Chelsea fans, do not to buy into the media outrage, whether you agree or disagree with the dismissal of Carlo Ancelotti, I am sure you remember how wrong the media and opposition fans thought it was to sack then Chelsea manager Phil Scolari mid-season. I am sure you also remember how much of a complete a u-turn they would later go and do eventually praising the decision as Guus Hiddink was brought in and proved very successful.
At the turn of the year (2011) when it was thought that the West Ham board were to axe former Chelsea manger Avram Grant there was similar outrage. David Gold & David Sullivan, the owners of West Ham decided against sacking Grant in fear of fan and media outrage, they let the media (who are a fickle bunch) dictate their decision, this is weak, for as much as West Brom were criticised during the same crucial period for some say prematurely sacking their manager Di Matteo, the decision is now paid off and the media has changed their tune, the decision is now lauded as Roy Hodgson has since performed remarkably at the helm and rescued West Brom for the clutch of relegation.
Gold and Sullivan now maintain that they had known Avram Grant was not the right man for a long while, and that in hindsight they wish they had shown more valour and gone with their gut.
Who remembers cries from opposition fans and critics asking “Why sack Ranieri?”
“He (Claudio Ranieri) finished 2nd and in the semi-finals of the Champions League, who can they get that can do better than that?” Were there articles following admitting they were wrong about the decision to sack Ranieri or Scolari?
No there wasn’t, there was even a campaign for Avram Grant to be kept in his job after his efforts to take Chelsea to the finals of the Champions League, the same Avram grant that is now almost universally slated, these people do not have the best interest of clubs at heart.
They will preach to you about stability and they will mention Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. Chelsea have had a revolving door policy and have still been more successful than Arsenal, as for United? Who are the best team in the world? The general consensus is that this title belongs to Barcelona. The Catalan club have been through a plethora of managers in the last 15 years, they recently sacked a manager in Rijkaard, who had won the club 2 UEFA Champions League trophies. Guardiola was hired and apart from winning La for the club. Liga in his first year he has gone on to win the league title every year and also win a Champions League for the club.
In fact recently new managers have “trashed” this notion of stability, Inter Milan brought in Mourinho, who won Serie A in his first season and then won the league title again in addition to the Champions League in his second season. Didier Deschamps managed to steer Marseille to their first Ligue 1 title in 18 years, this was in his first year at the club. Carlo Ancelotti won Chelsea the double in his first season at Stamford Bridge. If stability was so much of an advantage, considering Chelsea hadn’t spent big money in a good number of years, how did Wenger and Ferguson allow newbie Ancelotti to win the Premiership in his first season with virtually the same squad that hadn’t won it for 3 years?
Carlo Ancelotti had stability at AC Milan and in 8 years he only won the Scudetto once, now, Ancelotti also won two Champions League titles with AC, but then Benitez guided Liverpool to two Champions League finals one of which Liverpool won, Rijkaard won two Champions league titles at Barca.
Would you then say that Benitez and Rijkaard are suitable managers for the Chelsea job? When it comes to judging managers league results and how they perform throughout the season are key.
Good article with some good points. Unfortunately we are a country, possibly world, controlled by the media. Every facet of our modern lives is controlled by the popular media. Football is a mere sideshow – Goverments are elected and hounded out of office by media influence, and both sides know it. Football is the new rock and roll as they say – a real life soap opera which the script writers of Coronation Street and Eastenders cannot hope to match, even Footballers Wives was a parody of what had already gone on before.
But yes you’re right – how much stability would have been shown towards Sir Alex Ferguson if he hadn’t won the Premiership at the first one or two attempts all those years ago? In fact if legend has it right, it was the FA Cup win in 1990 that saved his job. What would have happened if he had lost that game? Probably anything but loyalty and where would United’s stability have been then? They would have been like the rest of the wannabe clubs – hiring new managers every 1 – 2 seasons.
Absolutely spot on sir –could have written it myself – loved every comma and full stop.
the media outrage is entirely phony as it always is and the endless yap about class — there’s too much class in england already for my liking anyway — these idiots mean taste but what’s that got to do with the business of football — did anyone else see that the guardian retracted the sacked him in the ocrridor story — which was a palperble lie – designed of ourse to underpin the no class story — every time we get a new manager we win something — roman’s no fool and neither are these media hacks – they hate us because we win things and they love us when we’re down — also agree that finishing second is not the issue — how we did it is the issue — we were awful and i utterly expected yesterday’s result- carlo’s looked like a rabbit in the headlights for a long while now. Like he’ got no clue how to get the team to perfom how he wants. No clue
Spot on, carlo deserved to go. he made alot of mistakes. the media r wrong
Excellent analysis and conclusion. So refreshing to see an exception to the “Emperor’s New Clothes” mentality. So, who do you think is “already in place” for next season?
This is probably the best article I have read all season. Everyone has their own opinion but every manager has his flaws. Look at Hargreaves at ManUre, look at Bendtner/Chamak at Arsenal, Joe Cole at Liverpool etc.