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Villas-Boas dumped by Chelsea

Andres Villas-Boas (Getty)

Andres Villas-Boas is out as Chelsea manager.

The under-fire manager was dumped after Chelsea's loss to West Brom on Saturday, a defeat that dropped Chelsea to fifth place in the Premier League, in real danger of missing out on qualifying for the UEFA Champions League next season.

Roberto DiMatteo will take over on an interim basis, with a new manager expected to be appointed after the season.

In case you were wondering just how long Villas-Boas lasted as manager. He lasted barely two thirds of a season, joining Carlo Ancelotti, Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari on the scrap heap of managers bounced out of Chelsea after just a season or less in charge.

What do you think of the decision? Who do you see being the next coach to take the job? See Villas-Boas rebounding and having a great coaching career elsewhere?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I’m sure he is a good manager but your comment is what most perceive to be his problem. He and you think he is better than he is.

    Anyone that can’t compete with that roster is not a “very good manager”. His players make more in one week than every MLS roster and the guy still couldn’t win. All the guy had to do was show up and fill out a line up card with the talent on that roster and they probably be 3rd in the EPL right now. Instead he did the one thing that would cause him to fail which is run his mouth and piss off the guys that he needed to put it on the line for him. So no…he is not a very good manager. He is a good young manager who one day may become a great manager but not until he learns the #1 trait of being a great manager in any profession…Motivate instead of pissing off your work force!

    And your “just not right for Chelsea right now” comment means what? Wait until they get a team 99% of the managers in the world could win with and then put him in charge and he would be great.

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  2. I know this is a soccer board, but can anyone say George Steinbrenner?

    The problems at Chelsea go all the way from a sparse population of young players to an owner who can best be described as mettlesome. Mourhino left after multiple disagreements with Abramovich. None of the replacements have managed either the team or Abramovich as effectively.

    Mourhino is no Billy Martin and I mean that in a good way. I doubt he will be back at Chelsea!

    Any other coach might be happy for the paycheck and it will be a hefty one, no matter how short-lived the stay.

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  3. AVB came in talking revolution, but he needed a revolution of the roster to take place and patience from ownership and neither happened. End of story. Oh well, hope he goes back to Porto.

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  4. Everything here is spot-on. Nicely said. Honestly, AVB reminds me of Klinsmann, in a way. Trying to implement a system that just doesn’t really play to the strengths of the players at his disposal. At least against strong competition, Klinsmann figured out that a defense-first, counterattacking approach is the best way to go, and AVB also seemed to finally realize this back in early December (after a number of disappointing results) when Chelsea changed tactics in order to beat Man City. He was stubborn though, and insisted on his 4-3-3. As you noted, he either needed to get rid of the old guard and start afresh (and who knows, maybe he would have done that for next season), or adjust his tactics to fit the strengths of his players. A tough situation no matter what, really.

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  5. I’m a Chelsea fan, and as long as they keep that physio around (the lady), I don’t care who the manager is. 🙂

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  6. A few things nobody has mentioned:
    1. A manager is not just a tactician, he is also supposed to be a leader-that means young or old, you lead your team..he didnt do that
    2.I HATE John Terry, but you notice when he is in the game, their defense is so much more organized, even if his skills have diminished, and constantly shuffling people around him and putting people in the wrong position was another mistake
    3. Yes, Lamps is older, but once again, when he wasnt on the field Chelsea had NO flow to their game, no linkage between the boxes, and AVB constantly messed around with Lamps’ role and playing time- another terrible mistake
    4. It all comes to results, and only winning 17 of your last 40 games with that amount of talent shows that no results = no job….
    NO TICKEE…NO LAUNDRY….

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  7. In addition to being past their collective sell-by date, the old guard is apparently good at undermining their managers. They had a hand in running AVB off, and he’s not even the first. The inmates are running the asylum. One could probably justify letting them pull that nonsense if they were still in their primes, but they’re not.

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  8. He’s a “flounce in a suit?” Huh? I don’t think you know what “flounce” means…

    AVB is a very good manager, just not for Chelsea right now. He absolutely should’ve been given 100% control over his roster. Chelsea won’t win again because no manager they hire will ever be in complete control under Abramovich.

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  9. Sorry, but I don’t see why you’d get rid of Drogba. He’s had some injury problems, but he’s still a lethal finisher. I’d love to have that guy playing for my team.

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  10. Chatting with a friend last night about how long AVB would last and we agreed that for all the problems Arsne Wenger has had lately, he was great at the dictum “it’s better to sell a guy a year early than a year late”. There is no way Terry and lampard would still be at Chelsea.

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  11. Disagree. This guy is nothing more than a flounce in a nice suit. Good for him though. He will be laughing all the way to the bank and another club. AVB is the Portuguese version of Sven G Erickson. An empty suit.

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  12. I support Chelsea too but what yall arent saying is that these guys have regressed. Even if Lampard, Drogba & terry played every game they’d still be in the same spot because these players have regressed. Thats why people want strurridge and the younger players because they know that the “old guard” arent what they were 2 years ago. Forget terry , truth is weve never replaced carvalho, and we have no pure wingers besides crappy malouda. Funny how people trying to blame AVB when Ancelloti, a great coach had the same problems.

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  13. +1

    All these people saying dropped terry, dropped lampard, have you actually watched Chelsea this year?

    Cole has been great, Lampard has been better than all most of the other options in the center, and Drogba hasn’t been bad.

    What’s the point of randomly dropping all your best players to ‘build for the future’. Chelsea want results now, not to bring in players that’ll mature in 4 years.

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  14. I’m gonna speak on this, since Chelsea is actually the team I support in the EPL. AVB should have never been hired by Chelsea, which I said when he got hired. Yeah, he went undefeated in Portugal last season, but that’s Portugal, not Endland a whole different ball game. Abramovich is stupid, wasting all that money to get him away from Porto. Y’all can’t blame Terry, Lamps, & Drogba. Yeah, you want to try to transition the team or whatever, but you still have to play your BEST players. Terry is their BEST CB, Lamps is 1 of their BEST midfielders, better than Meireles, and Drogba is still 1 of their BEST forwards, Torres ain’t doint sh*t. You can’t just pull people out the lineup just because, when they are your best players. He didn’t buy in the summer and january, and didn’t sell everybody he supposeedly didn’t wan, his own fault. He also shot his self, repeatedly, in the foot in the press. Should have stuck with Ancelotti.

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  15. Villas Boas biggest mistake was playing a 4-3-3 system when he didnt have the players to do so. The only player that he brought in that could start was Mata.

    Let Chelsea play a 4-4-2 and see what happens. Let Mata play with the striker or the wing. Let Daniel play next to Didier. Let Lampard adn Essien run the midfield. Play David Luiz as a RB and let Bosingwa sit.

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  16. Those names are still worth something to MLS, Russian, and Middle Eastern clubs.

    A discount Torres is valuable. I’d buy him. My belief is that he just needs a team that gives him more space to run into, that runs and guns a bit more than Chelsea. Drogba was so successful because he’s a so good at holding the ball up and starting from dead zero. Torres likes to run.

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  17. It was their ineptitude to let the players control the team. The only manager that had control was Mou.

    Villas-Boas shot himself in the foot when he didnt get rid of malouda, anelka, Alex, Kalou Bosingwa in the summer. HE brought bench players like Meireles.

    There was no dept and of the young players only Ramirez, Daniel and Mata have shown that they can hang with the big boys.

    He installed a 4-3-3 whne he didnt have the players to run that system. He had no wingers and made Mata play the wing when he should be touching the ball more in the center of the field or behind the striker.

    Daniel is a forward playing the wing and right now is a shoot first pass second winger. Malouda doesnt have the skill, drive or speed to play a winger in a 4-3-3 system.

    The list goes on and on.

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  18. Well, you’re not going to get much for Torres, Lampard, Terry or Drogba.

    In fact, aside from Torres (of which would be a small amount now), I think you’d be hard pressed to get anything that resembles transfer funds for the “old guard”.

    That’s the point. Chelsea waited too long to rebuild.

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  19. AVB was brought in to guide Chelsea through a transitional period. Firing him and bringing in a new manager does not solve the fact that the new manager still has the same personnel to work with. Players like Lampard, Terry, and Drogba need to be phased out of the squad. They are at the tail end of their careers, and have at most 1 or 2 more effective years as role players at this level.

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  20. Everyone knows what the solution is.

    Sell Torres and the old guard. Use that money and Abra to start a new regime that isn’t decaying. The situation with Mourinho’s boys can only be described as awkward, although inevitable might be appropriate as well. Until there’s a younger, more vibrant squad selected by a coach who’s vision is different than Mourinho, Chelsea’s messed up.

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  21. That dude is going to have a nice buyout…huge contract, and only 1 year into a multiyear deal…AND he can get paid to coach elsewhere? Why is this bad?

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  22. “AVB was the right manager at the wrong time.”

    Read that earlier and it’s absolutely true. I think if the old-heads weren’t present, AVB was perfect for rebuilding Chelsea and infusing new blood into the ranks.

    However, his inexperience/inability to massage egos and manage personalities was his ultimate demise.

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  23. Agreed, until they get rid of the players who think they are in charge, there really is no point in hiring anyone. Terry, Lamps and Drogba are all on the decline but likely don’t think so, and aren’t going to help change the culture that would jepordize their place in the team

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  24. AVB got fired for the previous failings of managers to integrate more youth into the side.

    That Chelsea team has gotten old the last 5 years without any young players being brought through until this year. Naturally there was going to be growing pains and unfortunately AVB got blamed for them.

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  25. With five managers now in eight seasons, if they’re still having problems, they need to start looking beyond the manager. You can’t blame these managers alone for the club’s ineptitude.

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  26. I think if he would have dumped the “old guard” – Lampard, Drogba, Terry – AVB would still have a job (& they’d be a couple spots higher in the table).

    I don’t even think they would have had to find immediate replacements not currently on the roster, I think they have guys already there that can fill those roles.

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  27. This was inevitable. Ancelotti had a lot of the same problems last season(and no Mata) yet still guided the team to second.

    And AVB will be fine he is young and made enough money to wait for the right job to come along.

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