The men who once sat like rabbits in the headlights took their places in the front row, beaming as if this were the opening night of the hottest show in town. Centre stage sat Luiz Felipe Scolari, dazzled by a hundred flashbulbs and the widening smiles of his new employers. There would be no awkward explanations required of the Chelsea hierarchy this time. This manager was no Avram Grant, no owner’s pet. He was the real deal, solid gold, like the World Cup trophy he delivered to his native Brazil six years ago.

“I am a fighter, you know,” he said, and the men in suits nodded approvingly. “Until now, everything I have fought for and tried to achieve I have done. Even when it was very difficult, I got there. And my team is the same. Maybe in this season we will have difficult moments. But we will arrive there, sure. I am determined to do that. Everywhere I have been it was like this. We arrived where we wanted to be.”

The last time Chelsea appointed a manager, Peter Kenyon, the chief executive, was pushed into the line of fire to explain how a few successful years in Israel’s top division were the perfect preparation for life at the most ambitious and demanding football club in Europe. That the board had some explaining to do had been evident in a crowded top table, which included three senior executives as well as the manager. By contrast, Scolari as good as flew solo. He was flanked by a low-key media adviser and a translator he relied upon as little as possible, because the appointment spoke for itself. Chelsea’s decision-makers, although not the main one, sat in the audience, laughing in all the right places, like besotted fans.

The change in ambience was palpable. Scolari gives the club a sense of sanity that they have not possessed since Roman Abramovich stopped listening to José Mourinho, and not even the messy last throes of the Frank Lampard saga could detract from that. Scolari was caught in the crossfire of the final shoot-out between player and club, but he escaped with a flesh wound. This was a negotiation that was beyond his control, with Chelsea, perhaps understandably, unwilling to meet Lampard’s request for a contract that would take him through to his 35th birthday.

Scolari was looking to pare his squad down to a manageable 25 players before the season begins anyway and while there will be individuals that Scolari will have been looking to lose ahead of one that scores 20 goals each season from midfield, this may be the best outcome for all parties. Lampard, who is disillusioned, gets a fresh challenge under Mourinho at Inter Milan, while Scolari, with Deco, Michael Ballack, Joe Cole and Michael Essien on the books, is hardly bereft of attacking midfield talent.

Strangely, for a club that came so close to a domestic and European double last season, much of Scolari’s early work is fire-fighting and in this field he revealed himself to have quite the big red truck. He spoke very highly of Didier Drogba, who is said to be disaffected, and eschewed Fabio Capello-style talent contests by confirming John Terry would remain as captain. “Drogba is part of my plans, not 100 per cent, but 200 per cent,” Scolari said. “Two years ago, I voted for him as the best player in the world, three years ago I voted for John Terry. Now they are both with me, I am very happy. I like Terry as a captain, as a player, as a leader. He came to my room yesterday to introduce himself. I said, ‘I know you.’

“I am a coach that respects my players. I like my players as a family. I give them all they need and I want respect and dedication. When you look someone in the eye and you have this feeling of friendship with them, you communicate. Yesterday, with the little Italian I have I communicated quite well with Andriy Shevchenko. Football has its own language. You don’t always talk with words. Football is beautiful. Football is fantastic. Only a small number of people play football, chosen by God.”

Or by Abramovich, if some of the rumours about recent transactions at Stamford Bridge are to be believed. Scolari insists he will not deal in the financial side of transfers or contracts and this at first glance appears to leave a void that could be filled by recommendations from others at the club, an interference that became a frustration for Mourinho. At first, Scolari appeared open to decisions on player movement not always being left to the manager, but this turned out to be a misunderstanding. Asked for clarification, Scolari said that he had never heard of such an imposition and that it had never happened to him.

“I can’t envisage that taking place,” he added. “It is my decision to put the players on the field or not. Money is not my business. Contracts are not for me, transfers are not for me. When I want to buy a player, I give the club three options: the rest is up to them.”

If Scolari’s first job is to whittle down the squad from an unwieldy 33 — he promises a one-in, one-out policy once the numbers are right — his next is to survey Chelsea’s academy for fresh talent. “Carlos Pracidelli, our goalkeeping coach, will go three days every week to look at the training in the academy because if he sees a player doing well, he will tell me and I’ll bring him into the senior set-up,” he said. “Ask Palmeiras from Brazil how many 17, 18 and 19-year-olds I put in the first team. They’re all in Europe now. We have some young players at Chelsea that, maybe, will play some important games for us this season.”

Mourinho spoke with similar optimism at first, before quickly realising that the demands from above precluded the Arsène Wenger approach to team building. Scolari may need to become more familiar with the concept of the quick fix; certainly if he wishes to keep the front row happy, not to mention the bloke in the Royal Box.