KEY POINTS:
Sitting at the head of a vast table, Luiz Felipe Scolari delayed the briefing.
He wanted to arrange the dictaphones and tape recorders strewn in front of him into a perfect semi-circle for his first official engagement for Chelsea. All 16 of them. Order, symmetry, organisation.
It is
what he and the "familia Scolari", as he likes to refer to those around him, including the players, is all about. "Be decent, be correct, be rightful," he said by way of explaining his creed. It is why, Scolari explained, he did not become the England manager two years ago - despite a willingness to sign a pre-contract agreement with the Football Association before the World Cup.
He dropped that bombshell right at the start, claiming he had told the FA he was perfectly happy to agree to succeed Sven Goran Eriksson, and sign a piece of paper to that effect, but would not finalise a full contract because Portugal could - and did - face England in the competition. That would not have been correct.
Chelsea will hope that England's loss is their gain, of course. However, in some quarters close to Scolari, they are questioning whether he has moved to the Premier League for the right reasons. The new manager is 60 in November and this job, maybe, despite his protestations, could also be the last. Money is clearly a motivation, too, given the size of the contract he has agreed but he was refuting all such arguments yesterday.
"I am a fighter," Scolari said. "I am a man who everything I have fought for and everything I have tried to achieve has been difficult. But I get there. And my team will be the same. Maybe this season we will have many difficulties but we will arrive for sure. I am determined."
His record backs up such chutzpah, even if he has, at times, taken that fighting man tag to its extremes, including fisticuffs with his own players, and more than the odd argument with referees and opposition coaches. "They are normal situations," Scolari shrugged. Are his fighting days over? "Yes, yes, yes ... well maybe," he added.
His humour will serve him well - he talked of a sea of information which he is trying to swim through, of trying to find somewhere to live - and struggling with a new language.
Scolari has surrounded himself with those he knows, bringing his familiar backroom staff with him and also retaining Steve Clarke as assistant manager. It seems there will also be a role for Regina Brandao, the female sports psychologist who is regarded as a major factor in fostering the close family-like relationship he has with his players.
"When Regina is free I will invite her to come here and talk," he said. She may also be able to give him pointers as to how to deal with Roman Abramovich. However, he had a clear line yesterday on any potential interference. "I have respect for him [Abramovich] and he has respect for me," Scolari said. "This is normal."
Still, he bridled at suggestions that Abramovich may impose players upon him. "I cannot envisage that sort of situation will arise," he said.
"It has never happened before in my career. I will always expect to be consulted about a player. I have never heard of a coach in the world being put in that position and if they say it happened then I do not believe it. When I want a player I give them three options. I will control the squad."
Abramovich wants that - discipline is important for him - but he also wants good football. Scolari agreed that he had once declared that the "jogo bonito" was dead but added: "We'll try and play beautiful football. But, sometimes, if you want to win, you don't play beautiful. Sure I want both but sometimes it's impossible."
Jose Mourinho would have curled his lip at that one but there was something the pair agreed on.
"I know that he likes Chelsea a lot," Scolari said of the man he needs to emulate. "And I understand why. I have been here three days and I love Chelsea, too."
How long that love affair endures, we will soon see.
LAMPARD, DROGBA WANTED
Luiz Felipe Scolari made it clear that he will take a ruthless approach to culling Chelsea's squad with up to six players set to leave this summer.
However, Scolari insisted that he does not want Frank Lampard - or Didier Drogba - to be among those and said that the midfielder had told him that he was "happy" and wants to stay at the club for "many years".
Scolari's claim immediately placed Lampard and his agent, Steve Kutner, in an awkward position given that the suggestion had been that the new manager had yet to speak to the player. Instead, Scolari said he sought Lampard out on the first day of pre-season training.
"I met him and I asked him," Scolari said. "He said to me that he wanted to stay. And I said 'OK, I'm happy'. It was not important for me how long he stays with us but I want him to stay and be happy and he said he was. Now it's a business negotiation for Lampard and the club."
That negotiation has proved, over the past two years, to be tortuous. This week alone has been pretty painful with Lampard's suitors Internazionale insisting they had faxed an offer for the 30-year-old - a claim which was refuted by Chelsea. A fax was then located but Chelsea said it had no offer on it and only contained a request for talks, which was rebuffed. Chelsea yesterday declared that they would not be entering into negotiations with Inter no matter what was offered.
If true - a big if - it means Lampard has four options: either put in a transfer request, push for more than the four-year deal on offer from Chelsea (he wants five), sign that deal or sit out the final season of his contract. Scolari indicated that he was prepared for the latter to happen.
"He has one year minimum with us. Minimum. Money is not my business," Scolari said. "My job is done. I have said I want him to stay. My business is on the pitch."
And he got down to that business yesterday with double training sessions, which sandwiched two hours of briefings with the media in which the 59-year-old Brazilian acquitted himself admirably, speaking in English. He showed not only a sense of humour but a steely determination while also making clear that he feels equipped to deal with the special pressures of being in charge of Chelsea and working for Roman Abramovich.
Scolari accepted that he "needed to win" - but added the same applied to every coach - although that's not quite true with Chelsea who have, he said, the "potential" to win every competition they enter and will treat the Carling Cup with equal importance as the Champions League.
- INDEPENDENT