Nothing Chelsea does should surprise me anymore, yet to say I’m stunned about the decision and timing of Roberto Di Matteo’s sacking is a massive understatement. More than stunned though, I’m genuinely gutted.
Ok, so we’ve hit a run of poor form (not uncommon for us this time of year) and last night’s result wasn’t entirely welcome but overreaction much? I mean come on Chelsea ffs, we’re not even at the end of November!
We’re the current Champions of Europe, an achievement under the management of Roberto Di Matteo I believe who, let’s not forget picked up a pretty stroppy and tired-looking side last season from Andre Villas-Boas. We’re also, in spite of our recent poor run, still third in the Premier League thanks to a really good start to the season, again under the management of Roberto Di Matteo.
So are the club seriously suggesting our current position isn’t good enough? If that’s the case, and they genuinely believe someone else would have carried on unaffected by the press circus surrounding JT recently, losing Didier Drogba without replacement cover and worse still his presence along with the presence and leadership of John Terry and Frank Lampard at the same time, with no natural leader in the team to step up, then I’ll await the appointment of Paul Daniels forthwith – because quite frankly, only a magician could pull that off.
What I suspect, is that there was never any real faith in Di Matteo in the first place. Let’s be honest, they dragged their feet appointing him anyway and their apparent reluctance implied public pressure rather than board room belief got him the job. The speed with which they’ve had him back out again only serves to support that. As for any hopes we might have had about the club going through some sort of transition that would benefit us long-term, well we can forget all that because the latest stunt only reinforces that as far as our manager merry-go-round is concerned, that policy won’t be changing anytime soon.
In fact, the chances are they’ll draft in another ‘interim’ manager and we’ll start all over again with yet another recruitment drive in the summer. Thing is though, what is it the club are actually looking for in a manager? Ranieri put together an attacking side more than capable of winning things (in fact, a side that only missed out on a title thanks to Arsenal’s unbeaten season), he was dispensed with. Jose Mourinho was the most successful manager in Chelsea’s history yet his ego didn’t sit well with his seniors. Carlo Ancelotti took an ageing, and pretty unmotivated side at the time and delivered a double no-one could have expected – yet he was still sent packing. So what exactly are the requirements?
If they want someone the press will have a field day with every time results don’t go his way or someone with only one basket for his eggs, then Rafa’s the obvious choice (I mean, these are the same decision makers who replaced Jose Mourinho with Avram Grant after all). The point is though, nothing will change. If Di Matteo, a fan’s favourite who has proved himself to be loyal as a player, assistant and manager, is only permitted a handful of disappointing results before he’s dismissed – just six months after delivering the Champions League trophy for the first time in Chelsea’s history – then they really should just hand out rolling contracts with a week-by-week review attached.
Seriously though, enough is enough. Roman Abramovich may well have saved us (probably on more than one occasion) and I’ll always respect the huge financial investment he made to do that. What him and the board need to appreciate though is that many of us have invested an equally massive part of our lives in the club and this, along with so many other decisions in recent times, pays no respect to that whatsoever.
Whilst our support for the club is very much long-term (many of us probably dressed in Chelsea colours before we have a clue what a football even is until we’ll breathe our last), the way the club is being run doesn’t seem to have even half an eye on the future. That might suit your average Jonny-come-lately whose interest is winning everything in the here and now, but for some of us at least, the appointment of a manager should reflect the board’s aspirations for the direction of the club – and ‘part-time’ or ‘temporary’ isn’t good enough for me and certainly shouldn’t be good enough for the future of Chelsea FC.
Blue is the colour
