Surprising managerial exits should 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 completely different managers taking cost of the membership in the course of the Nineties.
One in every of 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 in every of Gullit’s first signings as Chelsea boss was French World Cup winner Frank Lebouef, who joined from Strasbourg in a £2.5million transfer.
“After I acquired the cellphone name from Gullit, he stated I used to be the very best defender on the earth and he needed me,” Lebouf remembers to FourFourTwo. “I assumed, ‘Nicely, 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 needed to go there as a result of he needed 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 keep in mind one sport the place we had 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 observe for his or her finest league place for nearly 30 years and in addition 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 known as me an hour afterwards and stated, ‘They sacked me’,” he remembers.
“I stated, ‘They sacked you, why?!’ He stated he didn’t know – now we all know it may 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 crew to the League Cup last.
“He dealt with a difficult state of affairs properly, however I used to be broken-hearted to see Ruud depart,” admits Leboeuf. “You don’t do this to a legend.”
