Scolari The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

It’s only been a year since Jose Mourinho walked out of Stamford Bridge in a blaze of publicity, but whilst he’s busy making new enemies in Italy, it seems Scolari could be doing quite the opposite at Chelsea – or at least, he is as far as the press are concerned anyway.

Whilst Mourinho’s defensive football and offensive personality didn’t endear him to the British press, Scolari’s attempts to entertain more both on and off the field seems to have the media casting a more positive eye over all things Chelsea right now.

You see, even while Chelsea weren’t splaying the ball around the pitch against Stoke on Saturday the fact that even a little of our quality showed through in what was effectively a workman like performance was picked up on by the press. No, it wasn’t ‘beautiful, flowing football’, but it there was a little more willingness to go forward at 1-0 than we’ve become accustomed to. So for now at least, the knives have been put away.

Even the crowd, (at Stoke at least) were reported to have been won over – and not just from Chelsea’s side either it would seem. Because, if anyone is a certainty when it comes to the expected oppositional slating, it has to be John Terry. When it comes to PR, the Chelsea captain seems to have got it completely wrong from the minute Mourinho arrived at Chelsea and he’s won himself a lot more enemies than friends along the way, as the rendition of “Terry is a tosser” accentuated following the game. However, to his credit, JT’s unexpected reaction to this was to walk over to the home fans, sign a few autographs and hand over his training top. And probably even more unexpected was the fact that this was actually warmly received, with the Stoke supporters this time singing his virtues.

New assistant first-team coach Ray Wilkins stated after the game “It was a very tough afternoon but our players really battled through it and have shown qualities that a lot of people didn’t think they had.”

But even Wilkins points to it being Luiz Felipe Scolari who is largely responsible for the change, stating “We can’t have a go at Jose [Mourinho]. He won a lot of trophies for Chelsea and he produced winning football and a mentality that has been carried through. But the new manager has come in and he has a totally different philosophy, including the way full-backs should play. We’ve got some very good players who can play very good football, though. If you have got people who are prepared to work and who can also handle the football, as ours can, then you’ve got every opportunity of creating far more opportunities for the strikers.”

So, we’re flavour of the month again with the press it seems and for now at least, Scolari is the best thing since sliced bread. But before any of us start to get carried away, maybe we’d do well to remember Mourinho was hailed a “breath of fresh air” in his first season at Chelsea too.