Luiz Felipe Scolari says Chelsea is now an ego-free zone
Published 00:00 26/08/08 By By David Anderson
Luiz Felipe Scolari has swept away the last traces of Jose Mourinho by insisting no one at Chelsea is bigger than the club.
The Special One had an ego the size of Stamford Bridge, but Scolari insists this is not his style - even though he is part of a very select band of coaches to have won the World Cup.
He claims he is not interested in personal glory and maintains his sole focus is on making the Blues successful.
"What is most important is Chelsea," said the Brazilian. "This is the philosophy I want my players to understand. I'm not more important than Chelsea. Chelsea is more important than any of us."
And Scolari warned Deco and Frank Lampard that this also applies to them as they battle it out for top billing in his star-studded team.
The pair are duelling to see who can score more goals from midfield, although Scolari is not concerned where the goals come from as long as his team are successful.
He is clearly not prepared to pander to any big-time Charlies and the former Brazil and Portugal manager he has shown he can be ruthless by axing Romario and Luis Figo.
"I'm sure Frank Lampard will score a minimum of 15 goals this season because he tries all the time," said Scolari. "He trains every day to do this. Deco can also score 15 goals or maybe 20.
"If Lampard or Deco score the goals for us, that's good, but it's not important. What's important is Chelsea win.
Scolari admitted his team were way below their best in their stuttering win at Wigan, which took them back to the top of the Premier League with six points from their first two games, and he has promised a huge improvement against Tottenham on Sunday.
He put the disappointing performance down to niggles to Lampard, Michael Essien and Michael Ballack and claims the trio will be fully fit for Spurs.
Ashley Cole will also be available and he is due to resume training today after coming off at the JJB Stadium with a dead leg.
"We made some errors and didn't play very well because Essien had not trained for 15 days," said Scolari. "Ballack had an injury, but played. Lampard also had an injury, but played. It's fantastic for Chelsea and the fans that we were still able to win.
"I know we didn't play well at Wigan, but at this moment it's the best of what I have.
"I'm just happy to have finished that game and now I have another week to work with the players. Hopefully the doctor will put more players in my hands and against Tottenham we will have more players at our disposal.
"It's great to have six points from our first two games. Now we have a big derby against Tottenham and we need to prepare our team."

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