Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas has put his future at the club in the hands of owner Roman Abramovich after he declared that he won’t be leaving his post at Stamford Bridge voluntarily.
Although the Portuguese was under no illusions that a trophyless campaign would not enhance his prospects of a further season in the Blues’ hotseat, he also insisted that there is absolutely no way he will walk away from his three-year ‘project’ with the club.
Villas-Boas has come under severe pressure of late after a string of poor results. Last week’s 3-0 success over Bolton may have delayed the inevitable, with rumours suggesting that he will be sacked with another defeat.
Abramovich is known for having little patience when it comes to silverware at the Bridge and, realistically, their best hope lies with the FA Cup, although they must negotiate a tricky replay against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s first.
Villas-Boas was in defiant mood in his press conference on Friday, though, and insisted that he will not leave because of the pressure that has been placed on him.
He said: “I’d never resign, I’d never give up. It’s not part of my education.”
Asked if he would deserve to avoid the axe under those circumstances, he said: “You have to ask the owner.
“It’s only him who can say if there is that right to continue to portray the future or not.”
Carlo Ancelotti was dismissed as Blues manager despite delivering the club a Premier League and FA Cup double just the season before as Abramovich yet again wielded the axe which would now appear to loom over the 34-year-old Villas-Boas.
“Failure to win any trophies at a club of this dimension is not good enough,” Villas-Boas said.
“It is something we cannot accept and so we have to take responsibility for that, the management, for sure.
“It happened last year, after a double-winning side.
“If it happens this year again, we’ll have to reflect more in depth on what is going wrong. There are signs of things you have to avoid.”
Villas-Boas knows that things have not gone exactly according to plan since his arrival at Stamford Bridge, and sitting fifth in the table outside of the Champions League places, the former Porto man admits to making mistakes.
But he is eager to rectify them.
“We haven’t had the results that we should have for the squad we have, and in normal circumstances we would be ahead of those teams,” he said.
“We have been underperforming. But we can still improve for the rest of the season.”