Surprising managerial exits are usually not a brand new factor at Chelsea.
Whereas the present regime has continued in the identical vein as former proprietor Roman Abramovich, there was a precedent set lengthy earlier than the Russian oligarch arrived in west London, with six totally different managers taking cost of the membership through the Nineties.
One among these was Netherlands legend Ruud Gullit, who took over the Stamford Bridge hotseat when Glenn Hoddle left for the England job in the summertime of 1996 and have become the membership’s player-manager.
Frank Lebouef on his relationship with Ruud Gullit
One among Gullit’s first signings as Chelsea boss was French World Cup winner Frank Lebouef, who joined from Strasbourg in a £2.5million transfer.
“Once I acquired the telephone name from Gullit, he mentioned I used to be one of the best defender on this planet and he wished me,” Lebouf recollects to FourFourTwo. “I assumed, ‘Properly, that man undoubtedly by no means noticed me play, however he’s very good!’ I’ve to confess that I didn’t know the place Chelsea was, however I wished to go there as a result of he wished me a lot.
“It was insane as a result of he was enjoying centre-back with me and I assumed, ‘I’m truly enjoying with Ruud Gullit’. I bear in mind one sport the place we have been inside our personal 18-yard field simply teasing the striker, doing nutmegs. What a expertise.”
Gullit – who FourFourTwo ranked at no.30 in a listing of the 100 finest footballers of all time – led Chelsea to an FA Cup win on the finish of his first season in cost and by February 1998 had the membership on monitor for his or her finest league place for nearly 30 years and likewise into the semi-final of the League Cup and the quarters within the Cup Winners’ Cup. However at this level, chairman Ken Bates opted to swing the axe.
Leboeuf was knowledgeable by Gullit himself. “We’d had coaching within the morning, then he referred to as me an hour afterwards and mentioned, ‘They sacked me’,” he remembers.
“I mentioned, ‘They sacked you, why?!’ He mentioned he didn’t know – now we all know it might need been due to a brand new contract, due to some folks working behind his again.
Bates then turned to a different trendy nice to step up as a player-manager, handing Gianluca Vialli the highest job, with the Italian striker main the workforce to the League Cup closing.
“He dealt with a tough scenario properly, however I used to be broken-hearted to see Ruud go away,” admits Leboeuf. “You don’t do this to a legend.”
