Chelsea boss Andre-Villas Boas in high spirits after goalless draw at Stoke City, hints at new signings
New Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas’ first game in charge of the London side ended in a disappointing goalless draw against Stoke City. The Blues travelled to Britannia Stadium with hopes of starting the new campaign on a winning note, but were held to
a draw. The Portuguese manager said in the post match conference that he was confident his side were on the right track to claim the title.
Villas-Boas arrived at Stamford Bridge as a replacement for former Italian boss Carlo Ancelotti, with a highly impressive record under his belt with Portuguese side FC Porto. He enjoyed a successful pre-season with Chelsea, winning all of the fixtures and
conceding just one goal throughout that period. However, the first match of the new Premier League season didn’t quite go as planned for the young manager.
Villas-Boas started off as a part of former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho’s staff, but went on to begin his own managerial career when the Special One took over the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Porto-c39186, and admitted to being
out of touch with the Premier League. While Villas-Boas admitted he would have preferred a win, he said he wasn’t exactly disappointed with the draw.
Villas-Boas said while speaking to reporters:
“I would have enjoyed it better if I had won it but I came up short in terms of the result. I was away from it (the Premier League) a couple of years but I never stopped following it. There's so many beautiful things in this game.”
The Blues manager revealed he was aiming to lead Chelsea back to the Premier League title, which was surrendered to Manchester United last season. The Blues suffered a terrible mid-season slump, but managed to recover towards the end of the campaign to secure
a second place finish. Villas-Boas revealed he planned to build on from last season’s resurgence and lead the Blues to the title in his first season at the club.
He continued:
“The challenge this season is to get back the Premier League title. It's a point away from home, at Stoke, and it's a difficult place. Last season we finished second and we are here because we want to finish first.”
To everyone’s surprise Villas-Boas has so far not made any big signings in the summer transfer window. With the funds available to him, it was expected the former FC Porto boss would bring in a host of superstars. However, he has only signed Thibaut Courtois,
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Romelu-Lukaku-c31672 so far, all of them youngsters and not expected to participate much in the current season.
While Courtois has been loaned out to Atletico Madrid, Romeu and Lukaku remain. Despite being extremely talented, both the players are extremely young and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 require someone older and more experienced. It is rumoured Chelsea are considering making another
bid for Tottenham Hotspur midfielder http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Luka-Modric-c22857, but Villas-Boas failed to give out any information on possible Chelsea targets.
The summer transfer window close on August 31st, giving Villas-Boas and other Premier League sides about two weeks to bring in new signings. Villas-Boas said he felt there was still plenty of time to bring in more players, if he felt it was necessary.
He has previously claimed to be satisfied with the existing squad, but is thought to be looking to bring in more players.
Villas-Boas said:
“There's plenty of time still to make those decisions. I think the market will get extremely frenetic in the last week.”
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