I know most of you would have reacted similarly after yesterday’s 3-3 draw against Villa. I’m not good at match review writing but the crux of the match is that we need ‘top class’ players. Did you compare Villa’s bench and our bench? What about Bolton’s bench and our bench in the last game? We tend to be a top team so what about Arsenal’s, United’s, City’s and Tottenham’s bench and our bench? Compare the squad, compare the team and after all this I see nothing wrong in the 3-3 draw.
Anelka, surprisingly was superb last season but he is back now as ‘le sulk’ again. Drogba is too old now to be the main striker or in my words ‘saviour’ of Chelsea, especially after Malaria he is feeling his age. Paulo Ferreira – I’m extremely sorry if I hurt any of your feelings but he is not a ‘good’ player for me. Ramires has the pace but not fully ready for EPL. Essien seems no more the ‘Ess Express’. Lampard does well but we could see the age affecting his pace and sprinting skills. With all these if you expect Chelsea to win, I’m sorry, I won’t expect.
You may counter question me? Did you think alike when we started the season in a marvelous manner. Well, the question is not whether I thought so or not but definitely the manager himself had known this is coming. Remember Carlo repeating ‘hard times will come’ after every game at the start of the season? What made Carlo say that? You might argue that it is his generosity which made him say so. I disagree, no manager would show so much generosity risking the team morale. Then what did happen? WHAT the HECK did HAPPEN?
I can only speculate or guess, but I tend to follow some logic in my guessing. Obviously any manager with Carlo’s experience wouldn’t have released players like Ballack, Cavarlho & Cole (leave Belletti & Deco, they were anyway useless) and sign back only a youngster like Ramires and the old Benayoun. So where did things go wrong? Every time Carlo is questioned about transfer prospects he denies to answer or gives some blur answer, why is that? When Carlo came in every one speculated Carlo to sign ‘big names’ such as Pato, Kaka etc. Why didn’t Carlo make any ‘landmark’ signings. I doubt a manager with the experience of Carlo, while managing a top team like Chelsea will be ignorant in Transfer matters, the why didn’t Carlo sign any good players? Carlo is superb in bringing up youngsters (Pato, Kaka) then why didn’t Carlo start doing that at Chelsea?
Now at one point why did Carlo said don’t compare me with Fergie or Arsene, I don’t have powers like them, I’m only in charge of coaching? Does this last question seems to at least vaguely answering the above questions? Yes, Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t have the freedom to work like Fergie or Arsene or Redknapp or in this case Mancini. Carlo seems to be only a Head of Coaching at Chelsea. That means what he does is coach the team, design the tactics and motivate them – that’s it. He doesn’t control the transfers of players or staff, may be only an opinion maker. Simply he is not a ‘Manager’ like Fergie or Arsene or Redknapp or Mancini or even Hodgson. He coaches a squad which is decided by a board above him. Why is this happening at Chelsea? WHY?
It all started after Mourinho’s second season I guess (or may be started after the first season but came out after the seond season). If I have noted rightly only two people were Managers of Chelsea in the Roman Era starting from Mourinho. First one was Mourinho and the second one was Scolari. If not for Mourinho the current achievements of Chelsea won’t be there. In due course of the second season of Mourinho felt the pressure of power politics played by Frank Arnesen, the Sporting Director, Piet Di Visser and Abramovich and in his third season felt an extra pressure due to the appointment of Avram Grant as Director of Football. Mourinho never wanted to sign Shevchenko, Ballack or Malouda or didn’t want Arjen Robben to leave. When he felt that the control was out of his hands and run by the so called board, he showed his displeasure openly and it is not Mourinho’s mistake but the unwanted influence of the board which lead to Mourinho’s departure and not winning the season or the Champions League.
Every one of us know what happened after that. After Grant’s sacking Roman seems understood the mistake and brought in Scolari and let him bring teh players he wanted but unfortunately Scolari wasn’t a right manager for Chelsea. He signed Deco and Bosingwa and was desperate to sign Robinho but failed. Since he couldn’t produce results as expected from a ‘world cup’ winning coach he was sacked and Guus Hiddink came in as a temporary manager and won the FA Cup. After Hiddink’s temporary period, I guess Roman wanted a manager who has a successful record but who listens to the owners unlike Mourinho and the obvious choice was Ancelotti. Carlo being worked under Berlusconi (who even involved in deciding the formation to play) for eight long years was the obvious choice of Roman Abramovich and Carlo knowing all these joined Chelsea.
Carlo Ancelotti won the Premier League in his debut season along with the FA Cup and won the historical double for Chelsea. I would say he was fortunate. He did not decide on any signings. The major signing on his first season was Zhirkov and obviously non other than Roman would have decided on that. All what Ancelotti successfully did was brought the team together, pumped confidence in to them and played them, fortunately he had sufficient players. He re-conditioned a fallen team, actually he continued the job Guus Hiddink started. He brought Drogba back to good condition, he made Drogba-Anelka partnership work, He made Malouda score, Though Cech was messy at the start, he made Cech solid. Like wise what Carlo did was tinkering work. Fortunately due to the experience and quality of the players the tinkering work paid off and success followed. Just because I have mentioned it as re-conditioning and tinkering work that doesn’t mean the job is easy, it is the hardest job, because you don’t manager the players you want but you manage the players you have. Carlo’s amazing job brought in new confidence in Chelsea and the Fans started to think about having Carlo for longer, even Carlo admitted he wants to stay at Chelsea for longer like Fergie at United. Everything was fine until the end of last season and all the True Blues thought we will live happily ever after…..
But this isn’t a fairy tale! Ancelotti must have had his plans for the coming season but was shocked to see players like Ballack, Joe Cole and Cavarlho leave. Remember Ancelotti repeating that he wanted Cole to stay? Remember Ballack say that it wasn’t Ancelotti’s decision to let him go? Of course we haven’t heard much about Cavarlho’s transfer but I am sure that without signing a proper replacement Ancelotti would have been happy to let Cavarlho leave. Then after all these why was Ancelotti silent? Why didn’t he utter even a sign of displeasure? Why did he pretend to show he was content with the squad? Yes, he said ‘hard times will come’ but why wasn’t he open on this matter? – The answer is simple! Ancelotti expected such situation to occur when he signed for Chelsea, because he had prior experience in these things when he worked under Berlusconi. He knew that he was signed to coach the team and nothing more and when he was pressurized overly by the media he crossed the boarder by saying ‘Don’t compare me with Fergie’. Every time he saw Chelsea suffer, he is unhappy but tends to show he is optimistic but only his inside knows the cure is far away. He is displeased but he knows the way out is out of his hands. Is this the end of Chelsea?
As I have told before, End or not will be decided by and only by Almighty Abramovich. I know we fans have t be thankful to him for developing Chelsea into a Top team. If not for Abramovich’s investment we are not who we are now. We should appreciate Abramovich but at the mean time there should be someway to convince him to let Ancelotti ‘Manage’ the team. Why did the board sack Wilkins against the will of the manager? Why did the board appoint Emenalo against the will of the Manager? Why is the board deciding on the transfers when the Manager is blamed for losing games? These are questions I wish to pose at the Board. Take Arsenal, they haven’t won a thing for more than half a decade but did they sack Arsene or reduce his powers or appoint anyone over him to handle transfers of players and staff? No, they simply let Arsene manage the team and now some success is produced. Same thing could be said about Man United and even Tottenham. Why can’t Abramovich let Ancelotti handle things like Mourinho did in his First Season?
The other important point is money. I know Abramovich is sick of spending after so many failures but who was the reason for that? Did Mourinho wanted Shevchenko? Which manager particularly wanted Zhirkov? Did Ancelotti insist on buying Ramires? I don’t know but Roman should definitely know. As a fan what I could say to Roman is if we want to be a top club ‘WE HAVE TO SPEND’. All Top Clubs are spending. At times there may be flops, Zlatan was a big flop at Barcelona but we can’t stopping signing because of that and it is the Manager who should decide on whom he want not the Board, Owner or the Fans. Liability without Authority is unfair, Authority without Liability is disaster. Today Manchester City is second in the table, good,but how much was invested behind that? how many flops did they sign? (i.e. Robinho – record fees) how long it took them to succeed? See even United and Arsenal are signing players. United signed Berbatov for a record fee (almost equal to the fee of Shevchenko) but it took him 3 seasons to show some good performance. So big teams have to sign players, it is inevitable. If Chelsea is not going to sign a player in the winter Transfer Window, I am even unsure about Chelsea qualifying for UEFA Champions League next season. The board while thinking about breaking even in 2013 to play in the Champions League will lose playing in Champions League in the next two seasons if we don’t sign any players.
There are good financial brains who know the tactic how to make the club qualify for 2013 UCL, we have to use those brains to get qualified and should not approach it by staying away from Signing Players.
The Future of Chelsea is in the hands of Abramovich and only Abramovich. He is the decider! But if he decides to sack Ancelotti, then I don’t see any other manager coming to Chelsea or anyone one coming will be able to win things. In Carlo We Trust! and a Change in Roman We Hope!
KTBFFH!
– Ash Di Spontaneus.
Chelsea Analyst.
Submitted by Chelsea Fanatic
