Ray Wilkins is a highly respected man in English football. As a player he had undoubted ability but was never quite as attack minded as people thought he should be. Someone once famously said that the only time Wilkins went forward on the football pitch was when he went up for the coin toss at the start of the game!
Despite that he had a glittering career. As a manager he was less successful and as a Watford fan I can never forgive him and Gianluca Vialli for the terrible mess they made of my club.
The appointment of Wilkins as coach at Chelsea by Felipe Scolari raised a few eyebrows but was certainly in no way a controversial one.
However, it seems that Wilkins has developed a remarkable knack for causing controversy when he opens his mouth now. At the weekend Wilkins angered Blackburn boss Paul Ince by claiming that his team had been “aggressive and over-physical’. That seemed a little harsh considering the game had been played in terrible conditions, Chelsea had won and the foul count in the game was just fourteen fouls to eleven.
Then, Wilkins decided to attack Arsenal’s policy of playing younger players in the Carling Cup saying it was ‘disrespectful’. As the youngsters had handed a footballing lesson to Premier League Wigan and beaten them 3-0 it was difficult to see where Wilkins was coming from, but even so, he went on to say that Chelsea respected the Carling Cup and wanted to win it, ‘big time’.
Well, Chelsea picked a slightly ‘disrespectful’ team as they ‘rested’ Cech, Bosingwa, Terry, Lampard, Mikel and Anelka from Saturday’s team, but should still have had more than enough about them to beat Championship Burnley and progress to the next round of Wilkins’ precious Carling Cup.
They didn’t. Burnley won on penalties after a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Anyone else think that’s quite funny?
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