Coach welcomes Jose... by praising Rafa Benitez

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Coach welcomes Jose... by praising Rafa Benitez

By SHAUN CUSTIS

Published: 1 hr ago

Lollichon on the rest

AVRAM GRANT: “A good man who needs a good staff with him and, remember, at that time we had Steve Clarke – who was very important – and Henk Ten Cate, who was special, very intelligent and tactically very interesting. It was a good combination. My first months at Chelsea were fantastic and I liked working with Grant.

GUUS HIDDINK: “A big experienced manager. After one week, he understood everything of the team. He was very calm, very precise. It is difficult to say anything else after his achievements. He had very top results. He was like a fox. Shrewd.”

CARLO ANCELOTTI: “Another top experienced manager who did very well for Chelsea. He is at Real Madrid now where he wants to be. It was one of Carlo’s dreams.”

ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS: “The problem for Andre was time. Look at the difference between Villas-Boas now at Tottenham and Villas-Boas at Chelsea. Tottenham and Chelsea are different clubs, but if Andre started now at Chelsea he would not be the same coach he was with us then. It was a period of transition and it was hard

“There was the Cech, Drogba, Lampard, John Terry generation, and some new players. It’s not easy with that transition. When he came in he had to control this older generation, and he had to help new players settle in.
Sometimes, that’s not easy. To do it, you need time.”

ROBERTO DI MATTEO: “He started as an assistant and the last two months and 10 days before winning the Champions League final with him in charge were fantastic. Roberto understood the club and knew what he had to do. The players had more freedom.

“Working with all the coaches together we were very consistent. But then to finish a season and start another one is very different, and don’t forget Di Matteo is a very young manager and Chelsea are a big club.
“It’s not easy. Look at Andre Villas-Boas, a young coach at a big club, and that wasn’t easy for him either.”

JOSE MOURINHO has started pre-season training at Chelsea with coach Christophe Lollichon telling him: Rafa Benitez did a great job with this team.

Lollichon has been a rare constant on the Stamford Bridge staff over the last six years.

He is Petr Cech’s goalkeeping mentor and arrived just after Mourinho departed following his first spell in charge in 2007.

Mourinho will be Lollichon’s eighth manager at Chelsea but he’s never known a season like the last one under Benitez.

Despite the fact the fans hated the Spanish boss, the Blues qualified automatically for the Champions League and won the Europa League with a dramatic victory over Benfica.

“I worked with Benitez only for eight months and it was a very difficult season,” said Lollichon.

“To manage and control the situation the way he did even though the fans were always shouting against him was fantastic.

“Benitez stayed very calm. A few managers might not have cared and just said “ok at the end of the season I will leave’.

“But this guy stayed after training with three or four players to explain details for ten, 15 minutes a lot of times a week.

“He was working with the young players or with Frank Lampard and David Luiz all the time on details and things became more consistent.

“And at the end of the final when Ivanovic scored it was unbelievable.

“It was not exactly like when we won the Champions League but it was very, very important and after we were very proud to win.

“The mentality from the players and staff and Benitez was strong. He was very calm but a very good influence.”

Though Mourinho has returned to Chelsea with his previous goalkeeping coach in tow, Silvino Louro, Lollichon has been told to carry on.
Cech swears by Lollichon and will only work with the Frenchman.

Lollichon said: “I arrived in 2007, six weeks after Mourinho left, but I met him twice after that when we played against Inter Milan and we had good conversations, with him and Petr, but that was all.
“He is very positive and puts out a very positive message. He is, I think, happy to work with me so that’s good.
“Mourinho is a very important coach and a massive man. It is very exciting to have another experience.

“It is my eighth coach in five and a half years.

“The other week, I saw the front page of L’Equipe in France, before PSG appointed Laurent Blanc.
“There were five candidates and I have worked with three of them. I thought “wow,” it is crazy.

Lollichon then took Sunsport through a who’s who of the other managers he has worked with at The Bridge.

All had their individual merits bar one, Luiz Felipe Scolari. Of the Brazil boss, Lollichon rasped: No comment.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz2YVOcYQQV