Chelsea Football Club: Andre Villas Boas Hints That He Is Feeling the Pressure

Andre Villas-Boas resigned as manager of Porto at the end of the 2010-11 season to join Chelsea football club in England. Fast-forward to February 2012 and Chelsea isn't doing so badly—nor are they actually setting the footballing world on fire.

Still in the Champions League and well on their way to achieving fourth in the league, Chelsea are doing reasonably well for a club in transition. Reasonable if you have reasonable expectations from the top that is.

Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, clearly believes that his club and the manager that he appoints should be able to buy success through the millions that he sanctions for each wishful transfer.

The man demands instant success, something that is sometimes hard to achieve in a team sport like football—as it takes time for new personnel to get in sync with the rest of the club.

Carlo Ancelotti found out about Abramovich's high expectations last season when he was sacked to bring in AVB. AVB himself is now showing signs that he is worried he may be shown the door soon, should Chelsea fail to achieve anything of note this season. 

Villas-Boas has expressed his wish to have clarity within the club's hierarchy to the extent that the club backs his vision for Chelsea's long-term future. He further adds:

"In terms of the results this year, the speculation is normal given the cultural past of this football club. But you have to understand that there's a different perspective now.

"We had a three-year project to change not only the team, but the culture and structure of the club.

"There's a lot we needed to do, a lot of plans. That's why I'm excited about the future.

"Having said that, we have to build a team to win trophies.

"We're no longer in the Carling Cup and don't have a chance to win the title. But we are still confident we can do well in the Champions League and the FA Cup."

By the statements made, it seems as if AVB is buying himself some time by the "three-year-project" pill. He also goes on to say that he is excited about the future. I hope AVB knows that he is not fooling anyone, least of all Abramovich—by talking about exciting times in the future. 

One thing that was refreshing to see, was a manager admitting that there was no chance of winning the league title—something that most others find insulting to confess. Such an attitude does appeal to the press and maybe the media may buy him some more time, by highlighting his good work.

Also, at the start of February, in a press conference, AVB was questioned on the possibility of Jose Mourinho returning to the Barclay's Premier League. Interestingly, Villas-Boas not only admitted to being under pressure himself with Mourinho's return—but named a few other managers as well.

At that time, Chelsea's main rivals for fourth spot were Arsenal and Liverpool. One of the names that AVB mentioned was Kenny Dalglish.

Does that mean that AVB was more wary of the threat from a resurgent Liverpool side than from Arsenal?

It was a good ploy for unsettling rivals in the present.

It may have been a decent mind-game for the future too. Correlating the two interviews cited here, it might as well be that Villas-Boas was targeting Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United in the long run.

He talked about a three-year project, so he wants to make the league easier to win for himself. He knows that Mourinho has a very small chance of returning to Chelsea, considering his past with Abramovich.

Thus, he might have been envisioning the possibility of a new manager at United should Ferguson fail to win a single trophy this year.

A decent plan, but does it actually have the legs to come out right?