Source: Team_Talk
Buck: AVB could do a decade
ruce Buck admits Andre Villas-Boas could be "the right guy" to bring some stability to Chelsea by remaining as manager for over a decade.[LNB] Villas-Boas is the seventh boss of the eight-year Roman Abramovich era, with the Russian billionaire ruthlessly disposing of the 33-year-old's predecessors.[LNB]But Buck believes Chelsea may have happened upon their Sir Alex Ferguson figure in Villas-Boas, who he said had made a huge impression on Abramovich and the Blues squad.[LNB]He said: "There's a real excitement, a buzz. The players seem happy, they're jumping around. It's just a really good feeling.[LNB]"I don't know that you can put that in words."[LNB]He added of Villas-Boas: "We feel he's got excellent man-management skills, he's a very creative guy, he's a very organised guy, he's getting along well with our players.[LNB]"You were all questioning in the spring how a 33-year-old manager could deal with a 31-year-old player. The answer is he can deal with him very well.[LNB]"The board is happy, the fans are happy, and - I guess most importantly - Mr Abramovich is happy."[LNB]Villas-Boas is only in his third season of full-time club management and has already declared he only sees himself in the profession for between 10 and 15 years.[LNB]Buck hopes that time will be spent at the Blues, admitting to the BBC this morning: "We do envy Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in terms of longevity, but it shouldn't be longevity for longevity's sake.[LNB]"It has to be the right guy in the job for 10 or 15 years and, in light of Andre's age, he may well be that guy."[LNB]Buck later set out the club's expectations of the man they hired in the summer over the next four years - including his hope the 33-year-old would finally end the club's agonising wait for Champions League glory.[LNB]He said: "In three or four years' time, we expect to have a 36-year-old manager who's been with us for four years, we expect to have won a couple of trophies - preferably a big one in Europe - and of course we hope and expect to have a contented fanbase, a contented board and a contented Mr Abramovich."[LNB]He acknowledged keeping faith with a manager would help the club avoid paying the kind expensive severance packages they had been forced to in recent years.[LNB]"Longevity does have that particular advantage," Buck said.[LNB]"You only look at longevity if you have the right guy. Luckily, we think we have the right guy now."[LNB]That is significant in the advent of UEFA's Financial Fair Play Regulations, with Chelsea having reported an annual loss of £70.9million in January.[LNB]Buck said: "You've seen the kinds of losses that we've had in the last five or six years and they've been significant - I can't deny that.[LNB]"But we need to have an approach and a structure that enable us, as the Financial Fair Play rules come in slowly, to over the time period allowed comply with Financial Fair Play."[LNB]Buck admitted that would mean Chelsea spending less in the transfer market.[LNB]He said: "It has to come down as a gross number but I can't comment on - because I don't know - whether there might be a signing in the future."[LNB]Buck added: "We are looking more at increased sponsorship and a little bit at how we might be able to trim the wage bill, so it's more of a matter of a balancing act of trying to lower our expense side a little bit and raise our revenue side."
