Here we go again. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has sacked yet another manager. This time it was Roberto Di Matteo - the Italian who took over the team as a caretaker manager in early 2012. Di Matteo, against all the odds, guided Chelsea to Champions League success in May this year, and was given a full time position by Abramovich, then told to pack his bags after just several months and a string of recent bad results. Abramovich, the Russian billionaire, seems to have no patience in wanting to generate a team with immediate success, a team that exists without any sort of failure whatsoever. That is almost impossible in the competitive environment of European club football, including the English Premier League.
Carlo Ancelotti, another Italian, was appointed Chelsea manager in 2009, and for the 2009/2010 won both the Premier league titles and the FA Cup. Pretty decent. However, after finishing second for the 2010/2011 season, he was soon sacked. Abramovich has made it no secret that he wants Champions League success. Well, Abramovich got it with Di Matteo, yet has shown him little respect in giving him his marching orders. Also, Di Matteo has history and pride with Chelsea. He played over 100 times for them over a six year period. Abramovich has money, greed, and a disillusioned ambition. The fact is you cannot win everything. The most recent result for Chelsea, a 3-0 loss away to Juventus, comes as no surprise. Juventus are the best team in Serie A by a long way at the moment and have been for almost two years now. Chelsea played without their stalwarts of Frank Lampard and John Terry, and are essentially the fourth best team in Britain at the moment in my opinion. Abramovich needs to open his eyes to the real world.
A statement on Chelsea's official website is somewhat confusing: "The team’s recent performances and results have not been good enough and the owner and board felt a change was necessary now to keep the club moving in the right direction as we head into a vitally important part of the season." So heading into a vitally important part of the season, the players must adjust themselves to a new manager with new ideas. Is it a right direction when this is happeneing every several months? Yes, the same thing happened last time with Di Matteo taking over Andre Villas Boas during the 2011/2012 season, but the difference was that Di Matteo was already assistant manager and had shared the same environment with the players before becoming head manager.
Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has now been called in to Chelsea in an interim role to try and fix the team, if that is possible. Perhaps he will be able to get the best out of Fernando Torres, rekindling their partnership at Liverpool from a few years ago. Benitez has not coached since he was sacked by Inter Milan in late 2010 after a poor first half of that season. Unless Benitez manages to guide Chelsea to success in the Premier League, and the FA Cup, and the Champions League, then Abramovich, assuming he stands by his values, will sack Benitez by June 2013.
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Golf
It is great to see Michael Campbell continue his recent run of form. He has now recorded 4 top-15s in his last 9 tournaments, which is not exactly spectacular, but has allowed him to improve his world ranking from 750th at the start of 2012, to 288th as of Novemeber 18, 2012. Last week "Cambo" finished tied for 8th at the Hong Kong Open, and took the lead in the fourth round with a birdie on the first hole. He eventually stumbled to a 2-over 72 and finished 7 shots behind the eventual winner Miguel Angel Jimenez. With this win, the 48 year old Spaniard became the oldest ever winner of a European Tour event. Campbell, who is 43, has stated that the current crop of succesful golers in their 40s have insipred him and given him the confidence that he still has several good years left in him to make some noise on the golfing world. I wish him well.
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