Reinventing The Bridge

I’m breathing again.

When Carlo Ancelotti was announced as the new Coach of Chelsea, I nodded to myself, mentioned the news to my friend sitting next to me and immediately began searching for the next Shakira Video. 

My unconcern was mostly borne out of an ingrained need to seek the path to survival. With three heartbreaking seasons unsuccessfully completed my heart had warned me that it could no longer take any more heart aches.

For instance, when John Terry stepped up to the penalty spot and missed that champion league penalty my heart leaped to 200 beats a minute, and stayed that way for the next 3 days. Nobody understood why I broke out into tears whenever I was driving.

When, in the dying minutes of the Chelsea/Barca semifinal, Iniesta struck the ball outside the penalty area with the same degree of force as John Terry had 11 months earlier, I prayed to the gods of football that the shot would somehow miss, that the Galant Cech would catch it, or that—as had been John Terry’s sad fate—the ball would somehow miss the post all together and clang harmlessly against the upright.

As I (and a 100 million Chelsea supporters came to painfully find out), the gods of soccer weren’t listening to me that night.

And so when Carlo Ancelotti was announced as the new coach of Chelsea I refused to allow myself be lulled into the false sense of renewed belief. Surely, I would only just be setting myself up for yet another heartache.

Wasn’t it just a year before, that the fantastic Scolari had been appointed to lead Chelsea into a fantastic era of Brazilian football. The entire world—even the non football watching aliens—know how that turned out.

Had the Gus Hidniick not stepped in to save our…well goose from the fire, the last season might have ended on a rather alarming note.

Who then was this Carlo Ancelotti and why was he being heralded as Chelsea’s answer? Much noise was made about his accomplishments but the onething that I could remember was that he was the manager in charge when AC Milan lost a 3 goal lead in 10 minutes and then went on to the loose the Champions league.

And didn’t they lose the match in question to those spawns of Chelsea Satan (occasionally called Liverpool) who had twice denied Chelsea a seat in the champions League Final? This then was the man I was to be delighted about? Mon Dieu. I most certainly would not. My heart could take much but it most certainly could not take that!

And so, despite many opinions on the contrary, I refused to be pulled into the enthusiasm. I simply refused to believe.

All that is changing now.

I have slowly come to respect Carlo Ancelotti and it is not just because of his impeccable dress sense. The man, unlike a certain Felipe I know, appears to know what he is doing.

It is said in football circles that there is no love lost between Carlo and the special one Mourinho. For Chelsea I believe this is excellent news. It will take such intense enmity to rip the shadow of the special one away.

Since the departure of the special one, Chelsea has yet to identify itself outside the tried and trusted approach of Mourinho. With Carlo’s daring attempt to redefine Chelsea, we might finally have found the right push we need to achieving our aim. Jose ordered the men to protect the game. Carlo, it appears, seems to have thrown out the baton and simply left the drums.

His order is completely different. Enjoy the game he says.

I enjoyed the game against Burnely. Forget our victories the last two months, whilst watching the game against Burnely I came to appreciate one important fact. Chelsea was playing.

Oh I don’t mean they were running on the field, I mean they were actually enjoying themselves. I could sense the air of detachment. They addressed the game not as if this was a do or die affair (as it most certainly was with Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City snapping at their blue toes) but as if the stakes were no higher than who would pay for the next round of beer, or soda or whatever it is these footballers drink during their spare time (blood?).

And with this observation came my slow acceptance of Ancelotti. Surely a man who could wipe out the old dogma of a legend and reintroduce the true essence of the game must be worthy of my attention.

The philosophy of Carlo appears to be simple. For you to be champions you must first accept that you are.

Chelsea has long sought to win the elusive Champions League Trophy. In this lies the plan to conquer the world and win international acceptance. There is some truth and sense in this idea to be sure but the error lies in our thinking that this is the only way. True champions are not made. They simply are.

For us to be considered as champions all over the world we simply have to stop considering the champions League as our only chance of Knighthood and just accept the fact that we are.

A fact that Burnely will gladly point out to you.