Overnight Chelsea Football Club sacked Roberto Di Matteo as head coach of the club. Then it appeared that ex-Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez had been given the nod to take over.
Chelsea Football Club has spent 64 million pounds in the last four years on hiring and firing managers. Billionaire Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich doesn’t seem to mind digging into his pockets to try and buy the right mentor for his high-priced squad.
Since Jose ‘The Special One’ Mourinho left Chelsea in 2007, they have churned and burned through another seven managers at Stamford Bridge. The eighth man to step into the hot seat since arguably one of the most successful managers in history left is Benitez.
You only need to have a short memory to flash back to images of Didier Drogba slotting the winning penalty to give Chelsea a victory in the Champions League competition last May.
It was the first time in club history Chelsea has taken home the Champions League trophy, the highest prize in football in the mind of Abramovich. That victory came after Chelsea kicked out Andre Villas Boas in favour of Di Matteo as interim coach.
With Di Matteo at the helm, Chelsea engineered a remarkable comeback in a two-leg tie with Italian club Napoli and riding that momentum through the rest of the knockout stages, culminating in a historic victory against Bayern Munich, who played the match in front of their home fans.
Crucially, that victory ensured Chelsea would return to the world’s top club competition this year, promising a slice of the lucrative gate-receipts and other financial benefits as their poor English Premier League start couldn’t be overcome and they finished outside the top four qualifying positions.
This season Chelsea got off to a flying start in the EPL, going undefeated in their first eight league matches. This came off the back of smart signings of Belgian, Eden Hazard and Brazilian Oscar, who give irresistible energy in the final third of the pitch.
Their first loss of the year was a high profile visit from Manchester United and that started a poor run including draws with Swansea, Liverpool and culminating with a loss to the surprisingly good West Brom outfit.
This edition of the Champions League has seen Chelsea start off with the same wobbles they did last year and a 3-0 defeat away, again in Italy but this time to champions Juventus, saw Di Matteo tapped on the shoulder and asked to pack his bags.
After that loss Chelsea sit third in their qualifying group and are staring at elimination before the more lucrative knock-out stages begin.
Benitez has ostensibly been given a chance to right the ship due to his tactical nous. He was a fairly successful manager with Liverpool and was able to take the club to a Champions League victory in 2005 with a memorable comeback win over a start studded AC Milan team.
Abramovich will expect to see a similar level of European success as a result of Benitez taking over.
Di Matteo hardly had a poor success rate as manager of the club. The problem he may have had was how close he’s been to a number of the well established players. He may have found it hard to exercise authority over long-time club stalwarts such as Frank Lampard, John Terry and others.
Benitez doesn’t have much time and will rely a bit on luck to progress further in the Champions League this year, but his success may be in the FA Cup and EPL.
Chelsea have a squad full of different tactical options that Benitez will enjoy deploying in the hit and run FA Cup competition. It wouldn’t be a stretch to see Chelsea continuing a period of dominance and lifting the trophy at Wembley again this season.
The EPL is a different kettle of fish and will require Benitez to avoid meltdowns in head to head confrontations with Sir Alex Ferguson that seemed to trip him up in leading a strong Liverpool side to a title.
Chelsea has a deeper squad than those Merseyside teams and he will enjoy more attacking variation with Oscar, Hazard and one of the best players in the League this year, Juan Mata buzzing around opposition goal-boxes.
His main worry will be shoring up a goal scoring backline because clean sheets haven’t been a regular part of their season to date.
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