Wilder: No sympathy for Chelsea
Middlesbrough manager Chris Wilder has stoked the FA Cup flames ahead of this weekend’s quarter-final with Chelsea by saying he has no sympathy for the troubled club.
The Boro boss was discussing the current restrictions imposed on the Premier League outfit, and reckons that the outcry over the decision is unwarranted considering the real difficulties that others have faced in recent years.
He said: “I agree with the sanctions. I think everybody understands why they were put in place. For me, the noise that’s been coming out of it is misguided.
“The club is not in jeopardy, is it? It’s not a situation like a Macclesfield or a Bury that we’ve seen in the football pyramid. Those things shouldn’t have happened.
“This is an iconic football club, but if we all know our football, we know what position they were in 25 years ago or so. It’s the same with Manchester City. I remember playing those clubs in the late 80s, and they’ve been transformed.
“Somebody comes into your football club, invests hundreds of millions of pounds, and turns it into the club that Chelsea is today – serial trophy-winning teams, world-class managers and players, world-class infrastructure, a women’s team that wins everything, a youth team and academy that is the best in the country and wins the Youth Cup.
“In the football world, I don’t think there’s an incredible amount of sympathy over what’s happening really. I don’t think Chelsea supporters would expect that either. It’ll be a short period before the takeover, and Chelsea will go again, and go from strength to strength.”
