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| Despite winning The FA Cup in his short tenure - Guus Hiddink soon followed out the door |
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| 'Big Phil Scolari's' time quickly ran out at Stamford Bridge |
The £15m mentioned above - is the price Roman had to pay for his latest managerial acquisition - 34 year old Portuguese Andre Villas-Boas and in all honesty word of him of him receiving the chop as early as late November is very real but also very outrageous.
After the early defeat at Old Trafford that will be more remembered for a certain Spanish forward's miss, things seemed to perk up at Chelsea, they were victorious by some margin in the following 3 games and saw their-selves quickly rise back up the table - they were sniffing around the two Manchester clubs - if anyone was going to stop them this year, it would be Villas-Boas's men.
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| AVB consoling John Terry after his costly mistake helped Arsenal stuff his side 3-5 |
Little light was deemed at the end of the tunnel after a sketchy 0-1 victory at second-bottom Blackburn Rovers - the cracks and holes were still there - gaping to be seized upon. Their downfall has been their defensive high line, it looks typically foreign and it is straight away obvious a new coach from abroad has quickly jumped in and set things this way. It can work perfectly, what is required though is a defensive back-line of 4 who are on the exact same wavelength - or it all begins to appear a bit of a farce - with one player stepping out, one dropping back and massive holes appearing between centre-backs and full-backs. Chelsea's new Brazilian central defenders David Luiz is notoriously attack-minded, has that Samba flair about him and whilst 20 yard finishes along with impressive bicycle kicks will have made an impression on the Stamford Bridge faithful - it is doubtless they would much rather their back-line be water tight, with players in union. Of course, the acclimatising to a foreign country perhaps doesn't help without forgetting the language barrier but it also begs the question of how long will it have to be put up with - before results start turning around?
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| David Luiz's 'defending' has been well scurtinised in his time at Chelsea thus far |
The problems and questions continued to be set as the weeks drew on, another clash of the infamous 'top 4' was perfectly poised between Villas-Boas's struggling side and Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool - who were also having mixed fortunes - a gut wrenching late Glen Johnson winner saw Chelsea fans again go home disappointed, with far more questions than answers.
The striking department is a further grey area for the young boss from Porto, he has a mixed bag of strikers who have been branded: 'Over-priced flop', 'too-old and passed it', 'disinterested' to name just three. If it weren't for the timely emergence of Daniel Sturridge - who got the equaliser against Liverpool and then shone in the week at the defeat in Germany at the hands of Leverkusen - who knows what kinds of debacle the side would be in. The Torres issue won't go away until he starts banging them in on a regular basis, that is quite clear - Didier Drogba showed signs of his old self with a fantastic goal against Leverkusen - yet seems a million miles away from the player that hit 40 goals a few years back, as for Nicolas Anelka, the Frenchmen couldn't currently buy a goal with all the money on Roman Abramovich's Monacan yacht, with talks of him heading to either Anzhi or China perhaps even being a weight-load of the young boss's mind.
Ok, his players are way under-performing, but to what extent is this Villas-Boas's wrong-doings? He's noticed and is satisfied that Drogba, Torres and/or Anelka cannot play together, he successfully stuck with Frank Lampard through the midfielders 'bad patch' and is constantly giving new signings like Luiz chance to gain that much needed experience and English know-how. You have to feel a bit like the 34 year-old is stuck between a rock and an extremely hard place. Any talk of the chop though, is far too drastic.
What would Roman expect? Would he swan off abroad and collect a further decorated, foreign manager just in the mould of Hiddink or Ancelotti, give them 5 months maximum, see them not win anything and move on again? It is all becoming a bit of a joke. The manager is 34 years-old, he is only just older than many of the 'veterans' of the Chelsea first XI who are being blasted to 'step aside'.
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| There are suggestions Florent Malouda's performances are returning to that of their 'old self' |
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| Anelka is on a barron run and could quite easily be shown the exit door in January |
Whilst needing all the support he can get from both the board and the Chelsea supporters. He also needs his players to step-up to the plate and be counted, especially those of experience and Chelsea flowing through their veins. They need to pull youngsters like David Luiz, Daniel Sturridge and Josh McEachren through times like this, lead by example and show them how professional sportsmen get out successfully the other side of rough patches. To give my opinion - I believe Abramovich will give this one a bit of legs - let it run out and see how his side are come March or April time, even then it would be wrong of him to judge. Any coach needs time to find his feet but a 30 something year old boss in his first 'real big' job needs all the backing he can get, perhaps both verbally and financially.
There is no doubt Villas-Boas will get the latter, he just needs a certain Russian billionaire to stick by him - and come 2-3 years down the line when the side has gelled, ideas have stuck in place they will reap the rewards together (See Alex Ferguson and Manchester United) - maybe starting with that elusive Champions League.
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