If we were in 5th place, with every chance of a champions league place, in the FA cup and in the champions league at the time, then yes certainly. I don't think even you would have called for his sacking in that situation.
AVB out Capello or Hiddink in at Chelsea ?
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If we were in 5th place, with every chance of a champions league place, in the FA cup and in the champions league at the time, then yes certainly. I don't think even you would have called for his sacking in that situation.
SpurSince57
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The present situation could quickly get a good deal worse, though, and Abramovitch must already be asking himself if Villas-Boas can turn things around.
Riandor
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- May 26, 2004
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Has to move players on and quickly... they are pining too much for Mourinho and are not willing to bust as much gut for AVB as for their special one.
If Harry goes to England this is why would need to go for Mournho.
Best thing to do is keep Mourinho away from Chelsea if we have any say in the matter!
But back to AVB, I think he should be given the summer to remould the team and given a season to show what he can do, as long as they don't slide down the table.
Abramovich would be foolish to sack him right now and get in another manager who will end up in the same boat. Sometimes you have to take the hits and rebuild.
R.
If Harry goes to England this is why would need to go for Mournho.
Best thing to do is keep Mourinho away from Chelsea if we have any say in the matter!
But back to AVB, I think he should be given the summer to remould the team and given a season to show what he can do, as long as they don't slide down the table.
Abramovich would be foolish to sack him right now and get in another manager who will end up in the same boat. Sometimes you have to take the hits and rebuild.
R.
- Oct 2, 2004
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Although the defence of AVB that he's involved in a 'long term project' is valid, the fact that he's done absolutely nothing towards this project rather flies in the face of that defence.
If we wanted to revolutionise the squad he should have done it in the Summer, or in January, rather than keeping the likes of Lampard, Essien and Drogba in the side (I don't think he would drop Terry and Cole anyway). He went balls out for Modric and when that didn't come off he didn't have a suitable alternative (Meireles? Really?).
At the same time he's just applied his tried and tested tactics (high line, pressing blah blah blah) whilst not having the players to do it at all. When that failed to work he's just resorted to randomly flailing around with tactics, not being sure of which players can play where and completely failing to stamp his authority on a team which, if not marshalled properly, will act like a collective dickbag.
Long term project yes...but it'll be even longer if you don't actually start it AVB.
If we wanted to revolutionise the squad he should have done it in the Summer, or in January, rather than keeping the likes of Lampard, Essien and Drogba in the side (I don't think he would drop Terry and Cole anyway). He went balls out for Modric and when that didn't come off he didn't have a suitable alternative (Meireles? Really?).
At the same time he's just applied his tried and tested tactics (high line, pressing blah blah blah) whilst not having the players to do it at all. When that failed to work he's just resorted to randomly flailing around with tactics, not being sure of which players can play where and completely failing to stamp his authority on a team which, if not marshalled properly, will act like a collective dickbag.
Long term project yes...but it'll be even longer if you don't actually start it AVB.
kcmei
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one of the manager's main job is to get his players to trust him and play for him. If he cant do that then it just shows he is not a great manager or it's not the right time for him. Many great managers like harry and mourinho can always turn things around when things do go as well as they envisaged. So I wont blame the players for this.
- Oct 2, 2004
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The Sun are suggesting that Chelsea want Walcott and could be willing to offer Sturridge in a swap deal. If that's the case then whoever is in charge of player acquisitions at Chelsea is madder than a box of mentalists.
It could, but you could say that for a lot of teams including ourselves. I agree though that Abramovitch must be having doubts but maybe he's saying to himself that going through manager after manager isn't improving things.
That is an instance where the situation could get much worse. :lol:
SpurSince57
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'OK' isn't good enough for Abramovitch and Chelsea fans, though, and whilst they were doing well enough in the league up until December, they've taken just 12 points from the last 10 games, and were pretty fortunate to beat Sunderland and Wolves. Yes, they had a similarly poor run under Ancelotti last season that did for their title chances, but I don't think anyone doubted he would pull them out of it. There can't be the same confidence about Villas Boas; the title's long gone, and the worry now must not only be not qualifying for the CL next season, but missing out on Europe altogether. If things don't improve fast, they could end up duking it out with Swansea and Sunderland for eighth. (Which would be very, very funny.) Add to that that they're almost certainly out of the CL, and that it wouldn't be too much of an upset if Birmingham put them out of the Cup, and the prospects are none too rosy.
- Oct 2, 2004
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He's not doing an okay job in terms of performances and with the money they have Chelsea should really always be a shoe in for the Champions League.
Having said all of that, he has obviously bought alot of players for the future (Romeu, Lukaku, De Bruyne, Courtois etc) who all look like they could be excellent signings, and Cahill and Mata fit into that youngish squad as well. If he is left to develop those players they could have a really good young team in a couple of years.
However in the meantime you have to keep the results ticking over and he simply hasn't done that.
$hoguN
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- Jul 25, 2005
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I think Abramovich has told him to get rid of player power at the club, to improve the quality of their football and to rejuvenate their ageing squad. All of which I think he is doing. They may miss out on CL this season as a result, but it could lead them being in a much better position in next season to challenge.
nailsy
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- Jul 24, 2005
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Doesn't he have one already? He's certainly given the impression that several of the recent signings weren't players he would have signed.
IMO the biggest problem at that club isn't the manager, but the owner. He interferes, he gets rid of managers too soon, and he hasn't backed AVB.
- Oct 2, 2004
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If that's his remit then fair enough, but I don't think Abramovic is that sort of chairman. He won't be able to wait two years to see that transition through with AVB. If they don't come back against Napoli I really think he'll be off.
SpurSince57
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He's hardly made a roaring success of the first two, and this 'ageing squad' thing is a bit of a myth. Only Lampard, Terry, Cole and Drogba are over 30. Essien only turns 30 this year, which surprised me, and so does Cech. Hilario's 36, but he doesn't really count.
Scolari also ran foul of 'player power', but Hiddink and Ancelotti didn't, and I don't recall Grant having done—certainly not to the extent that AVB and Beeg Feel have, and did. It seems to me that under Grant, Hiddink and Ancelotti Chelsea employed a system with which the players were comfortable, Scolari and AVB have tried to make radical changes without getting them on-side. In AVB's case, the defence in particular has gone to pot; they've already conceded almost as many goals as in each of the previous seasons, which were themselves worse than the preceding five, and only six fewer in Mourinho's first two seasons combined. At the current rate, they'll have let in nearly 50 by the end of the season.
04-05 29 8 1 72 15 95 (p1)
05-06 29 4 5 72 22 91 (p1)
06-07 24 11 3 64 24 83 (p2)
07-08 25 10 3 65 26 85 (p2)
08-09 25 8 5 68 24 83 (p3)
09-10 27 5 6 103 32 (p1)
10-11 21 8 9 69 33 (p2)
11-12 12 7 6 44 31 (p?)
Mourinho, like Wenger, based everything on a rock-solid defence (something Wenger appears to have forgotten in recent seasons), and both took the players with them. It seems pretty apparent that AVB has elected to come in and try to change everything in one go, and is reluctant to admit he's got some things wrong and go back to basics. It's easy to portray the players as the villains of the piece, whingeing overpaid brats who should knuckle down and do as they're told, but if things are going awry—and let's face it, some of last night's team selections were strange, to say the least—are they supposed to just ignore it?
SpurSince57
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It may be packed with Grade A ****s, but there wasn't too much wrong with their football under Ancelotti apart from that one crap run of form last season, and BC's statement that this is the weakest Chelsea side in years is true only in relative terms. No, it isn't as strong as it was six years ago, but it's still a formidable squad and shouldn't need too much tweaking.
Up until mid-December they were averaging a fraction over two points a game (31 from 15) and comfortably keeping pace with us (34/15). It's from the Wigan game onwards that their form has slid badly (12/10), whilst ours has dipped only slightly (18/10). That's got to give concern, with Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle also doing a bit better over those 10 games, but even as trigger-happy an owner as Abramovich isn't going to fire a manager for one bad run. But I think things are approaching a tipping-point, and if this run continues for too much longer it could be P45 time.
