Come 2003-2004, the club saw a change of ownership and things were never the same again. Funny thing about football, is the speculations associated with the entry and exit of both players and managers alike. The true fan, can never understand what really transpired within the four walls. He has to reconstruct the bits and pieces from the various sources and tries to make sense out of it. The exodus of Jose Mourinho, who was an instant hit with the players and supporters, touted as 'leaving on mutual consent' could not be understood by any layman. Ever since that season , the club has never been the same. Jose had cast his magic spell on everyone and till this date people believe he would return one day. In this process, smitten by the 'win a cup every season or else sack the manager' attitude ( Carlo Ancelloti was sacked even though he won a double in his first season, is an exception) the club and supporters forgot the essentials- stability, consistency and future.
A man who could have done it is Andres Villas-Boas. Chelsea, underestimated him and he is now gone. Lot of fans speculated if he really was inclined towards the future, and if true, he is possibly our answer to a Arsene Wenger or David Moyes. Now, John Terry and Frank Lampard have said out in the open, he did think a lot about the future. This is where many fans feel the entire board lost the plot.
The chants of ''You don't know what you're doing..'' or ''Bring back Jose" actually made me realize how much the fans have become spoiled by big spending and unscrupulous habit of hire and fire.
Who could ever blame AVB? AVB pretty well knew that the club has players with an ego so big they think they run the club and he tried winning them over by saying the current crop of players are world class enough to win all silverware. This plan backfired to a T. Few players made it so obvious they wanted AVB out, and they got their wish. One wonders if Roman has any control in the day to day matters of the club. On one hand, Frank Arnesen threatens to rob Chelsea of any new talent left on the bench, luring him to Hamburg; and player power ruins the club's inner fabric.
AVB is a fantastic manager. I don't care which league you manage in, completing the treble in your first season without any loss deserves an ovation. Coming from Sir Bobby Robson's school of scouting, Chelsea were gifted a Kohinoor in the summer, and 8 months later they pretty much kick out that manager for playing a free style football that's unsuited for an aging Chelsea squad.AVB was looking at the youth and was ready to give them their chance. Perfect example is Oriol Romeu, bought in by AVB, becomes a class player right before the seniors' eye like Lampard and Essien, who probably noticed that he was getting more playing time than them. Romeu, now I feel is Barcelona bound come this summer and the youth will continue to get neglected. People at the helm don't know what they doing and in the process are ruining the club by constantly failing to land world class talents and blame the manager for the team's misfortune. Chelsea won the league under Ancelotti two seasons back. Why didn't Manchester United sack Sir Alex Ferguson? They knew the current crop of players weren't good enough, and in the next window they bought wisely and like a well scripted story, they were champions again.
AVB is a potential great and master tactician. After being down to eight men against QPR, earlier in the season, he played a 3-2-2-1 formation and almost secured a win. Another instance is when he was under Jose in Chelsea, his dossier about the Newcastle squad resulted in a 3-0 win for the Blues. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/8591763/How-Andre-Villas-Boas-scouting-reports-helped-Chelsea-to-a-3-0-win-over-Newcastle-in-November-2005.html
As much as people gloat over Di Matteo's record, do NOT forget that if not for AVB's signings- Mata, Gary and decision of bringing Sturridge back, Chelsea would have been in further abyss, like Liverpool. His signings were spot on. If Chelsea doesn't finish 4th, there was no point sacking him in the first place. I have always been an AVB supporter, and now after a dismal show against Tottenham at the Bridge, where only Cahill and Mata being stand out performers, I am reminded of him more.
AVB had his faults. But he is a very young manager. He has caused damage to the club because of him trying to crack out the old Jose system of playing and install a new one. Rome wasn't built in a day, and so were not Manchester United's reign of 19 titles. Sacking him was not the solution. Chelsea should've let him stay even if it meant playing in the Europa league next season which, the way things are looking, they are going to be doing anyway.
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