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ZOLA: Legend at Chelsea
Tuesday October 2,2007
By Tony Banks
Have your say(0) CHELSEA are considering a bold plan to bring Stamford Bridge hero Gianfranco Zola back to the club alongside World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi in a desperate bid to rescue their season.
Though Chelsea’s players have been told the beleaguered Avram Grant is in charge for the time being, the Israeli is not popular with the squad and is almost certain to be ousted if Chelsea are beaten in the Champions League at Valencia tomorrow and do not win at Bolton next weekend.
But with other coaching options proving problematic, owner Roman Abramovich wants to bring back Zola, now helping to run Italy’s Under-21 team, as a coach to rescue a season that is rapidly disintegrating.
Zola, like Grant, does not have a UEFA Pro licence, but is working towards it with the Italian FA. Chelsea want to tempt him back to his beloved Bridge with an established international name alongside him – and World Cup winner Lippi is the man.
Zola, 41, has always said he would like to return to Chelsea one day. He became a legend at the club in his seven years at Stamford Bridge, where he scored 59 goals in 229 appearances before leaving in 2003.
Zola departed the club only a week before Abramovich bought it that summer, and the Russian spent several days frantically trying to agree a new deal for him to return. But Zola had already agreed a contract with Cagliari and would not go back on his word.
Abramovich then even tried unsuccessfully to buy the Italian club, so desperate was he to get Zola back.
Certain elements in the Chelsea hierarchy see the plan to pair Zola with Lippi as the only way to win back the fans following the disastrous events of the last fortnight, which saw Jose Mourinho forced out and supporters up in arms about the chaos that followed.
Chelsea face Valencia in Spain tomorrow night in their second Champions League Group B game knowing defeat will almost certainly mean an early exit from the competition, after they could only draw their opening match against Rosenborg.
Lippi has always been high on the list of candidates who have been looked at as possible successors to Mourinho.
The former Juventus coach, 59, has been regarded as too old to leap into the hurly burly of Premier League football, especially with a club like Chelsea. But with a younger man alongside him to help, the pairing might just work.
Lippi has twice managed Juventus and also Inter in a glittering career that has seen five Serie A titles and one European Cup come his way.
His crowning glory, though, was leading an initially unfancied Italy to success in last year’s World Cup.
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