The brainstorm

Philip Haynes

Paul Clement

Assistant manager, Chelsea, 2009-2011

"There was a silence. The players hadn't had that kind of question asked before"

Carlo Ancelotti arrived at Chelsea in the summer of 2009, during an era when – in John Terry, Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba and Petr Cech, among others – their dressing room was full of experienced players who knew what it took to win trophies. The Italian quickly made an impression at his new club, however. He ended a run of three straight Manchester United titles by leading Chelsea to the Premier League in 2010, and added the FA Cup to secure the club's first and still only domestic double.

It was before that FA Cup final, against Portsmouth, that Ancelotti challenged his players to determine the team's tactics for the game. Speaking exclusively to The Coaches' Voice, his then assistant manager, Paul Clement, looks back on the exchanges that followed and explains the positives involved in giving the Chelsea players such responsibility.

Paul Clement

Author: Tony Hodson

Additional Cookies

This website uses the following additional cookies:

Cookie	Purpose	More information
join-mailing-list	WordPress sets this cookie when you load any page, We will hide newsletter form after click on close button and it will not show again on any page.	Cookie Value: 1 Expiry time: 1 week
gated-list_	WordPress sets this cookie when you load an article page, We will hide contact form after you click on the close button and it will not show again on the particular article page.	Cookie Value: dynamic cookie value generated here Expiry time: 1 week
wordpress_test_cookie	WordPress sets this cookie when you navigate to the login page. The cookie is used to check whether your web browser is set to allow, or reject cookies.	Cookie Value: WP Cookie check Expiry time: session
wp-settings-1	WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customise your view of admin interface and in some circumstances the main site interface.	Cookie Value: Text indicating your preferred settings Expiry time: session
wp-settings-time-1	WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customise your view of admin interface and in some circumstances the main site interface.	Cookie Value: Text indicating your preferred settings Expiry time: session
wordpress_logged_in_xxxxx	WordPress uses this cookie to indicate when you’re logged in, and who you are, for most interface use.	Cookie Value: Your login details in an encrypted form Expiry time: session
wordpress_xxxxx	WordPress uses these cookies to store your authentication details, and their use is limited to the admin console area.	Cookie Value: Your login authentication details in an encrypted form Expiry time: session

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after the expiry periods stated in the table above.