The season’s over, finally. Probably, it was a fitting end to a drab season that we lost to a 10-man Everton. Didn’t get to see the match but don’t think I missed much. Like many, I was shocked by the starting line-up. I think Carlo badly wanted to win this one. When he does want to win a match so badly, he goes with his big name players. He did just that on this last day too.
Two wins in the last two games would have helped us cross the 75-points mark. Instead, we’re sitting tied on 71 points with Man City, only ahead of them by the goal difference which was accumulated in the early games this campaign. This is Chelsea’s lowest points tally under Roman. The next lowest is 79 points under Ranieri in 03-04. I must say, 71 points with this Chelsea squad with a manager of Carlo’s quality and calibre, is very poor return. We’re only made to look decent by our competition.
We should thank the early season momentum which has helped us not to slip to third place. Though we started well, we ended up scoring 69 goals as against the 100+ tally last season. Of this 69 goals, 21 goals (works out to 30%) were scored in the first 5 games of this campaign.
In my book, this is a poor performance considering that we have one of the best squads in the country and we were less affected by injuries than Man Utd and Arsenal. In fact, our injury situation this season is a very normal one in football. If we don’t want to get affected by injuries even this much, we can’t be playing football.
Chelsea of this season has given a few great memories and lots of pathetic performances. This team this season has not been mentally strong. Our football has been poor. Out attitude has been worse. And we have not made progress. You know what my stance is – the buck stops with the manager. Period.
I don’t know if Carlo would be the manager tomorrow morning. I have a feeling that he would not be sacked. I think he would just make it. Anyway, he’s got one season left in his contract. There are not too many managerial options available in the market. Roman could surprise everyone by giving one more chance to Carlo.
It’s not the trophies. It’s not the victories. It’s not the points or goals on the league table. If only these things mattered, you wouldn’t find fans for lesser clubs. What really matters are things such as attitude, mentality, hunger and pride – precisely the areas where Chelsea have fallen behind this season.
You don’t need to look beyond the premier league to see that quality of players, squad strength etc don’t matter when it comes to the fight. Battles are won with the mind before the feet get involved. Blackpool’s defeat today is a case in point. They gave it all. Blackpool’s effort today at Old Trafford was way better than Chelsea’s effort at Old Trafford a couple of weeks back. There lies the difference. Blackpool fans must have held their head high despite their defeat and relegation because their team were punching above their weight. It’s not always about the results. It’s how we go about the business.
In my humble opinion, the manager has failed this season. That doesn’t mean he would fail next season too. He only needs to realise what went wrong and come back. I think he can. What matters is, if Roman also thinks he can. Losing all four key knockout matches won’t help Carlo in his discussions with Roman. On an overall basis, Roman should be convinced that Carlo is the man to take this club forward with league and european success and develop the Chelsea brand.
Hope we get some certainty on the manager situation from the club as soon as possible. If he stays, well then, “Buck up, Carlo, you gotta do a lot better next season”. If he goes, “Thanks for the memories, Carlo! All the best!”. Let’s wait and see!
Guys, Carlo has been sacked….
Yup, just checked on official website. Thanks for the memories, Carlo! All the best!
Ancelotti blames the loss on the fact that second-place was already secured before the game. Really ? I’ll tell you what, if you want to be Domestic & European champions in-the-making, there should really be NO excuse for losing to any 10-man team. Simple as that.
KTBFFH !!
who should be the next Chelsea manager then? i tip for Porto manager Boas.
Young, dynamic, attractive game-plan. He could be a better version of Jose himself. He was his student as well, so I´m sure he has aquired all the qualities Jose has. besides he just broke the record set by Jose in portugese liga, won 27-3-0, super cup and Europa league. Is he the ideal replacement? I think so. Andre Boas is the person we need.
Not Supporting chelsea ever again .. they are like an evil corporation sackin whoever whenever !
Regards from
INDIA -shan (AKA Ricky )
I believe if we make the mistake of keeping Ancelloti we will live to regret it. Check this out. Man City ended this season with the same points as we did, if we DARE think their target for next season will be to come 3rd then we must be fools and if we think the same crop of players and manager will do it we are closer to insane. Is it not said that it is insanity to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result? So except we are happy with the results we had this season we can continue with Ancelloti if we want a change he CAN NOT give us that. Simple.
Double in 1st season. 2nd place in 2nd season.
Sacked?
You’ve gotta be kidding me.
So Roman has thrown one of his toys out of the pram again. He’s a spoilt rich idiot of a man. I actually want him to sell the club, we are much better of without him. Maybe not financially, but I do not want to be a prostitute to his pathetic oil billions. In fact I would rather that Chelsea was a struggling club with integrity and the heart in the right place than being a victim of a rich idiots manic fantasies. All the rubbish his take over has brought is beginning to show and a lot of fans do not like it (check out Twitter f.ex it’s a clear indication of dissatisfaction).
The mentality that you just dispose of anything you don’t like is the symptoms of madman’s neurotic dispositions.
Chelsea was a proud club with true blue support, now it’s a lot of plastic fans and a mentality that you just buy new if what you’ve got isn’t working. There is very little respect for Chelsea outside the club and today’s disgraceful sacking of Ancelotti is not improving our reputation.
Consider who would actually want to be employed by Chelsea in the future after the last decade of boardroom blunders. Not all people are for sale, most people want to be wanted at their work place.
Guys, whats done cannot be undone. No one is happy that he was sacked so quickly. he deserved atleast a year more. But now the worst has happened, lets look for replacements.
yeah let’s replace that fucking idiot called Abramovic
look at inter milan, barcelona, Real Madrid; all the big clubs have big expectations. These clubs have invested millions to become and remain the best. They want results, and in terms of results, we have been really pathetic this season. The pressure is enormous for the hot seat, and it was expected. So don´t get too disappointed guys, Ancelotti had failed numerous times this season in tactical fronts. Since he came we never qualified for Semi-finals in CL as well. So may be management made a right decision. Lets carry on, and lets not be too emotional. A better, young, dynamic and tactically great guy is in the market. He too has had history at Chelsea since 2004-2007. Let´s get Boas, and i´m sure we all will be smiling for the next 3 years atleast.
Sacking ancelotti is purely strategic..pple are over emotional..ancelotti is not tactically gifted,i think he is too cool to inspire a team to victory..n the fact he prefers not to b involved in matters like player recruitment..makes him the wrong man in charge of a club in transition.
I’m the sort of guy who prefers intelligence to beautiful football (although, don’t get me wrong, the two can combine well together) and so the appointment of Ancelotti initially baffled me; the man was from the boring Serie A and was not known for his tactical prowess.
Still, he won us the Double in his very first season with us and that proves he needed at least another season with us on that merit alone. Winning two important trophies (not to mention two of varying formats) is no small feat and Ancelotti deserves full credit for what he did with us in the first season domestically. But you could notice the cracks appearing right from the time we lost both legs to Inter Milan at the hands of Mourinho. Tactics came up trumps against our “beautiful football”. That was exasperated by the loss of our experienced old-timers at the time of the off-season, our poor pre-season form and our horrible dip post-November.
Ancelotti has a beautiful Plan A. When it works, it works wonders. But there is an obvious lack of Plan B or Plan C and against tough opposition and the best in Europe, you really need to think of every permutation and combination in order to attain victory. It is for this reason we must look for a tactical manager; one who has different ideas to tackle a game. Although the way we’re firing our managers left, right and centre, it doesn’t look like we have many options.
Guus should be our priority, having said that. The man knows what he’s doing. But his sportsmanship means he’s reluctant to leave his current Turkey post half-way. Villas Boas might work. Van Gaal is pretty intelligent. Van Basten if all fails (Please NO Rijkaard or Grant !!)
I’ll sum things up by saying “Here we go again…”
KTBFFH !!
Lampard and the Blues.,
I agree with you on everything man, I was surprised at Ancelotti’s appointment as well, but I liked that he was low-key, an honest man, and controversy free.
But the man cannot influence a game! I cannot remember ONE substitution he made to alter the game. And his selection has caused us problems in certain games… Ferreira for CB against Sunderland comes to mind… what an embarrassment! His fate was sealed that night for me… Because Chelsea at Stamford Bridge should in no way lose to a mid-to-lower table team, no disrespect to Sunderland… Our home record has also been very poor these past two years. After being unbeaten at home for 4.5 years, we have lost several during Carlo’s reign. Losing to Newcastle, Everton, and Burnley to get knocked out of cups is also so frustrating and watching those matches, it was inevitable that Carlo was incapable of changing things.
I’m nervous about Ancelotti’s replacement, because the only manager being bandied by the media that I trust is Hiddink, and I don’t think he’ll break his Turkey contract, but I’m not to remorseful over Ancelotti. Thanks for last year, this year was a massive disappointment, best wishes for your future, and we’ll KTBFFH.