Posts Tagged ‘Roman Abramovich’

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Manchester United appointed Jose Mourinho in the full knowledge that he rarely stays at any club for more than two years, whether the reason for departure is his choosing or not. He has since indicated that he would like to stay at Old Trafford for “many years“.

Manchester City did the same with Pep Guardiola. Having spent five years in charge at Barcelona, (one of them with the B team), he developed his current wanderlust and spent a further two years in charge of Bayern MĂĽnich. The impression is that, if he is successful at City, then he may be talked into staying longer. (more…)

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Not to mention Everton, the dark horses, so I won’t. Mention them, that is.

After only six games of the new season the great British press, the fourth estate, the paragons of virtue, trust and truthfulness, have decided who is going to win the title, who is going to get relegated and which managers are going to be sacked before and after Christmas. (more…)

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In the not too distant past the top clubs in Europe were the ones with the most money. This, to an extent, is still true today but the main difference is that a lot more clubs have the most money than previously.

Thinking back fifteen or twenty years ago there were the usual suspects in Real Madrid and Barcelona from Spain. Bayern Munich, at the time, were usually Germany’s sole representatives in the latter stages of any competition. Arsenal and Manchester United used to fight for the Premier League in England and the Milan clubs and Juventus usually offered Italian resistance. (more…)

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Who’s idea was it to employ David Moyes as a successor to Sir Alex Ferguson?

If we are to believe the press then it was Sir Alex himself. This is debatable because, although he retired at the height of his powers, it would be churlish to think that one man decides the future direction of a club the size of United. I think he may have been given the casting vote, but that is all and, in itself, shows the power he had at the time.

We are also expected to believe that Moyes was chosen over Jose Mourinho. This is pushing the realms of fantasy a little too far as well. David Moyes, with his record of winning absolutely nothing, was given the United job before the most successful manager, after Fergie, who had won titles in three different countries.

Either Ed Woodward is even more incompetent than people think he is or the stories simply aren’t true. Perish the thought that the great British press may have been telling a few porkies. (more…)

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Juventus have won seventeen of their last eighteen games in all competitions. They are only two points behind Serie A leaders Napoli, who they play on Saturday. They are through to the last sixteen in the Champion’s League, where they will play Bayern Munich and they are in the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, where they will play Inter Milan.

Massimiliano Allegri is an Italian, born in Livorno and enjoying great success in his home country.

If reports are to be believed then Roman Abramovich would like Allegri to give up all he has worked for in the last couple of years to go and manage, what is currently, a mid-table team under-achieving on an almost weekly basis.

To contest the Champion’s League next season Chelsea will need to win it this one! Other than the “challenge” of managing in the Premier League and a pay rise what can Abramovich offer to Allegri to motivate him to leave a very comfortable comfort zone?

Unless Allegri wants to test himself in a league where there is, generally, more competition than anywhere else in Europe, and maybe learn English, then this is a move which does not make any sense. (more…)

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(Roman wonders whether Guus has sorted out Chelsea’s problems and whether Manuel will bring another steadying hand to the tiller!)

I suppose if you want a quiet, charming and polite man to take over a club like Chelsea then, yes, he would be ideal. A little like Hiddink in that he prefers to do his talking on the pitch and only appears at press conferences and on TV because his contract states that he has to, it would be an almost seamless transition from one to the other.

Having decided that Jose Mourinho was no longer the man to take the club forward, Roman Abramovich now has a decision to make. He can try and tempt a man who is eight years Mourinho’s senior but is a safer pair of hands in which to leave the grenade that is Chelsea football club, or he can try to attract a younger manager with potential longevity, such as Diego Simeone.

His choice may say a lot about his own long-term plans. If, for example, he opts for Pellegrini, this would be on a two or three year contract which probably wouldn’t be renewed, irrespective of success achieved. It would be viewed as a way to get Chelsea back on an even keel without losing the ability to compete at the top of the Premier League and in the Champion’s League. (more…)

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If Manchester United are trying to distance themselves from Jose Mourinho and put him off the idea of becoming their manager, then they are probably being successful.

Mourinho, as manager of Chelsea, has been able to witness first hand the bungling Ed Woodward at work during the transfer windows. In his first one he managed to overpay for Marouane Fellaini, a player a lot of United fans still haven’t got used to seeing in a United shirt. He did this by missing a release clause expiry date in Fellaini’s contract with Everton, which meant paying ÂŁ4 million more for a player nobody wanted except David Moyes.

In his second window, having announced that United could afford to buy any player, he then proved what a superlative negotiator he was by spending ÂŁ15 million more than he needed to on Angel Di Maria, a fact proven when he was sold to PSG a year later for, guess what, ÂŁ15 million less than was paid for him.

At this stage in his career Mourinho, secure in his job at Chelsea, would have just laughed at the incompetence of it all. It probably confirmed to him that he had made the right decision in returning to Chelsea. He would have been aware that the transfer window jokes would not have surfaced had his friend, Sir Alex, remained in charge and that Fellaini would have remained at Everton and Di Maria would probably have gone elsewhere. Ferguson wouldn’t have fallen for buying him for a year while PSG served their transfer ban and then letting him go to them at the first opportunity. (more…)

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(Pep responds with a well-known gesture when asked why he would want to coach Manchester City!)

The leading candidates, in no particular order, are:

Chelsea – Guus Hiddink

Having fired Jose Mourinho for being unable to get the same players to do the same things for two years running, Roman Abramovich has appointed Guus Hiddink until the end of the season.

Now, it could be that Guus does very well and gets Chelsea into the top four, wins the FA Cup, the Champions League and becomes fluent in Russian so he can tell Roman all about it. It will matter not a jot should Guardiola decide that his future lies in West London. This being the case, Hiddink will be jettisoned quicker than a human cannonball, allowing him to retire and spend his days fishing in the flatness of Holland.

Guardiola will not, however, decide that his future lies in West London.

Arsenal – Arsene Wenger

Now in his twentieth year at Arsenal, there will be some gooners who are secretly hoping that it is his last. They want him booted upstairs in some kind of director role and they would absolutely love it, Kevin Keegan-style, if he was replaced by Pep Guardiola. (more…)

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Carlo Ancelotti is going to Bayern Munich where, after succeeding as usual, he will be fired as usual. He will probably win the treble but, because he is cursed, he will still be fired.

At two of his previous clubs he has a record which most managers would be proud to have. He was fired from his job as Chelsea manager having won the League and FA Cup double and, at Real Madrid, he was fired having won the Champion’s League. So he could be considered either a trifle unlucky or a loser for only winning the top trophies and none of the lesser ones.

Sympathy is not a feeling too much in evidence when it comes to highly paid football managers losing their job. Particularly when you consider that the top ones will almost certainly walk straight into another one.

So what will be the chain of events this time, I don’t hear you ask? (more…)

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(Jose waves goodbye to Chelsea again, probably for the last time, but who really knows?)

For a while it was a match made in heaven. Jose and Chelsea had a passionate marriage which lasted three years and only ended in divorce when the bubble appeared to have burst and the passion went out of it.

After a short separation, Mourinho and Chelsea realised that they could no longer live without each other and decided to give it another go. The passion returned for a short while and everything was fine for a short while. The problem is that “short while” has come to define the marriages between Mourinho and Chelsea.

Now he has gone, probably for good, because of the vow “for better or worse” in the wedding ceremony. To Jose’s way of thinking this meant that the “better” bit was for him and the “worse” bit was for Chelsea and everybody else. In other words he was quite happy to take all the praise when winning, but turned into a spoiled brat when losing.

The final straw, in my humble opinion, was when he turned on his own players after the Leicester City game, which Chelsea lost 2-1. (more…)