Chelsea job will be 'hell', says Luiz Felipe Scolari

Luiz Felipe Scolari

Working under Roman Abramovich will be "hell" for the next Chelsea manager, according to former Blues boss Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Abramovich is looking for his eighth permanent manager since 2003 after sacking Andre Villas-Boas on Sunday.

"It will be hell for whoever succeeds him," said Scolari, who spent seven months at Chelsea in 2008-09.

"[The sacking] is strange - although it's not so strange to me because of what I went through there."

Scolari, who won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002, arrived at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2008.

In September of the previous year, Jose Mourinho, winner of successive Premier League titles with the Blues, had left the club to be replaced by Avram Grant, who was sacked despite taking Chelsea to the Champions League final.

Brazilian Scolari was then removed after only 36 games in charge, with Chelsea lying fourth in the Premier League.

At the time of his departure, there were suggestions some players were not happy with his management style - problems Villas-Boas has also reportedly encountered.

"Some things are known, like the relations with the owner, who has the relationship with some players before the coach," added Scolari.

The former Portugal boss also believes one of the reasons why Chelsea have a ratio of nearly one manager a year under Abramovich is down to the club's culture.

"England has clubs like Arsenal, where Arsene Wenger has been for several years, yet has won only two or three championships," he said. "Chelsea's culture is very different."

Villas-Boas arrived in London after winning the quadruple with Porto in his first full season as a club manager.

And Scolari, now in charge of Brazilian club Palmeiras, believes Villas-Boas will recover from his Stamford Bridge experience.

"Villas-Boas was a champion and he will continue to be. He needed to replace at least seven or eight players, even since I was there, but he failed."

Meanwhile, former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino reckons Villas-Boas was the architect of his own downfall.

Cascarino believes the manager's failure to control the egos in the dressing room cost him his job.

"If it's player power that was a problem that definitely comes down to the manager," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

"I don't think any top manager loses the dressing room. He knows how to manoeuvre, how to handle players and egos.

"He has to make that dressing room work and it was clearly not the case."

"He's changed his team on numerous occasions and every time it's backfired. The players didn't know who was in the [first] XI, who were the better players or who was guaranteed a place.

"The bottom line is they've been awful."

Meanwhile, Blues winger Juan Mata says he is determined to rescue Chelsea's season after this latest setback.

"I think we have to start again," he told Chelsea TV. "We are not in a good moment, we are not in a good run of results, but we all want to change it.

"We have a very good squad and we have two months to achieve our objectives in the Premier League, in the FA Cup and Champions League."