Abramovich could lose close to $60 million if Chelsea doesn’t make the European Champions League next season and they need to finish in the top four to guarantee a berth. However, they now trail London neighbours Arsenal by three points in the race for fourth place.
Chelsea released a statement that said Villas-Boas and the club have parted company and they thanked him for his work. However, they also said the results and team performances were below par and the team hasn’t shown any sign of improvement under his management.
Roberto Di Matteo, who is currently a Chelsea coach and former player, has been appointed manager until the end of the campaign. He has previous management experience with West Brom and it will come in hand as the team is still in this season’s Champions League competition as well as the English FA Cup.
Villas-Boas took over in June from former manager Carlo Ancelotti, who was let go last season after failing to win a trophy even though he won the FA Cup and the Premier League the year before. Firing Ancelotti cost the club about $45 million in compensation and it’s going to cost it more money to get rid of Villas-Boas since he has two years left on his contract which pays him about $8 million a year.
Along with a string of bad results, including three wins in the last 12 games, the writing appeared to be on the wall for Villas-Boas since several of the club’s veteran players such as Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole, questioned his tactics in public. I n addition, he couldn’t get striker Fernando Torres to break his scoring slump. Torres cost the club a record $80 million dollars last year and he has now gone 22 straight games since last scoring in October.
Many Chelsea fans feel Abramovich made a mistake hiring Villas-Boas in the first place since he was hired with just two years of top level managerial experience behind him. He had an excellent season last year by winning four trophies with Porto of the Portuguese League. However, he was known at Chelsea since he spent a few years scouting for the team, leaving up until 2007.
Previous managers who were hired and fired by Abramovich since he bought the club in 2003 include Jose Mourinho, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Avram Grant, Guus Hiddink and Ancelotti. However, between them, they did manage to win three two League Cups, three FA Cups, and three Premier League titles.
The team hasn’t had much success in the Champions League though and it doesn’t look like it will this year either as they lost the first game of the knockout stage 3-1 to Napoli. The second leg of that series takes place in London in mid March. Di Matteo will take over in time for Chelsea’s FA Cup fifth-round replay in Birmingham on March 6.
Written by Ian Palmer via FeedCrossing
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