Chelsea FC : What Now For The Blues?

The glorious unpredictability of Chelsea once again showed its ugly face in the wake of Carlo Ancelotti’s sacking only after two years in charge of the Stamford Bridge side.

Ran out of luck

The club showed a distinct lack of class and character in sacking the Italian on their trip back from Liverpool, resembling the embarrassing stuff showcased by the West Ham management in their sacking of former Chelsea manager, Avram Grant, last week.

There has been constant speculation in the media even before Carlo Ancelotti was relieved of his duties regarding the possible new managers. And now, it looks like as if Guus Hiddink will be appointed as the new Director of Football, after Frank Arnesen was relieved of his duties last season, and the Dutchman overseeing the whole recruitment process.

It has to be noted that Guus Hiddink has already said in the past that he helps Roman Abramovich with the all footballing matters at Chelsea, so this appointment is only going to make things official, rather than make any wholesale changes as to how things work at Stamford Bridge.

So, we now look at some of the possible candidates for the job:

1) Marco van Basten: There have been strong rumors that Marco van Basten will be appointed the new manager in the coming weeks, with Ian McGarry tweeting in a very bold manner that it’s a done deal. McGarry is known to have strong connections at Chelsea, so I wouldn’t bet against him being right for the moment.

However, it was also initially reported that van Basten had signed a pre-contract with Sporting in Portugal, but since then this has been denied, making him available for the job.

Whether he’s the right man for the job, it’s an open question, with the Dutchman not being able to match his illustrious playing career with his short managerial one so far. He guided the Dutch National team to the last eight in Euro 2008, while Ajax only came in third in the Dutch Eridivise while he was in charge.

Nonetheless, he’s the favorite for the job at the moment and seemingly has the backing of Guus Hiddink, which in turn means Roman Abramovich.

2) Andre Villas Boas: The young heir of Jose Mourinho and the next big thing in world football when it comes to the managers, Andre Villas Boas, could replicate Jose’s journey if he moves from Porto to Chelsea.

Both of them have very similar characteristics, neither of them had a great playing career, for that matter Villas Boas didn’t even play professional football, but have gone on to become good football managers at a very young age.

Porto have broken all sorts of records under Villas Boas this season, while at the same time playing some excellent football, and finished the season with four trophies after beating Vitoria Guimaraes 6-2 in the Portuguese Cup final.

There are still question marks hanging over his head whether he has the experience to guide Chelsea Football Club through all the rumblings that go on behind the scenes, but one thing is for sure, he will not be short of offers, so even if the Blues approach him they might not be able to get him.

3) The Outsiders: At this point of time every other manager should be put in the category of outsiders, since other than two aforementioned above, rest are even more speculative than the ones we talked about above.

Jose Mourinho: The former Chelsea manager has ruled himself out after declaring that he will like to stay on at Real Madrid next season, but we never know what happens in Madrid, so never rule out anything there.

Harry Redknapp: No matter how much the so called ‘wheeler-dealer’ is eagerly waiting for the England National job after the Fabio Cappello leaves, this would be too good a opportunity for him to turn down, but for the sake of Chelsea fans one would hope that he rather waits for the England job instead.

The brutality of the sacking also means that the club are not looking to waste any time in announcing the new manager, which usually suggests that they have the man lined up already, which means that we should expect the new manager to announced within days.

Irrespective of who gets the job, he’s got a massive task on his hand with what he’s going to deal with at Chelsea. One thing that is of paramount importance is the European success, no matter what line the club follow, it seems the failure in Europe for two consecutive seasons was the last straw for Carlo Ancelotti.

At this point, as a Chelsea fan, I would just like to thank Carlo Ancelotti for winning the double and giving us some really good moments, and also apologies for the way the way club acted in the sacking. Best of luck in your future endeavors.