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Football London
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Daniel Childs

Manchester United player leaks remind Chelsea why Roman Abramovich cannot tolerate circuses

It was telling that the first club Gary Neville thought of referring to when discussing Manchester United's recent player leaks to the media was Chelsea.

"I remember sitting there at lunchtime with our team, and they were getting messages of team news being leaked and the manager being slagged off, and I sat there thinking, does this actually happen?" Neville said on Sunday.

The incident Neville recalled to was the final days of Andre Villa-Boas as Chelsea's head coach ten years ago when he was covering a Blues game for Sky Sports.

"Players agents and PR teams were briefing the media on a matchday about what was going on inside a club, and it was the first time I had seen it and known for it to happen – it really unnerved me."

Neville went on to lambast the current Manchester United squad members doing the same to Ralf Rangnick on his podcast.

The nonsensical stories coming out that suggest Rangnick's assistant Chris Armas had been compared to fictional coach Ted Lasso reeked of a toxic dressing room filled with characters unable to take accountability.

The most damning thing you can say about Man United is the fact their current squad has only made the three previous coaches look brighter with the gift of hindsight.

There has been no drastic upturn in form nor performance since Rangnick's arrival, and the weekly leaks to the press reflect terribly on the mentality of a dressing room that has consistently failed.

It reflects an overly-pampered and overrated group of players who cannot handle being asked to press in the Premier League. Something a vast majority of professional clubs do now.

Chelsea must avoid similar circuses of their own in the past whilst aiming to replicate the unified front seen at the two teams above them in the Premier League table, Manchester City and Liverpool.

This sort of player leaking and obvious undermining of a sitting head coach simply does not exist at either of the previous two title winners, with Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp placed as powerful figureheads whose leadership is rarely doubted.

The nonsensical politics of Manchester United today and of Chelsea in the past do little to serve matters on the pitch and have proven to be detrimental time and again.

Chelsea's handling of the Romelu Lukaku interview helped Thomas Tuchel (Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images)

"When they go to the media, then those media people go to us – so we know who he is briefing. The reality is that we do not like it, but we know who it is." Neville said on United.

"I thought that was downright disrespectful - I did not find it funny at all that they were describing Ralf Rangnick's No 2 as Ted Lasso, and not only was it disrespectful, but I found it disgusting.

"They have big PR machines - agents, social media teams are active, and they have been for a good few months."

Chelsea's recent handling of the Romelu Lukaku interview was a step in the right direction.

Sure Lukaku's clumsy actions were not comparable to refusing to be substituted in a major final or storming off to the team bus whilst 3-0 down, but they gave Thomas Tuchel a PR storm he did not need on the eve of a massive league game.

Roman Abramovich and Marina Granovskaia reportedly backing the German only made his sense of control at Stamford Bridge stronger.

Lukaku was briefly punished, but his reintegration was swift, and his two goals in the Club World Cup can hopefully see him turn a positive corner after that unfortunate incident.

If Chelsea hopes to replicate Liverpool of Man City's domestic success over the past five years, they cannot afford to fall into the circus that Man United has become.

Specifically when you need humility and buy-in from top players to fulfil Tuchel's vision.

Make sure you have subscribed to CareFreeChelsea on YouTube! The Fan Brands team along with plenty of your football.london favourites will be producing daily Chelsea content for you to enjoy including match reactions, podcasts, football fun and interviews. You can follow Daniel Childs from the CareFreeChelsea team to keep up to date with his work. If you enjoyed reading this then give my other articles a read below.

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