Chelsea should forget their manager search because the stand-in Italian is more popular than ever with fans and players.
“Hey Roman, have you heard about this great manager?”
“Tell me…”
“He is hugely popular with Chelsea fans, he has a 100 per cent win record in the Champions League, he even beat his club’s rivals 5-1 in a semi-final, and has a proven track record of managing the biggest egos in football.”
“He sounds great.”
“And he will come cheap, far less expensive than ‘the Special one’.”
“Excellent sign him up.”
“Mr Abramovich I am talking about Roberto di Matteo. You already have.”
Now we cannot promise the above conversation is genuine, but it pretty much sums up the situation at Stamford Bridge right now.
Roberto di Matteo is the interim manager who can do no wrong, a far cry from the miserable tenure of Andre Villas-Boas.
He is doing so well that right now it would be silly of Abramovich to spend millions on another manager.
Di Matteo is proving himself perfectly capable and surely deserves a chance to carry on the job next season and exert his own influence on the squad over the summer.
Could that be with the addition of Gianfranco Zola- forming a management dream team? It is a duo many fans have been calling for, and there is surely no better time than to press the switch now.
There is no need for Abramovich to spend millions acquiring a deeply divise Rafa Benitez figure, and Pep Guardiola appears as unlikely an arrival at Stamford Bridge as Lionel Messi.
Unless a secret deal has been done for Jose Mourinho already, we’d advise the Russian owner to simply stick with the status quo.
Yes the dream could all unravel against Barcelona this week, but simply being in the position to face the Spanish giants is a huge achievement.
The side’s clinical demolition of Tottenham in the FA Cup on Saturday showed he has got the whole squad performing, and his rotation has been an asset rather than a hinderance, at this key stage of the season.
While Champions League success may seem a big ask this season, the challenge of reaching fourth spot, and FA Cup glory remain very much under the club’s radar.
A win at Arsenal this weekend would only increase the likelihood of Chelsea gatecrashing the top four, while an exciting Wembely date awaits in May for a man who already has so much history with the famous stadium.
If Roman Abramovich does decide to get rid of him and bring in a new man, it could be another huge mistake.
Should Chelsea stick with Di Matteo next season?
image: © Ben Sutherland
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