Football fans are normally a very loyal and emotional group of people who defend their chosen club to the bitter end. This extreme loyalty and attachment throws up a couple of issues, one of which is anyone who wishes to manage a football club is at the constant mercy of the hive mind that is their supporters.
If a season is going well this of course no problem, so if you're a supporter of the Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid hybrid super team that has been dominating the fictional world hyper league then you have absolutely no worries.
However in the real world every club has its ups and downs and with every down comes the doubt and the criticism from journalists and supporters alike. Now with every single participant in a clubs fan base able to buy football manager or enter a fantasy league they are one or two successful seasons from being a self-declared football genius whose own view is law and anyone who challenges it should merely look at their awe-inspiring screen-shots. This of course causes dilemma when the clubs management and a fan or fans view begin to differ from one another in times of hardship.
There can be no better example of this than when at an Aston Villa game one of my fellow fans who was particularly dismayed after a defeat that put us out of Europe. Talking to him for awhile he brilliantly unearthed the single reason as to why we went out of Europe and began to simply explain what this was.
Basic training he says simple stuff, Martin O'Neill then manager of Aston Villa clearly didn't understand how to get them to pass and shoot properly which was clearly causing the side an untold amount of damage. To all of this I nodded politely and went on my way.
Two weeks later just after Aston Villa had defeated Chelsea 2-1, I remarked to the same fan that the basic training was clearly being sorted out. To which he grumbled for while before leaving. Now by the end of the season Villa finished sixth and reached the Carling cup final and FA cup semi final. Considering the issues effecting basic training they did pretty well!
This odd game by game judgement fans seem to make about an entire season on one game cant be helped though, should they ever have control of the thing that effects their emotions so much then trouble is sure to follow.
Which neatly throws up the main topic of this article, Chelsea football club and their charismatic and extremely wealthy multi-billionaire owner Roman Abramovich. Who is undoubtedly a massive fan of the club, anyone one who has spent as much as he has and takes large chunks of time out of his schedule to watch them will have become highly attached to the club but is it in the clubs best interests.
Anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention to football will realise that Chelsea relieved Andre Villas-Boas of his job last week. AVB is the latest of many managers who have lost their job because of period of poor performances followed by Romans wrath. Listed below are these managers and the titles they have achieved as well as the length of time there are in charge.
- Claudio Ranieri: 1 Season, 0 Trophies
- Jose Mourinho: 3.2 Seasons, 5 Trophies
- Avram Grant: 0.8 Seasons, 0 Trophies
- Luiz Felipe Scolari: 0.6 Seasons, 0 Trophies
- Guus Hiddink: 0.4 Seasons, 1 Trophy
- Carlo Ancelotti: 2 Seasons, 2 Trophies
- Andre Villas-Boas: 0.7 Seasons, 0 Trophies
All these managers have one thing in common with the exception of Mourinho and that is Mourinho is himself and the others are not. Mourinho's tenure as Chelsea manager saw untold success compared to all the others and created a core at the centre of the team made up of players like John Terry, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, Ashley Cole and Petr Cech.
The core of the Chelsea squad has remained unchanged since Mourinho's departure and it appears that the main defect with the core is not their age or ability but their influence over the rest of the squad and the club's owner. This has led to a clear series of events which goes as follows.
- A new manager is hired to reinvent style of football played at Stamford Bridge.
- Results go okay but the amount the team adapts is limited and the manager gets tough on the core of the squad in order to speed change
- The core of the squad then no longer wishes the manager to be there as they thoroughly believe they know best and therefore stop playing their utmost every game.
- This drop in performance level is seen by club owner Roman Abramovich who like most fans only appears to see a few games infront or behind the present. With the players having previously been successful during Romans tenure as owner all the blame falls on the manager who is swiftly sacked.
- Millions of pounds are spent on paying off the ex-manager with step one being repeated.
With any potential new manager at Chelsea being undermined by the players it is going to be difficult for anyone to truly get success until the core is broken up. This added to Abramovich's random marquee signings like Shevchenko which started the chain of events that caused Mourinho to leave. As well as Torres which unsettled Ancelotti's side it is difficult to see Chelsea working seamlessly as a club in the near future.
What Chelsea need is for Abramovich to distance himself from his emotions as fan and act more like owner of football club rather than a football manager save. This would allow the manager to have authority over the squad re-establishing a much-needed command structure which would allow the club to stabilise and then push to the position it once held in the English and European game. This is unlikely though with fans being creatures of emotion and not logic. Chelsea and other clubs run by a single fan will struggle for stability and ultimately long-term success.
