Will Anyone Have The Balls To Take Job At Chelsea?

By: Wayne Farry | February 9th, 2009

I’m not going to rehash over the details of Scolari being sacked. We all know why, pretty much, and Rob has covered it fucking brilliantly over the past few hours. Props to Rob for that.

After Rob put forward the theory of whether or not the new Chelsea manager can give them what they need, I’ve started thinking; who’s going to want this job anyway?

Okay, okay, someone’s going to take it inevitably. And it’ll probably be a huge name with a good track record. But the Chelsea job is not what it should be. The opportunity to pick up a disheveled club from the relative doldrums, buy some world class players, win the CL and/or win the EPL title again with the guarantee that if either of those competitions were won they’d go very close to hero status, should be an opportunity no manager would want to miss out on.

But whereas 2/3 years ago if a new manager came into takeover Chelsea they’d be given a bottomless bag of rubles to get who they wanted, nowadays it’s a lot different. Abramovich is obviously tightening the purse strings. He’s lowering the club’s expenditure, which he should be praised for, but only if his expectations lower as well. The reason Scolari was fired was because he couldn’t deliver results and in the long run it was, and is obvious that unless there are some major buys then this Chelsea team will eventually get old and die, without a recent title to its name. If, after Abramovich had given Scolari the funds that he did in the summer, he told him to simply consolidate, get to the CL, progress well in Europe this season and we’ll kick on next season, then we wouldn’t be here thinking about this stuff.

But Roman has clearly very unrealistic ambitions and it’s cost Scolari his job. It may also cost Chelsea the chance to get a top-class manager as a replacement. No manager in their right mind would want to take over at Stamford Bridge and be expected to perform miracles on limited funds. it simply can’t be done.

Today alone, 2 managers have appeared to pull out of the running for the job, Russia coach Guus Hiddink and former Inter coach Roberto Mancini. Hiddink was quickly installed as the favourite for the job when news broke of Scolari’s departure.

But, whilst in Turkey with the Russian squad for a training camp, the Dutchman had this to say;

“I have no news for you…

“I’m not concerned with what has been said about me elsewhere, I’m working here now.”

Not exactly a categorical ‘no’ but it’s not encouraging. I think that whoever takes the Chelsea job now will either need to have such incredible confidence that they believe they can rejuvenate an ageing squad and make bad players good (I’m looking at you Malouda) or will be a young manager wanting to further his reputation, even at the risk of it.

This, for me is where it could get interesting. For a world-class manager to take this job it presents many risks, such as the possible damage to one’s reputation (look at Scolari) but for a young manager still pretty much learning his trade this job looks far more promising. The Chelsea job would offer them the chance to take over a big club in the knowledge that if it does go pear-shaped, they have years to rebuild an even better reputation.

So, who has the balls to take this job? For me, it’s going to be the person who has the least to lose. Whom that may be however, is anyone’s guess.