Scolari’s wife no friend of ‘WAGS’

The news that 'Big' Phil Scolari has accepted an offer of £6.25m to manage Chelsea Football Club is a blow for the players' wives and girlfriends (WAGS) such as Ellen Rives and Carly Zucker, the fiancees of Frank Lampard and Joe Cole respectively. For unlike, other managers' own WAGs – Sven Goran Eriksson’s ex Nancy Dell’Olio springs to mind – Scolari's wife, Olga, is a woman of some intelligence and artistic taste.

Olga, 53, who has been married to Scolari for 33 years, is an accomplished painter and member of the San Diego Museum of Art’s Guild of Artists. She is also a trained biologist who worked as a teacher before giving up the profession to follow her husband around the world.

Some believe the players might find Scolari himself hard going. In addition to a fiery temperament – he once threatened a referee with the words "I’ll wait for you outside, mate" – he speaks little or no English and doesn't intend to learn any either. Nor, of course, do half of the internationally-rich Chelsea squad, but it will necessitate the additional expense of a full-time translator, preferably one who doesn't mind donning a track suit and tearing around the team's grounds.