Leadership lessons from Soccer: Scolari's failures

Pete Gill's article on why Scolari didn't deliver in the seven months he managed Chelsea makes for great reading. From a hero in Brazils 2002 world cup win to the villian in Chelseas premier league performances...

Pete Gill: Luiz Felipe Scolari was sacked after just seven months at Chelsea, F365 considers the reasons it went wrong for him so spectacularly and so quickly at Stamford Bridge...

Signing A Two-Year Contract
Questions about the wisdom of Scolari"s appointment were raised the moment it was announced he had put pen to paper on a two-year deal. Not only did the short-term undertaking suggest that his roots in London would be loose, but it also cast considerable doubt on whether he would - or could - provide the long-term outlook that many felt Chelsea desperately required after two years of gradual regression and their side relatively elderly compared to their closest rivals.

The brevity of that contract may have also served as his death warrant: While the sackings of Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant from their long-term deals cost Chelsea tens of millions in compensation, dismissing Scolari will have been comparatively cheap.

Did He Lose The Dressing Room?
According to Sky Sports News, the Chelsea players were "unhappy" with both Scolari"s tactics - specifically the refusal to use a 4-4-2 formation - and his "antiquated" training methods, while the BBC has reported that Roman Abramovich appeared at the training ground to "canvass the opinion of the senior players" last week. If true, then there is only one conclusion to draw from the axe falling this Monday.

Losing The Fans
Scolari"s substitutions became a weekly source of irritation to the Chelsea supporters, culminating in chants of "You don"t know what you"re doing" during Saturday"s dismal draw with Hull. That reaction may well have spooked the club"s hierarchy into believing that wielding the axe would be both an appropriate and popular measure; don"t forget that Jose Mourinho was ousted in the wake of less than 25,000 fans attending a Champions League qualifier 24 hours previously.

Failing To Adapt To Being A Club Manager Again
After so long as an international manager, did Scolari appreciate the different - and heightenend - demands that a return to club management would make? John Hollins, the former Chelsea boss, believes not. "Every day is very, very busy and I have to say I don"t think there was enough in there from him to carry it through."

There"s an interesting - if unverified - anecdote to endorse the suspicion. After the game with Middlesbrough, when it now appears that only a couple of late goals saved him from instant dismissal, Scolari failed to appear in front of the press. Why? According to reports, he had actually left the ground even before the final whistle to collect his son from St Pancras station.

Good parenting, to be sure, but hardly the sort of dedication to the job that Chelsea might have felt they were entitled to receive in return for his handsome remuneration.

Failing To Win Any Big Matches
Early February is an unusual time for managerial upheaval, but Chelsea"s record against fellow members of the Big Four this season - Played 5, Drawn 1, Lost 4 - didn"t just spell doom for their title tilt but also suggested that redemption in the Champions League wouldn"t be forthcoming either.

Chelsea"s statement that "In order to maintain a challenge for the trophies we are still competing for we felt the only option was to make the change now" reads as the club concluding they had nothing to lose - and plenty to gain - in acting so decisively ahead of the CL"s resumption in two weeks" time.

The Absence Of Plan B
Scolari took the Chelsea job after almost ten years out of club management and it showed. Once the flaw of his favoured formation, which used both full-backs to provide all the width, was exposed, Scolari seemed to run out of ideas.

Perhaps he was right to believe that Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba were incompatible but Scolari"s reluctance to try something different must have been a factor in the club believing he wasn"t capable of arresting "a deterioration at a key time of the season".

Failing To Speak The Lingo
Given the close relationship between communication and management, it was a puzzle from Scolari"s first garbled press conference that Chelsea had appointed a man who could barely make himself understood in the Premier League"s native tongue. If those press conferences were any guide, Chelsea"s players must have been the most confused in the country.

Failing To Inspire
The statement released by Chelsea suggests that the club had simply lost confidence and belief in Scolari. No wonder. There was simply no facet of his tenure that either inspired or convinced.

Performances, both individually and collectively declined, and the impression of a club going backwards was allowed to fester. Since the late summer, Chelsea have ceased to appear a happy unit and Scolari"s handling of Didier Drogba - which alienated rather than motivated - was a test of management that he failed.

Failing To Entertain
There is no arguing with results and Scolari would still be Chelsea manager if they were top of the league. Nonetheless, it is telling that Chelsea cited a decline in "performances" as well as results in their explanation for his ousting.

While it was never confirmed in public, the general impression last summer was that Avram Grant had been sacked because he failed to inspire an attacking brand of football. After a bright start, the entertainment provided by Scolari"s Chelsea deteriorated to the lowest level seen during the Abramovich era.

Losing Steve Clarke
Clarke"s departure wasn"t a headline act in September but it has become steadily clear ever since - both in terms of the defensive solidity he has organised at West Ham and the decline at Chelsea - that he was in fact an integral factor in the club"s recent success.

Building Around The Wrong Players
One of Scolari"s most prominent statements in the summer was that he would get the best out of Florent Malouda, making it sound like a simple procedure that only required the Frenchman to operate from his best position. So much for that theory. If anything, Malouda"s performances have declined this season from awful to the sort of thing you sometimes find at the bottom of your shoes. Worse, Scolari"s faith in the non-performing winger meant that he opted against buying any alternatives in the summer. Was this a factor in the club eventually pulling out of the Robinho chase?

It wasn"t until the final day of the January transfer window that width was acquired in the form of loan signing Ricardo Quaresma - by which time it was already far too late.

Building Around The Wrong Players, Part Two
While Deco was brilliant in his first few games this season, Barcelona"s ready acquiescence in offloading the midfielder was a clue to the slump that followed thereafter. The 31-year-old simply does not possess the legs to star over a campaign and, having built the side around him and hired no alternative, Deco"s sharp decline spelled doom for Scolari"s Chelsea.

But In His Defence...
Arguably the greatest trick Jose Mourinho pulled off at Chelsea was getting out when the going was still good and he retained a near god-like status amongst the fans.

Scolari, by contrast, arrived at Stamford Bridge just as Roman Abramovich was shutting his chequebook and an ageing Chelsea side, haunted by the trauma of Moscow, was beginning to decline.

The bottom line, however, must be that he played his hand appallingly.