in any way?