Chelsea have once again parted ways with a manager midway through their season. This time the manager was sacked within 3 months after the season began. Roberto De Matteo who took over as caretaker manager for Chelsea after Andres Villa Boas was sacked as Chelsea manager last season led Chelsea to their maiden Champions League Glory. Matteo also led them to an FA Cup victory in his short stint as manager.
Chelsea part ways with Roberto De Matteo
With his success as caretaker manager Russian Tycoon Roman Abrahimovich decided to give the Italian manager who was also a former Chelsea player a permanent role as manager. Matteo began his season with some high profile signings like Eden Hazard and Oscar. He also signed Victor Moses of Wigan, Caesar Azpilicueta and Marko Marin for the blues. Although the blues lost the community shield match to League Champions Manchester City, they began their League campaign excellently and led the table till the 3rd Of November. They were undefeated till the 28th of October before they lost to Manchester United in a controversial match. Chelsea also lost the UEFA Super Cup against Europa League winners Atletico Madrid after Falcao unleashed himself on the European Champions.
The loss to Manchester United started Chelsea’s run of poor games. Prior to that match they had also lost a Champions League encounter against Shakthar. Chelsea followed up their loss to United with draws against Swansea and Liverpool in the league before they lost to West Brom last week. Things started to get ugly for De Matteo and he was in a fix specially with Chelsea’s most expensive signing Fernando Torres underperforming.
De Matteo decided to play a defensive squad against Juventus yesterday with a false 9 line up after dropping Torres to the bench. The match at Turin was a nightmare for the blues as they lost 3-0 to the Italian Champions. With the loss Chelsea are now 3rd in the Group and are set to become the first defending Champions to exit in the group stage. Chelsea can only qualify for the next round if they win and hope that Shakthar defeat Juventus.
The result put De Matteo under pressure and the aftermath of the match meant that Chelsea decided to fire him. Chelsea have changed their managers more than they have changed their jerseys recently.
Rumors are that Barcelona’s ace man Pep Guardiola is the front runner to take over as manager if Chelsea can convince him to cut short his break from management for a year. Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez who led Liverpool to 2 Champions League finals and won 1 and led Valencia to 2 La Liga titles is also in contention.
Chelsea have announced that a new manager will be announced soon. Will the new manager be able to cope with the pressure of being a Chelsea manager and if so who will it be?
Tags: Champions League, Chelsea, FA Cup, Football, Pep Guardiola, Roberto De Matteo
