Another Russian Revolution at Chelsea

In many ways, Andre Villas-Boas’ sacking from Chelsea was expected. Ambramovich certainly has history in these situations: Grant was sacked after reaching a Champions’ League Final, Ancelotti just a year after winning a double. I was one of the few optimists hoping, but not really expecting, AVB would be given a fair run during his time at Chelsea. He came to Chelsea with a great reputation, having guided Porto to a treble and, somewhat unusually for football, being a student of the game.

What many people do not seem to see is that Chelsea is a team in transition. The backbone of their squad is aged and in need of replacement, something which does not happen overnight. Frank Lampard, a vital cog in the midfield for the best part of a decade, is well past his best years, whilst Drogba, at 33, is not a player to build a team around. AVB only bought three noteworthy players in his period in charge, something you can hardly class as stamping his name on the squad. If the base of the squad is the same as Ancelotti’s, then blame can’t be totally apportioned to AVB.

Then we also have the trouble of Ambramovich himself, seemingly oblivious to the concept of building a football club, and who sanctioned the somewhat ridiculous £50million move for Fernando Torres (reminiscent of the Shevchenko fiasco), a player who had been barely fit and woefully out of form for the preceding year. He may not have been AVB’s signing but the man was evidently under pressure to play Torres ahead of Drogba in the early weeks of the season.

Off the field issues also hampered AVB; any man who has to manage two of the worst men alive in Ashley Cole and John Terry deserves a knighthood in my opinion. Evidently Terry got bored with smashing anything that moved and instead took to being racist.

Who would want the Chelsea job after they have been through 8 managers in 9 years? Mourinho certainly appears to be the favourite, especially the fans’ favourite, and has shown discontent with his treatment at Real Madrid. But he has already worked with the Chelsea chairman and left the club in cloudy, and possibly acrimonious, circumstances. Benitez is another front runner having been out of management for over a year and chomping to return to the Premier League. But we only have to look at the appointment of Roy Hodgson at Liverpool to see the problems this would cause, not just for Benitez, but for any manager who now takes over. After Kenny Dalglish, a Kop legend, expressed his desire for and was consequently overlooked for the Liverpool manager role, Hodgson was never accepted by the influential Liverpool faithful. Although Mourinho has not declared any interest in the job, the fact his return is feasible means there could be a similar backlash against whoever else takes over at Chelsea. In addition to this, with the Financial Fair Play rules coming into practice in the near future, the odds are Ambramovich won’t be able to afford to buy out the contract of a manager at another club.

That is not to say cutting your losses early is necessarily a bad tactic. There was uproar at Newcastle when Chris Hughton, who had guided them back into the Premiership, was sacked with the Magpies sitting in a respectable mid-table position. But, under Alan Pardew, they have gone from strength to strength and putting pressure on the so called ‘Big Four’. Ambramovich can only hope this gamble pays off too.  How likely this is with Di Matteo’s rank average Premier League record remains to be seen.

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