Gary Lineker: Andre Villas-Boas will need to have a big personality at Chelsea

Andres Villas-Boas

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Gary Lineker believes that Andre Villas-Boas will have to showcase a “big personality” to make his mark at Chelsea.

The 33-year-old was appointed as manager of the Blues after the west London club agreed to cough up a mammoth £13.2 million to trigger a release clause in his contract with former employers Porto.

But being only marginally older than Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, the Portuguese boss will need to get the players behind him quickly, reckons former England international striker Lineker.

“The Chelsea players will know pretty quickly if Andre Villas-Boas has something Special or not,” Lineker wrote in his column for The News of the World.

“If he has, he will be fine; if he hasn’t, he will soon be found out. And the murmurings from the dressing room will begin.

“The former Porto coach is going to need a really big personality.

“It’s hard enough for someone even with the experience of his predecessor Carlo Ancelotti to go into a dressing room with players who have been established at a club for a long time.”

Villas-Boas spent only one season at Porto, but managed to guide the club to a domestic league and cup triumph. The icing on the cake was winning the Europa League, an achievement that made him the youngest ever manager to win a trophy on the European stage.

“It’s all very well at Porto, where you have decent players but not big household names,” Lineker added. “But the big names at Stamford Bridge are going to look at him.

“He is going to have to be very impressive pretty quickly for those players to take him seriously.

“At least they know him from his previous spell at Stamford Bridge when he was assistant under Jose Mourinho.

“They will have noticed his success at Porto. Whether it came as a surprise to them, only they can say.”