Time For Chelsea Fans To Get Behind Andre Villas-Boas

With his Chelsea side struggling to reach the heights of former seasons in the Premier League and facing a replay at Championship side Birmingham in the FA Cup, André Villas-Boas is a man under pressure. Will the pressure get to AVB though? Judging from his actions on the touchline during the FA Cup game with Birmingham, he’s already starting to feel it.

Halfway through the first half during the game with Birmingham, AVB was seen physically shaking. He was sat next to his assistants and as the away fans taunted him with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” and “José Mourinho”, the young Portuguese manager must have been wondering what he had done to deserve such treatment.

I found it impossible to not feel incredibly sorry for AVB. One can only imagine what it must of been like for him during that dreadful first half. Whilst it is to be expected from the away fans, I’ve been quite disappointed with how Chelsea as a club have treated their manager.

Of course, fans are entitled to boo when they consider their team to be under performing, but I can’t say I can recall a manager suffering like AVB is. The substitution of Mata for Lampard when Meireles was still on the pitch didn’t make sense to me either, but with arguably the biggest game of Chelsea’s season coming up, AVB did the sensible thing by taking Mata off.

Ron Gourlay is hardly helping the situation. Throughout the game the ESPN cameras would cut to where he and Bruce Buck were sitting and unlike Buck who remained calm and collected, Gourlay was often seen shaking his head and looking to the skies. Obviously, the press were going to pick up on that and there was just no need for it at all.

Frank Lampard is a Chelsea legend but come on Frank, show a bit of respect to the guy in charge. The last thing Villas-Boas needs is the most senior player at the club trying to undermine him. If Lampard finds him so unbearable to work with then go out on a high Frank, help secure fourth and leave the club with the same level of dignity you’ve shown throughout your time here.

The minority of Chelsea fans will argue that he only has himself to blame but the majority recognise the fact that he inherited a squad with only a handful of players who warrant a starting place at Chelsea football club. It is impossible to completely refresh an ageing squad in one summer transfer window unless you’re willing to spend hundreds of millions and surely AVB had to give everyone at the club a chance to prove to him that they’re what he needs for his ‘project’ at Chelsea?

I doubt the Torres situation is helping at the moment either. If the world renowned Ancelotti couldn’t succeed in getting Torres firing in a Chelsea shirt, how can a rookie from Portugal be expected to succeed immediately?

There have been numerous occasions throughout the past decade where Chelsea managers have been under pressure but unlike AVB, they were all experienced pros who had been through it all before. Scolari probably didn’t understand what was going on, Mourinho was too big headed to think he would be sacked where as Grant, Ranieri and Ancelotti must have known what was coming. It is clearly starting to affect Villas-Boas as a person, never mind just as a football manager. I’ve never seen a more nervous man on a touchline. It is a sad, sad sight.

I would love to ask the fans behind the #AVBout movement on twitter what they would like to see happen. AVB sacked and replaced with an interim manager? Because Mourinho is going to leave Madrid when he is on the verge of taking the La Liga title? Hiddink has taken over Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia so he is also out the picture. Just how easy Chelsea dismiss managers became embarrassing a long time ago for me and I hope the majority reading this feel the same. Admittedly the sacking of Ancelotti was a dark, dark day for the club, but AVB is the manager now and he should have the full support of everyone associated with the club.

I dare not say that Napoli away on Tuesday night is a must win game because it isn’t, it is a two legged affair but there’s no doubt that a good result in Naples would be that major boost that everyone at the club needs. So even if you think you can do a better job than AVB because you won the league on Football Manager, it is vital that everyone gets behind him so that fourth placed is secured, and then he can build his own squad and really show us all what he is all about.

Thanks to o-posts.net and The Beautiful Game for submitting this guest post