Since Andre Villas Boas’ dismissal from Chelsea, his former assistant Roberto Di Matteo has excelled at Stamford Bridge in a way that the Portuguese manager wishes he had done.
Despite a disappointingly low, by Chelsea’s standards, league position of sixth place at the time of writing this article, he has guided his team to the FA Cup Final, beating London rivals Tottenham on the way, and his team are just one leg away from a Champions League final in Munich.
Not a bad few months work as an interim manager.
Di Matteo has brought back into the starting eleven, the ‘old guard’ in the form of Lampard and Drogba whilst encouraging a return to form of sorts of Fernando Torres whilst employing a slightly more defensive formation.
It is argued that player power and the dissatisfaction of senior players such as Lampard and Drogba at not starting as many games as they would have liked, led to AVB’s sacking. It is these same players that have helped Chelsea’s FA Cup and Champions League run’s.
Ironically, it is player power and player dissatisfaction, which ultimately led to him being appointed interim manager, which could prove Di Matteo’s downfall next season.
Whoever is in charge at Stamford Bridge next season will have to have one eye on bringing younger players into an ageing squad as AVB was doing, obviously too quickly and too radically for some people’s liking.
As he does this, again, the more senior players that have to sit on the bench whilst a younger player is starting ahead of them will not be happy. When this happens at Chelsea it is usually the case that the senior players are not afraid to voice their displeasure, which as AVB will testify does not bode well for a settled changing room.
Already, under Di Matteo’s tenure, the likes of Kalou and Daniel Sturridge have shown signs of frustration and discontent with their appearances for the club or being substituted during games.
Di Matteo would perhaps be better off cutting his losses with Chelsea at the season, hopefully for him with an FA Cup and Champions League winners medal to his name and being his own man at another Premier League club.
Many would surely welcome a man that has guided one of the top clubs in the country to two finals and who potentially could have a cup double on his CV, which is no mean feat.
Roman Abramovich is renowned for being ruthless with his managerial sackings and I am sure that Roberto Di Matteo will not want to be one of his ‘yes men’.
The view of many in the footballing world is that Abramovich will look to bring in a marquee name as manager for next season with the likes of Rafa Benitez being touted as a possible successor and possibly even Jose Mourinho returning to the Bridge next season.
Di Matteo could walk away this season saying to all those who criticised him after his managerial spell at West Brom, ‘look what I can do at one of the big clubs in controversial circumstances’. He has certainly displayed some talent in man management with the way he has dealt with the grumblings of senior players and showed tactical competency against Barcelona keeping them at bay for a 1-0 win at home in the Champions League semi final first leg, albeit with a bit of good fortune.
Maybe he would be best suited to earn his managerial stripes at another club and then return to Chelsea in the future a wiser and more rounded manager instead of the raw talent that he is at the moment.
However, realistically, the chance to manage a club like Chelsea may never arise for him again, so of course he will take the job if offered it.
If he gets sacked half way through next season, he won’t be in poor company with the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Andre Villas-Boas, both European competition winners, having been given the elbow.
No doubt his competitive nature will want to improve on a disappointing league campaign this season. Despite this, Roman Abramovich is not a chairman who tends to give his managers time to develop a squad over several seasons without any silverware. This is what Di Matteo will want in effectively his first full season as manager of the club outright.
For this reason I would suggest to Di Matteo, be proud of what you have achieved as interim manager this season, go away and learn your craft more and then come back a better manager and win even more silverware.
The term poisoned chalice is attributed to Chelsea at times, with a demand or greed for instant success and I would not like to see Roberto Di Matteo drink from that cup.
image: © ajenks
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