Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has written off Chelsea’s chances of winning four trophies this season, but Jose Mourinho’s right-hand man, Steve Clarke, believes the best is yet to come from Chelsea.
Chelsea are seven points clear of second-placed Arsenal at the top of the Premiership, and face Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League, Birmingham in the fourth round of the FA Cup and Manchester United in the semifinals of the League Cup.
But Ferguson, who led United to the treble of Champions League, Premiership and FA Cup in 1999, insists Chelsea will not better that achievement.
”There is no chance of a club doing a quadruple,” said Ferguson. ”A treble is more feasible. But it is still very difficult to think that will be done again.
”When we did the treble, we had only Henning Berg injured. You need a hell of a good squad and your main players have to be fit all the time.”
But Clarke feels the Londoners can still improve.
”I think there is more to come from the team,” said the Chelsea assistant manager.
”We are a relatively new side put together this season, so we can only improve with playing together.
”It will be very difficult to win four trophies, but the only way forward is to take every game as it comes. But we have said right from the start that the Premiership is the most important.
”Nobody believed us when we kept saying it would get better and that we would score more goals and be more offensive. I think we have been proved right over the last few months.
”We have good attacking options at this club but Damien Duff was not quite fit at the start of the season and Arjen Robben picked up an injury in pre-season, and so we had to wait until we had both available.”
Clarke believes that Mourinho’s success lies in his man management and the ability to share in the squad camaraderie.
”The training is very intense but around these intense periods, we like to have a laugh and a joke. There is a good spirit among the players and, obviously, when you are winning matches, it helps.
”There is no big secret. It has been good man management by the manager. He says the right things to the right players at the right time. We try and make everyone feel part of what we are trying to do at this club.”
The first indication of whether Ferguson or Clarke could read the situation better was to come in Wednesday night’s Carling Cup semifinal first leg. — Sapa-AFP