Jose Mourinho and
his merry band of Portu-geezers (as no doubt Once and Forever Geezer
King David Luiz would've called them) are gone, off to go house hunting
in Manchester.
Morais had left the entourage a couple times before, but has yet to find success on his own. The others, Rui Faria, Silvino Louro, and Carlos Lalin will no doubt follow Mourinho wherever he goes.
Mourinho had no less than three
assistant managers (Rui, Silvino, and Steve Holland), four if we count
Morais as well, though his role was also to oversee the opposition
scouting department. Just like during Morais's one-year sabbatical from
the team last season, his duties in this regard will be taken over by
James Melbourne, who's also the lead match analyst.
He will continue to
work with head opposition scout Mick McGiven; those two, combining
quantitative and qualitative analysis, also combine for well over 30+
years of Chelsea experience.
Unlike Mourinho, Hiddink does
not have a management A-team to assemble. When he was Chelsea interim
manager before, Ray Wilkins served as his assistant, just as he had for
the managers before and after Hiddink.
Hiddink's assistant at Anzhi was
Roberto Carlos (who was assistant and caretaker manager before); his
assistant at the Dutch national team was Danny Blind, who had also
fulfilled that role under the previous manager (Louis van Gaal) before
getting promoted to manager to replace Hiddink himself.
The pattern
continues now, with Steve Holland remaining in his assistant manager
role that he's fulfilled since the days of Andre Villas-Boas. Joining
Holland is Eddie Newton, former assistant to Roberto Di Matteo, but more
recently working as a liaison with players out on loan. According to reports, it will be Newton's responsibility to push for more youth integration during this interim spell.
Carlos Lalin was the newest and
most unknown member of the Mourinho entourage.
He joined from Real
Madrid back in 2014, with the official title of assistant first-team
fitness coach, working closely with Rui Faria, Chris Jones, and other
people responsible for fitness and conditioning. For now, it looks like
Chris Jones will be handling most of the responsibilities in this area.
Other staff who are staying in
unchanged roles include Christophe Lollichon (goalkeeper coach, as he
has been since 2007), Paco Biosca (medical director, as he has been
since 2011), and all the people involved in U21, U18, and academy
coaching. With Newton promoted, most of his old responsibilities will
be taken over by Paulo Ferreira, whose name has been added to the staff list on the official website
recently (not sure exactly when; first time I've noticed it was today).
The fan favorite is also studying towards his coaching badges while
assisting with loan player tracking.
And speaking of fan favorites,
Hiddink and Chelsea are still working to bring back Didier Drogba as
some sort of assistant or motivator or morale boost or strikers coach,
if he's able (and willing) to get out of his Montreal Impact contract.
Part of me thinks that would be really cool if he did; part of me
thinks he should stick by his word and see out his contract with the MLS
side where he became an instant local hero last season.
Hiddink and his new staff took their first official training session Tuesday morning. Welcome to the new Interim era.
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