Michael Ballack on Jose, Making it into the Chelsea team, and always coming second

By: Rob | May 15th, 2008

Ballack “not budging an inch” Midfielder Michael Ballack has been the centrepiece to the Chelsea revival. At the begining of the season, Chelsea looked lethargic, and had two players considered by many to be the best in the world, sat on the bench on the whim of the manager. That manager was Jose and he was soon out the door. His replacement Avram Grant turned Chelsea around and fought back into the title race, and took Chelsea to the Champions League final. His genius was his new “Wishbone” midfield. Where Jose only had eyes for Frank Lampard and used Ballack as a somewhat expensive back up, Grant has used – and Fabio take note – either Makelele or Essien deep and used both Lampard and Ballack as attacking midfielders. Speaking today though, Ballack had some kind words of respect for his former manager.

“Jose Mourinho, the manager from Portugal, put this team together shortly before he was fired – would a Champions League victory also be his victory? You should put that question to Avram Grant”

A couple of things I found interesting from that – firstly, Ballack seemed to critisise Jose while Mourinho was actually there, complaining that wingers were being changed all the time so nooone knew what was going on and so on. Also, as Avram has only just stepped out of Jose’s shadows by guiding the side where Jose couldn’t – i.e. The Champions League Final – Ballack has posed the question, without answering it, that maybe Jose had more to do with it than it seems. That’s right, the Jose who couldn’t get his side to win against Rosenborg. I also found it interesting that the straight-talking German used the word “Fired”, i knew we all thought as much, but there seemed to be an element of Jose walking away.

Ballack, who got to the Champions League final before, as the lynchpin of the Bayer Leverkusen side who got to the 2002 (the year Fergie was contemplating retirement, that seems a while back now) Final, losing to Real Madrid. Of course he also got to the 2002 World Cup Final, losing to Brazil. All the talk before the game is of how nice it would be if Paul Scholes made up for 1999 by getting a winners medal, but Ballack has had a equally unlucky carrer.

“I desperately want to win this trophy. I don’t want to look back on my career at some point and say, what a pity, I came close a few times, but it was never good enough

Unfortunately, that [losing the title on the last day of the season] was to be expected, and we aren’t too disappointed. You go into the Champions League season every year and you say to yourself: this year is our year.”

Sounds like the right mentality to me. Maybe it will be Chelsea’s year. Ballack also talked about how he has had to become more ruthless in his time at Chelsea to get into the managers plans, and become an important player in a team full of stars.

“It’s different at Chelsea[than with Leverkusen]. We have six captains from national teams on our side: Terry for England, Drogba for the Ivory Coast, Shevchenko for the Ukraine, Cech for the Czech Republic, Pizarro for Peru and me for Germany, as well as quite a few top international players. It goes without saying that everyone is forced to show some restraint so as not to jeopardise our success. But you have to face the challenge. You have to make people sit up and take notice of you otherwise you just go under in a team like this, you’re just devoured by the machine. And so I’ve become more ruthless.

I wanted to play with all these stars – come hell or high water. Just to be able to prove that I could meet the challenge was well worth the battle for me. And now I can say: whatever happens, I’ve accomplished something. At the same time, I was never worried that I wouldn’t succeed. During my time out due to injury, all I kept thinking was about getting better. And there were quite a few days when it was difficult not to give up hope.”

While his newfound ruthlessness explains his falling out with Drogba during the Man United league match a couple of weeks back, I can’t help thinking he is overestimating a little. I mean technically Terry is not England captain anymore, and when on earth was the last time Pizzaro actually played for Chelsea? But it does present hope for that other Chelsea outcast, Andriy Shevchenko. Perhaps if Sheva is given a chance by Grant, he can prove himself to be a worthwhile buy afterall. Roman would love it.