Since Roman Abramovich’s takeover of Chelsea
Football Club in July 2003, which not only propelled Chelsea into the
European force they are nowadays, but also saved the club from potential
liquidation, Stamford Bridge has become home for nine managers – all of
whom could argue that given enough time they could have gone on to
achieve great things at the club. The reasoning behind the sacking of
José Mourinho remains murky; however it was the ruthless dismissals of
Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Di Matteo that caused fans to question the
decision making of the Chelsea board – a group of trigger-happy
executives who appear more than happy to take a gamble on interim
managers yet dare take the risk of allowing a manager to prove himself
when the going gets tough. As a Chelsea fan, and a strong admirer of the
work Di Matteo has done for the club as both player and manager, the
appointment of Rafael BenÃtez to replace Di Matteo when Chelsea were
only four points off top-spot in the league struck me as yet more rash
decision making on the board’s behalf, and with the side now sixteen
points off Manchester United
and putting in mediocre displays week-in week-out, I have reached the
point where going into certain matches I no longer care whether the team
wins or loses.
Ideally, I would like Chelsea to win the FA Cup, Europa League and
finish comfortably in third place this season. Unfortunately, this
success could be used in defence for hiring BenÃtez on a permanent basis
– a decision I am strongly against, especially with the dearth of
potential managers meaning BenÃtez remains a strong candidate for the
job. Instead, I have come to accept that scraping third place and
falling out of the remaining cup competitions wouldn’t come as much of a
disappointment to me. Maybe it’s simply because I want to feel smug
seeing Abramovich admit his mistake in hiring BenÃtez in the first
place, having been one of the forty-thousand fans who booed him during
his first game against Manchester City…
but I know that my smugness won’t change anything. My desire is for
Abramovich to finally realise that a constant cycle of managerial
appointments and departures is simply not healthy for the club. It is
time that he accepts that short-term success simply disguises the missed
potential for Chelsea Football Club, who by now should have more than
three Premier League trophies in their cabinet.
As strange as it is, I am at a state where at the beginning of most
games I don’t care whether Chelsea win, lose or draw. For me, this
season has been written off; I am not expecting any success come May
when the season ends, all I want is for Chelsea to finish third and for Frank Lampard
to break Bobby Tambling’s goal-scoring record. Seeing Chelsea draw away
to Brentford, and require a last minute piece of brilliance to progress
in the Europa League against a team currently third in the Czech league
doesn’t bother me anymore. All I hope for is that the second-half of
this season demonstrates to Abramovich why his policy is flawed. Sure
we’ve had success with Hiddink, Di Matteo and potentially BenÃtez (all
during interim periods), however having guided Chelsea to their greatest
ever season (at the time) while also bringing through a number of youth
players, who’s to say that under Ancelotti Chelsea wouldn’t have won
more in the last few years than they have under Villas-Boas, Di Matteo
and BenÃtez?
On an additional note, Ancelotti had Fernando Torres
thrust upon him during his second season at Chelsea, further draining
Chelsea fans’ confidence in the decision makers at the club. Yes, I
appreciate that it has been Abramovich’s money that has brought Chelsea
to where they are now, but without the fans there would be no club for
Abramovich to run. He has to understand that Chelsea is not a canvas for
him to build a fantasy team upon, it is a football club that had
existed for nearly a century before his arrival, with thousands of
supporters who are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the
decision-making of the board members. The same can be said for the
signing of Shevchenko, a player past his peak who happens to be close
friends with Mr. Abramovich. If Chelsea are to finally progress into the
dominant European force that Abramovich desires, he must alter his
concepts of being club owner, and instead focus more on creating a
long-term plan for the club. The club needs to be figureheaded by one
manager who deserves time to implement his ideals upon the club, and
allow the team to grow gradually with players he wants and not who the
owner wants. Short-term success is great, but deep down Roman Abramovich
must understand that the occasional Premier League trophy does not
classify a team as a dominant force.
As a Chelsea fan, I am forever in debt to Mr Abramovich and the
wonderful success he has brought to the club. In no way am I ungrateful
for his running of the club, however as hopefully I have made clear, I
along with many other fans, am trapped within a state of hesitancy as to
how I want this season to progress. Success this season will probably
lead to yet more of the same eight-month managerial reigns, preventing
the club from becoming anywhere near the solid forces within European
Football that are Manchester United and Barcelona.
Failure from BenÃtez may however finally bring to Roman Abramovich’s
attention the deficiencies in his logic of immediacy, and provoke him to
change the way he and the Chelsea board members make decisions in the
future, with the result hopefully being decades of success within the
Roman Empire of West London.
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