Time Running Out for Andre Villas-Boas at Chelsea


Chelsea had a 3-0 lead over Manchester United in their Premier League clash just over a week ago, but somehow (Howard Webb?) managed to only manage a 3-3 draw, and instead of getting a new boost to their 2011-2012 campaign, Andre Villas-Boas looks more and more like the man to pay for this very disappointing season so far.

Roman Abramovich doesn’t usually take too much interest in the club’s training, but the 2-0 defeat against Everton and the fact that Chelsea haven’t won in four Premier League games have the Russian owner worried, and he has made his presence felt recently, which obviously has caused some stirrings in the club.

But while Abramovich tried to make it look like he’s 100% behind his young Portuguese manager during his first season outside of Portugal as a head coach, a summit conducted with the manager and players at hand turned out to be a heated exchange in front of Abramovich, proving just how bad things at Stamford Bridge really are. Abramovich was blaming the players when they hit back, accusing the manager, tactics and training for the team’s situation (5th in the table, 10 points behind 3rd placed Tottenham).

According to a source at the club – The players stuck with AVB until the New Year because they realise he was under orders to change things. But his plans are obviously not working, the atmosphere in the dressing room is tense and more and more players are beginning to wonder if he’s the right man for the job. It’s reached a stage where many of them don’t care whether he’s there or not. No one foresaw this situation – but the results simply aren’t there and he’s suffering because of them.

I think it was very clear from Day 1 that Villas-Boas was planning to revolutionize the team, and it looked to be working out rather well earlier on, but as the losses started piling and Villas-Boas became more of a tinkerer with the lineups, things haven’t been able to improve. AVB was probably thinking of a Latin-like team, but he gave up on the physicality that made Chelsea so successful under Abramovich.

Without bringing in the needed talent to fit his footballing vision, except for Juan Mata who has been one of the few bright spots in my opinion, Villas-Boas’ “revolution” has no chance of success, especially with a short-tempered owner, who has had seven managers in the last eight seasons, that doesn’t seem to be a man having the patience for a rebuilding process.

 


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