However, the going thoughts of many at the moment is that Chelsea are falling short and Roman Abramovich won’t wait, and seemingly no amount of outlandish statements, “He didn’t pay £13m to get me out of Porto and another fortune to get me out of Chelsea,” window-dressing, “I have to reflect on the games that went past and we didn’t deserve to lose, we showed things that could have won these games,” and stating of the obvious, “To be competitive in terms of the Premier League we will need to have a good December,” will eradicate the speculation.
It’s easy to draw the comparison between Mourinho’s success and AVB’s lack of so far and whack out a condemning one liner of the future of the current Chelsea manager. Its unwarranted though. Yes, Chelsea are 5th in the Premier League and yes, they are yet to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Champions League with only one game left, but Manchester City and Manchester United are yet to qualify too and they are teams with stability, in the case of United, and constant replenishment, in City’s. It is easy to point the finger with manic decry and waggle it infuriatingly before pointing to the door, but AVB, despite claims that, “there is no calling this a year of transition,” is in a year of transition.
His war chest for summer spending didn’t really receive a reception of an accompanying war cry, more of a shout of, “this will do.” Arguably, only two of his signings were going to make an immediate improvement to the starting line-up; Meireles and Mata, and the former may not have improved the XI much, if at all. On top of that, Drogba’s seemingly already retired, and now just takes Saturday afternoons as an opportunity to go for a paid lacklustre jog round a football pitch, Anelka has gone missing and he was last seen with Torres’ shooting boots, so no one has a clue really. Firing Chelsea to any minor triumph they will achieve this season is Danny Sturridge and if the nation will benefit from Chelsea’s, so far below par, campaign, it is through the experience this man will get up front.
He may not be so special right now, but I for one hope Villas-Boas is given the time on his contract to live up to hype he didn’t ask for and comparisons he didn’t draw. It’s been well accounted for that Chelsea’s side is aging and seemingly people have forgot this with AVB’s arrival; give him time to build his own side, and like Ferguson, let him build a new team on top of an old team, again and again. After all, Ferguson didn’t win a trophy until his fourth year at the club. That gamble’s paid off, hasn’t it?
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/ For more articles visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
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I think whoever is in charge of Chelsea right now would be struggling. The golden generation is coming to an end as Terry, Lampard and Drogba reach the final stages of their career. At the same time players like Cole, Anelka and Malouda are getting on a bit. Carvalho, Ballack, J. Cole and others have already moved on.
The manager needs to build a new team really and obviously that can take time. The signings of Torres, Luiz, Ramires etc were obviously made with this intention, but most by Ancelotti not AVB. In truth AVB needs probably two seasons to build his team but whether Abramovich will be that patient I am not sure.