There is a belief among some of the mind gurus and statistics experts at Chelsea that there is little correlation between the identity of a club’s manager and the club’s results. The impact of managers, a director is said to have told a fans’ group recently, is overestimated.
When that theory was stress-tested with Liam Rosenior, and he was thrust into an impossible situation, it did not turn out well. Now, it is caretaker manager Calum McFarlane’s turn to put his hand into the fire, see Chelsea through to the end of the season and try to earn an FA Cup semi-final victory against Leeds United at Wembley today.
McFarlane gave a tense, terse and sometimes tetchy press conference at the club’s Cobham training ground on Friday afternoon. Nobody blamed him for that, particularly when others should have stepped forward to take the heat, and he fudged his answer about whether he will make a difference.
‘We will follow our same processes that I did previously and that we did for most matches,’ McFarlane said, ‘and try to give the lads everything they need on the grass, off the grass, meetings, to make sure they are comfortable with what they are going to face and what we need to do to win this game.’
McFarlane, who took charge of two games in January after the departure of Enzo Maresca, bristled when he was asked if it would undermine his authority that he does not possess the coaching badges required to coach in a permanent job in the Premier League. ‘What badges?’ he asked.
He was reminded he does not possess a UEFA Pro Licence. ‘I don’t have a Pro Licence,’ he conceded. ‘It didn’t make a difference last time and I have got the lads’ respect and we are ready to attack the game against Leeds and put in the best performance we possibly can.’
McFarlane gave a tense, terse and sometimes tetchy press conference at the club’s Cobham training ground on Friday afternoon and nobody blamed him for that
McFarlane insisted he had ‘the lads’ respect’ despite not having the credentials to manage in the Premier League on a permanent basis due to his lacking a a UEFA Pro Licence
The league’s rules permit an interim boss to manage without a UEFA Pro Licence for up to 12 weeks, with dispensation allowed if a coach is sidelined for medical reasons, or if they are studying for the UEFA Pro Licence.
McFarlane said he had not spoken to Rosenior specifically about which players the former manager felt had let him down during the humiliating 3-0 defeat at Brighton last week but he did say more steps had been taken to try to address the series of leaks that have given away Chelsea’s starting line-ups. The latest incident occurred when Marc Cucurella’s barber revealed details of the team to face Brighton.
‘It’s been addressed,’ McFarlane said. ‘It’s been addressed previously. It’s something that we are looking into and it needs to stop. We’ve spoken to them about the importance of that and making sure it doesn’t happen again.
‘Everyone at the club has to feel responsible for the Brighton performance. Staff and players. We need to, the players know that. We’ve spoken. We know the recent form has not been good enough and we’re going to do absolutely everything we can and work as hard as we possibly can to make sure we can put in a good performance on Sunday.
‘I think that’s where it starts. I think a lot of football is about momentum and we obviously have had a bit of a losing streak. That can change with one positive result and one positive performance and what we’re going to be able to do.’
