AVB inherited an aging team. Unfortunately i always considered it a massive mistake sacking Ancelotti. Ancelotti knew what squad he had, provided continuity, and would hopefully had a plan in place to bring in players and move the team on from the old guard.
AVB has come in and had little time to learn the side and see the gaps, identify the players he wants and build his own side.
Abramovich has brought about the downfall of the side he funded, with his meddling and removal of managers so the team has never had a proper plan to move forward.
Unfortunately, the owner can never be wrong. So the blame will lie with AVB and indeed, he could easily find himself out a job by the end of this season.
Personally i think he needs a full pre season, full transfer window and the backing to bring in at least 4 or 5 new faces.
If he still fails to improve Chelsea next season, then he would probably deserve the boot.
Don't get me wrong, I would gladly give AVB another season to rearrange the team, but I think Roman's patience has reached it's limits. Who knows though, maybe Abramovich finally realized he sacked a perfectly good manager (Ancelotti) way too early, and he'll learn from his mistakes.
Abramovich probably brought AVB in because he thought he could get an inexperienced young manager to dictate to. To control better and have less complaints about transfer dealings.
In essence i think Abramovich really wants to be the manager, but he would never admit it so he wants a figurehead, a puppet, that will go along with what he says.
AVB came in to a team that needed rebuilding and he will get the blame for Abramovich's meddling. The youngsters should have been in place several years ago to step up when the team finally went past its peak, but with the revolving door policy of managers it was never going to happen and now look- the club is damaged.
Not only that he can't just throw loads more money at it because of the Financial fair play regs. Too late.
Whatever happens now is going to take time to fix. So whoever is in charge at the opening of the transfer window, they need to stay there for a few years and build their team. Because it is going to take years now to fix this side.
I agree 100%. Sacking Ancelotti was a mistake. I don't think Roman has got it into his head yet that you can't buy the Champions League or get it in one season with a new manager. Sure look at City going out and all the money they have spent.
Well at least we have more of a chance than Arsenal. I can see us winning 2 or 3-0 but I say it's more likely that Napoli are going to score at least one.
Napoli is a great side, top players. Not sure if AVB or the aging squad is to blame, I would suspect it is the latter. Either case, sacking Ancelotti was a terrible mistake. Roman needs to be patient and give AVB another season to get players to replace the deadwood.
Who here is really surprised by this??(especially not chelsea fans)They have no passion, they have talent, NO PASSION..... I've been saying napoli is dangerous, and all I heard is blah blah, serie A sucks, cheaters. I think it's NOW time for the EPL to wake up and be competitive/because serie a is getting stronger and stronger(smell a couple of cl trophies in their future) Oh and BTW they should get rid of Drogba ASAP...he cares more about the camera than football...
... and Luiz, and Bosingwa, and Malouda, and Mikel, and Kalou, and Paulo. It's not a few players that need to be thrown out of the equation, it's a great portion of the squad. The only players I see worth keeping in the summer are Cole, Cahill, Ramires, Mata, Sturridge, Romeu, Lukaku, Ivanovic, Essien and Cech. The rest need to gtfo.
Don't know about Torres. It's hard to argue whether he sucks himself or the players he's surrounded by suck so bad
@ Domer25, you're bigging yourself up for no reason here, i don't think anyone who knows about football doubted how good Napoli's attack is, and anyone who has watched Chelsea this season has seen even the weakest of attacking teams cause them problems e.g Wigan. This result was expected by nearly everyone not just you and nobody said Serie A sucks, we're just pointing out that in previous years English teams have dominated and that we feel in the following years they will too, this season is one blip for English teams infact I can't even think of one top team who hasn't had atleast one major player missing, Spurs = King, Liverpool = Lucas, Suarez. Man Utd = Whole team. Arsenal = Wilshere and whole defence. Chelsea = Terry, Drogba. Even Man City had Kompany banned and Yaya at the African cup of nations- this makes them drop points vs teams they'd (mostly) usually beat. I'm making no excuses, this year the English teams (including my own) deserved to be knocked out for various reasons, i just really don't think the same thing will happen next year. Instead of talking lets just wait till next year, my prediction is that English teams will make it further than the Italian teams and maybe only Ac Milan will get to the same stage (before Barca and Madrid destroy everyone :P) @KayumaKiryu, Cavani used his shoulder to power it in, great goal!
I have followed Juventus for many, many years. Serie A is slowly reviving itself back to standards of the mid 90s. Ten years ago or so, it was very rocky and the scandal involving many top teams was the pinnacle of that. They seemed to have cleaned up their act and teams are getting stronger there now. Napoli were no where to be seen some years ago, Juve are back and AC Milan remain consistent. Inter also have a great team, let down by managerial madness. La Liga only has two teams, albeit very strong ones. European football can only get better when the Italian teams are back on form. English sides are arrogant, they aren't as good as they used to be, hence the surge of former mid table clubs like Spurs and you could even argue that case for Newcastle.
No league is better there just differnt. EPL is more exciting than any other league. Serie A - more defensive, La Liga - more open, Bundesliga - Very tight and interesting. To say one is better than the other when they are so differnt is arrogant and shows you know nothing about football.
I think we should all take a moment to say goodbye to AVB.
The real question is, Will he be sacked before the 2nd leg?
i hate how chelsea only plays at their best against the big teams. the only one who played great this match was mata.
wow, this this is shameful.
Well at least we have more of a chance than Arsenal. I can see us winning 2 or 3-0 but I say it's more likely that Napoli are going to score at least one.