The Blues owner likes to shuffle his deck on a regular basis and has once again brought a new card into play in the form of Rafael Benitez. For a man who has built up his fortune from the very bottom Abramovich seems to have nothing close to the amount of patience he had in the progression of his own career in the bosses he has appointed.
His latest managerial appointment has been called one of the best coaches in Europe in recent weeks, yet he can only secure a care taker position. One thing he and Di Matteo both have in common is that they have won the Champions League with an English club but in the case of the Italian even this wasn’t good enough for his employers.
Only Jose Mourinho can be spoken about as a long serving manager under Abramovich’s ownership of the West London club. In fact looking back through the years Chelsea has had more success with interim managers. The Russian is as good at playing a successful quick hand as he is at losing out on a sweepstake when he puts all his winnings on a new permanent boss.
However, previous quick hands have delivered results, with Guus Hiddink being a prime example. In under half a season at Stamford Bridge during the 08/09 campaign the Dutchman delivered the FA Cup. Avram Grant came within a slip from John Terry of winning the Champions League in a close fought final against Manchester United and during his interim charge club legend Di Matteo conquered Europe and won the FA Cup.
In football it is important that the main back bone of individuals are not changed, in the case of the West Londoner’s this has come in form of key players, most namely John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and the recently departed Didier Drogba. Especially this season a new group seems to be evolving in the shape of attacking trio Oscar, Eden Hazard and Juan Mata.
Poker can win you money as quickly as you can spend it which I feel is the best way to describe Abramovich’s use of interim managers. What he’s really needed to do ever since the departure of the special one is to invest his metaphorical winnings wisely and gradually to ensure long term success on the pitch.
Football is completely different to any other business; you cannot fire people when results are not instant it is important to allow steady development to take place. The careful and slow introduction of solid foundations is vital in enabling a club to continue its growth instead of constantly upping sticks and moving on.
Whatever industry you work in it is important to take risks and in his time as Chairmen of Chelsea on the managerial front the Russian has not really took any chances. For the West London club’s owner this is giving a boss a full season in charge. It seems for him this would be tempting fate at this current moment in time. During his stay in London Abramovich has shown what appears to be little faith in whoever he places in the hot seat. As soon as results start to slip it seems like all belief is lost in the man in the dugout to turn it around.
Roman Abramovich needs to change his approach to the way he runs his football club as the fans could turn soon on him, especially after firing a club legend who had delivered Europe’s most acclaimed prize.
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ha ha hay Starr