Once the debatable decision to sack Carlo Ancelotti was made at the end of last season by the impatient Roman Abromovich, the Chelsea Hierarchy would of looked around for a replacement and seen experience managers who all tasted success at the highest level over a number of seasons surrounding them. Instead however, the board decided on Andre Villas-Boas who was fresh from winning the treble with Porto, Boas cost a mere £13 million pounds to obtain, a fee yet to be justified.
In fairness to Villas-Boas you could say the 34 year old has been up against it thought from the outset. He has seemingly been tasked with building a team for the future with the signings of Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, Oriol Romeu and Thibaud Courtios designed to form a backbone for a future team to challenge for the Premiership, the team may not come together for another five years though which makes the pressure on Villas-Boas even more harsh, he has been asked to make a sustainable team he must therefore be given the chance to carry on building it and oversee its development.
However, with all of this said in defense of Villas-Boas there’s no denying that this is a pivotal week the Portuguese man. Chelsea are out of the title race and even struggling to cement fourth spot meaning the next two games can shape the rest of their season. The blues faced Birmingham in the FA cup drawing 1-1, before a tough tie in the Champions League against an in form Napoli side where nothing less than a victory could prove to be the end for an unfortunate Andre Villas-Boas. Defeat in the next couple of games could effectively spell the end of Chelsea’s season, an ending far to premature for Abramovich as he wants to feel as if his £13 million pounds was spent wisely in getting the Portuguese man to London.
Since his arrival Boas hasn’t had the luckiest of reigns to date. He has had to witness the poor form of the already signed Fernando Torres together with equally disappointing duo of Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba. In fact perhaps only Daniel Sturridge and to a lesser extent Ramires and Oriol Romeu can be truly satisfied with their season’s work so far as they continue to perform admirably.
If this week is the last we see of Villas-Boas at Stamford Bridge it would be a great shame. The man clearly has an abundance of managerial talent and one just has to persist long enough to begin reaping the abundant rewards he is capable of delivering. Once his young and up and coming team is built Villas-Boas’ Chelsea will be a serious force. For now however, they must find a way to scrap through the FA Cup and the Champions League with the aging, lazy and lethargic team they have, otherwise it will be bye bye Mr Villas-Boas.
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