Bust-up that spelt the end for Anelka and Alex at Chelsea

SUNSPORT can today reveal the astonishing training-ground confrontation between Andre Villas-Boas and his players that left Nicolas Anelka and Alex humiliated... and dumped.
The football world was stunned when Chelsea officially confirmed two of their most senior players would be made available in the January transfer window.

But what the club did not reveal was the chain of events that led to the shock announcement.

The meltdown moment came after Chelsea had been beaten by Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League and twice by Liverpool — in the Premier League and then last week's Carling Cup quarter-final.

Pressure was mounting on 34-year-old boss Villas-Boas, with critics challenging his high-line defensive tactics and whether such a young manager had the strength or experience to deal with Chelsea's high-profile but ageing stars.

As the tensions mounted, Villas-Boas called a head-to-head meeting with Chelsea's 'Fab Four' — John Terry, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech.

He told them it was their jobs as senior players to get the team pulling in the right direction and he expected them to relay that to their team-mates.

But the conversation started to turn heated and was only calmed when Villas-Boas suggested they reconvened for lunch together the following day.

However, that never materialised and the issues remained unresolved until Villas-Boas confronted all the players during a practice session at the club's Cobham training ground

The players were stunned when their new manager started criticising them one by one in front of each other, pulling no punches and leaving them in little doubt about what he thought of their performances.

An insider revealed: "It was unbelievable. The manager would look at a player, tear him to shreds, then move on to the next one.

"For example, he turned to Didier Drogba and told him, 'You're a fraction of the player you were last season'.

"Then he turned to the next player and laid into him.

"Everyone was stunned, they'd never seen him like this and had never been treated like this before."

But AVB saved his bombshell moment for 32-year-old striker Anelka, and 29-year-old central defender Alex.

Frenchman Anelka, who picked up the Double with former boss Carlo Ancelotti, has barely featured under Villas-Boas — starting just three Premier League games.

Similarly, Brazil star Alex has barely played either, despite also winning the Double alongside Anelka.

Anelka was first to feel the icy blast, with AVB turning to him and saying: "I don't want to see you anywhere near the first team again."

Our insider continued: "The manager told Anelka he wasn't welcome anywhere.

"He was banned from training with the first team, banned from using the training facilities if the first-team squad were using them — and told he would be training with the reserves from now on.

"Then AVB turned to Alex and said 'And the same applies to you'."




The exchange left the entire squad gobsmacked, with many players thinking: "If he can do that to Anelka and Alex, he can do it to any of us."

Our source added: "This is a very tight-knit squad that has been through thick and thin together over the years. To see two buddies treated like that hurt."


Villas-Boas certainly has not avoided controversial decisions since, most recently axing midfield legend Frank Lampard from the team that won Tuesday's critical Champions League showdown against Valencia.

The insider added: "It was a real 'I'm in command' moment. The players were left in no doubt who's in charge and just what the manager is capable of doing.

"If anyone feared AVB wouldn't be strong enough to confront the players, or take them on face to face, that moment erased any doubt."

Anelka and Alex have since put in transfer requests which have been granted. Both will leave in January but they may not be alone.

Florent Malouda and Jose Bosingwa are also being tipped to quit the West London club this winter as AVB tries to put his own stamp on the club.

Frontman Anelka at least looks like he will land on his feet, with Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua confident of completing a swoop.

They have offered Anelka a three-year contract, which includes a salary in excess of £6million.

West Ham are also said to be interested but Shanghai spokesman Ma Yue said: "It will be a three-year contract and will involve both football and commercial co-operation."

Chairman Zhu Jun added: "We started to talk about every detail from the first minute of the negotiations. It's comprehensive and complicated, involving the player's image."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3985281/SunSport-reveals-the-amazing-traning-ground-bust-up-that-left-Nicolas-Anelka-and-Alex-on-the-Chelsea-scrapheap.html

What a twat .... I hope he gets fired ....pfff he doesnt have it in him to coach a big team for now .... this prick will never come to Milan he doesnt understand the definition of building a family .

What is the difference between Anelka-Alex and Torres-Luiz ? The first two actualy did something for Chelsea and it's just the worst way of parting with a player that you should be grateful to .... scum !

Good stuff by AVB. Chelsea need a shake-up from top to bottom!

Good on ya Andre

#huehuehue

Of All the Roads to winning the CL , none of them lead to London again this season it seems .

Theres stamping your authority and then teres being a douche avb sounds like the latter.

Dnt think the players will have much respect for him if thats true.

Avb will be gone by the end of the year, chelsea realky shouldve stuck with anchelotti !!

lol nd torres and luiz have been so awesome

pUsHa wrote:Of All the Roads to winning the CL , none of them lead to London again this season it seems .

But the road to reaching the champions league final is in London. Beat CHesea, you are 100% guaranteed to be in the final...

Well whatever he said to Drogba worked apparently. I mean yeah, this sounds rough, but these guys are paid crazy amounts of money and they have been playing like crap, so its hard to feel sympathy for them because their boss got mad at them.. Especially since what he said seems like it actually worked because if they hadn't won in the CL the other day they wouldn't have gone on the the knock out stages which would have been a disaster they couldn't afford.

Respect does not come from being a nice guy. You get respect when you start delivering results.

However nice AVB is to his players, he will not have the respect if he keeps losing.

This is awesome by AVB and it gets his players fired up, especially after so many lethargic performances. Just look at Drogba. He has started to gain some of his lost form.

If his decisions make sense to him, who are we to question him? Anelka has a bad reputation in any case. How do you know how Anelka and Alex act during trainings? Luiz and Torres have been bad, but they must be working their ass off.

It is all conjecture, but i always had the feeling AVB was being too soft when they were losing earlier. Now that he seems to have their attention, watch Chelsea start winning.

MarkForrest17 wrote:Well whatever he said to Drogba worked apparently. I mean yeah, this sounds rough, but these guys are paid crazy amounts of money and they have been playing like crap, so its hard to feel sympathy for them because their boss got mad at them.. Especially since what he said seems like it actually worked because if they hadn't won in the CL the other day they wouldn't have gone on the the knock out stages which would have been a disaster they couldn't afford.

Yes , but AVB is also paid crazy amounts of money ... yet he thinks Chelsea are suited for a high-line defence in the premier league ... he's worse than the players ...

bloodless wrote:lol nd torres and luiz have been so awesome

Well it probably has a lot to do with attitude and off the field actions of some of the players and not just how they have been playing. We don't really have all the info, for all we know Anelka and Alex said something, or did something they shouldn't have done or said or w/e. I don't think he would have said you guys are banned here don't ever come back for no reason other than they didn't play well when they were on.

pUsHa wrote:

MarkForrest17 wrote:Well whatever he said to Drogba worked apparently. I mean yeah, this sounds rough, but these guys are paid crazy amounts of money and they have been playing like crap, so its hard to feel sympathy for them because their boss got mad at them.. Especially since what he said seems like it actually worked because if they hadn't won in the CL the other day they wouldn't have gone on the the knock out stages which would have been a disaster they couldn't afford.

Yes , but AVB is also paid crazy amounts of money ... yet he thinks Chelsea are suited for a high-line defence in the premier league ... he's worse than the players ...

Well, thats what he was brought there to do. He needs the players to follow him, and have them buy into his philosophies or else its never going to work. It hasn't so far but nothings worked for this team this season yet it isn't just the defense. If he is able to get control of the team I think his style of play will work I don't think that a club with so much talent is completely incapable of playing this way, its just they have been reluctant to adapt to it.

I think we should wait a couple more games before everyone says avb is a master for doing what he did and that the team will hit the ground running now.

Espcially considering they got man city this weekend, avb is really gonna need to get his defence in order or else a drubbing could be on its way and dont think abramovich would be to happy with his team taking a flogging.

Well see how they go in the next couple of weeks

If Chelsea dont get their results, then it will be difficult for AVB to exert his influence, no doubt. It's all on him now and how he gets his players to perform!

So what if it's true?

Keep in mind that those kind of tabloids will always make things look bigger than they already are.

Whatever the case, they were getting paid a lot of money and still under performing. Player power has been reigning at Chelsea for far too long and its time a manager actually took control. Mourinho would have do the same to his players as well; in fact he's done and said worse. Yet he got the results.

AVB benched Lampard, Super Frankie Lampard who's got a permanent banner at the Bridge and then Chelsea put in their best performance of the season.

And why bring Torres and Luiz to this topic? It says in the article that he said it to every player. Only reason why Anelka and Alex made the headlines is cos they are going to leave

I know a few weeks of great improvement is too premature to say we are back in business, but its definitely a positive sign. If AVB keeps it up he'll win the trophies and put an end to player power that led to the departure of many coaches

I wonder what he said to Scorres

Good on him. Cudo's to avb

The Sun :lol!:

What a load of drivel.

Gil wrote:The Sun :lol!:

What a load of drivel.

Hey gil, been meaning to ask going off ur avatar your an entourage fan righttt ?

This is very entertaining and all, but how do we know this is true?

"Insider at the club" lol

Nice story, fun to read but highly doubtful it ever happened.

Football world was shocked? It makes sense for Anelka to be sold.

The football world was stunned when Chelsea officially confirmed two of their most senior players would be made available in the January transfer window.

:lol!: :lol!:

Lionel Messi wrote:I wonder what he said to Scorres

"You.... You have deceived your colleague Xavi."