Features
The Saga of a Sacking
March 7, 2012 Nicola  |
The numbers don’t lie, but where and who will Chelsea turn to now after Andre Villas-Boas was fired as manager?
When you look at the numbers, perhaps the decision to end Andre Villas-Boas’ tenure as Chelsea manger isn’t a shock. In the Premier League this season he has a win percentage of only 48%, lower than any other previous Chelsea manager since Glen Hoddle over 15 years ago.
At Stamford Bridge, their home stadium and fortress, they have lost as many games this season (three) as in the seasons between 2004-05 and 2009-10 put together. In fact, between 2005 and last season Chelsea only lost five games at home in total in the league.
They have already let in more goals at home this season (19) than in any season in total since 2001-02 when they conceded 21, a record that will surely be passed by the end of the current campaign.
Chelsea are currently in fifth place in the Premier League, three points off Champions League qualification and a massive 20 points behind leaders Manchester City with only 11 games left.
Although they went through to the sixth round of the FA Cup on Tuesday evening, they still needed a replay to beat Championship side Birmingham after they drew with them at Stamford Bridge. They are also fighting a battle to stay in the Champions League after their 3-1 loss to Napoli in the first leg.
In all, the writing was on the wall for the former Chelsea boss after they lost to West Brom on Saturday, the team’s seventh loss of the season.
For a club like Chelsea, who over the last decade have been one of the leading contenders for trophies, this record was not going to be good enough and for an owner who had already sacked two league-winning managers, it was only going to be a matter of time before the axe was wielded and another manager lost his job.
And yet with all this evidence to support Roman Abramovich’s decision there has been a backlash from several corners.
Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the League Managers Association, has branded the club “an embarrassment”. Talking to Radio Five Live, he said: “What’s for sure is the club, despite unlimited wealth, haven’t yet worked out how to build a successful football club. Looking for what is an eighth manager in nine years is a serious embarrassment to the owner, the club, the fans and the league.”
There has also been support for Villas-Boas from other managers, including Chris Hughton, the Birmingham manger who faced him in the FA cup. Talking to the Guardian, Hughton said: “I think it [eight months] is no time for a manager, it’s a club very much going through a transitional period and I felt he needed time to finish the job he wanted to complete.”
“Is it embarrassing for Chelsea? It’s their choice on what percentage of managers they want to go through.”
As Hughton points out, Chelsea are a team who are about to go through a huge transitional period, with many of the established and successful players at the club entering the twilight of their careers and new players needed to replace them.
Former Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has described the situation awaiting the next manager as “hell”.
“Some things are known, like the relations with the owner, who has the relationship with some players before the coach,” said World Cup winning coach Scolari,
“He [Villas-Boas] needed to replace at least seven or eight players, even since I was there, but he failed.
“It will be hell for whoever succeeds him.”
With obvious rebuilding needed, it may take several trophy-less seasons to become competitive again. One just needs to look at Arsenal’s current predicament: no trophies in seven years following the breaking up of the ‘Invincibles’. This will be something that the owner of Chelsea may not be able to tolerate, and with a history of firing bosses he feels are not achieving medals, especially in the Champions League, this may be difficult.
Added to this is the perceived power that senior players hold in the dressing room and the introduction of the UEFA Financial Fair Play rules which will restrict the club from purchasing the best players and paying them the highest wages. It is a situation that many top managers may not want to get involved in. Indeed Abramovich’s reported first choice, Barcelona manger Pep Guardiola, has already laughed off suggestions he will be next in charge at Chelsea.
Whoever is the next manager of Chelsea Football Club, it is worth the owner looking over the history books at the period of time it takes to build a truly successful and lasting legacy.
Between 1986 and his first title in 1993, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had a win percentage of only 43%. During that initial seven-year period the highest position the club finished was second in the 1987-1988 season. The first trophy that Ferguson won as United manager was the FA cup in 1990 and it wasn’t until the 1992-93 season that he won his maiden championship. Even during that season, the team were 10th in the league in November and struggling for form.
Since that first Premiership title in 1993, Manchester United have gone on to win 11 more league titles, overtaking Liverpool as England’s most successful club in the process. They have also won five more FA cups, four League Cups, two Champions League titles, one Intercontinental Cup and a FIFA Club World Cup.
Not bad for a manger that won only 86 of his first 196 games in charge at Old Trafford.
By Jonathan Trickey
[Image courtesy of Free-ers]
