Arsenal on the decline...

Its almost like a perfect storm, when anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

I always hesitate to write a  negative post on Arsene Wenger. I have a lot of respect for the French manager who has brought to football fans an attacking brand of football that has inspired coaches all over the world. Its pretty football, easy on the eyes but not always effective enough.

But recent developments have left Arsenal fans exasperated. It is too early in the season to predict if they will finish out of the top four (an unthinkable prospect since Wenger took over) but the signs are ominous. Arsene surely must take the blame for some poor managment decisions.

1.) No Fabregas, Nasri and Clichy... the latter two lost to Man City (closest competitors these days), Fabregas a crybaby demanding a Catalan reunion which smacks of childishness in my opinion. Wenger should have seen it coming, he should have sought replacements early in the window, he hesitated, Arsenal become the big losers, Barcelona and Man City got themselves fair bargains.

2.) Arteta, Benayoun, Mertesacker, Gervinho and Santos are not the typical A-listers Arsenal fans are looking for. For Arsenal, a morale boost was required, a big signing could have given this team a much needed lift... Arsene could have done well to sign a Eden Hazard or Gary Cahill.

3.) Arsenal just lost their best defender Vermaelen to surgery. Bad luck maybe but Arsene should have strengthened the backline a whole lot better. It is obvious Koscielny, Djourou and Squillaci are not BPL-standard central defenders. The 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford was a kind reminder by his old "friend"... Alex Ferguson.

4.) An inexperienced and paper thin squad. He failed to add even though it was plain obvious to everyone else that the team was uninspiring. The youth policy was meant to bed youngsters, but throwing them onto the field with no leader, no brute (i.e Tony Adams, Martin Keown) meant the team was bound to cut up by a rampant Man Utd.

5.) Money not reinvested meant fans will never be appeased. Losing the club captain and charismatic playmaker are big blows to the fan. It will have helped the fans to accpet the loss by spending on a star in the making like Eden Hazard or Marvin Martin, Arsene held back, the opportunity is lost to turn a crisis into a victory.

I hope Arsene Wenger could turn this around. He has never been tested on such a scale before, I hope he gets through it unscathed.

Why Liverpool is in danger of losing everything.

Poor management.

And I don't mean the manager, I mean the people in charge in the boardroom.

How does allowing Roy Hodgson to leave at such an early stage in the season do anything to help the cause?

You think Kenny Daglish is going to change anything in the short term?

The problems inherent at Liverpool is that the team is simply not good enough, they are not a great team whereas Tottenham and Man City are building great teams. Secondly, they are way too thin on reserves, other than Torres and Gerrard and maybe Kuyt and Reina, the squad is lacking quality.

So, sacking the manager is NOT going to help. The Liverpool fans are not going to be appeased this season, no way should they be expecting a rousing finish. It is going to be a long rebuilding process, since the days of Rafa Benitez's era of overspending on poor players. No youth players coming up, injuries along the season, impatient and over-eager fanbase, this is a nightmare scenario for King Kenny. He could be fighting a potential relegation battle. We all know how things go in a downward spiral way too quickly.

One of the biggest mistakes made when Newcastle got relegated was releasing Sam Allardyce, and thought that a cult hero in Alan Shearer will lift the spirits of the club.

A club like Liverpool needs stability at the top, and I thought Roy Hodgson was unfairly and prematurely denied his time to do things his way, the Kop didn't allow him and I feel the Kop got it wrong.

Time to go, Roy Hodgson?

I will leave this as an open-ended question and reserve my Mancunian comments for later.

Is it time for Roy Hodgson to leave? Has the Liverpool fans seen enough? Are the new owners losing their patience quickly?

What do you think?

Love to hear from the Liverpool fans.

Benitez gets the sack.

So Rafa Benitez gets the sack. Boohoohoo... no one is crying.

I reckon this piece of news is the best Christmas gift Inter Milan fans will get.

I wondered why he was even appointed Inter coach in the first place, obviously he has caused Inter to go from European champions to their current dismal state in the Serie A.

Be some time before Rafa Benitez finds his new club, there are a few available places... West Ham? Blackburn? or maybe Woodlands Wellington?

Tribute to Alex Ferguson

As Sir Alex celebrates his 24 year reign at Old Trafford, I salute the man who remains one of my favourite heroes in football.

Sir Alex alone defined the Man Utd of today; he created a superclub of football clubs. We have come to identify with Sir Alex's ingenue when it comes to footballing tactics and player management. And we have seen his astute eye for talent, from Eric Cantona to Cristiano Ronaldo.

In the same breath, we have also come to terms with Sir Alex's fiery Scottish temper, and the infamous "hairdryer" treatment he dishes out when he demands more from his beloved team. of course, there were the politics at a big club which he handled admirably. Call him an ironfist at Man Utd all you want, but he has the record to prove he is the most successful manager modern football has ever seen in his trophy-laden 24 years at the helm of Man Utd.

There are many pretenders to the label of "best manager" today, not least Jose Mourinho who has won at every club he went to. But Jose had the benefit of riches from Russian tycoons and Spanish monarchs, while Sir Alex built a club on youth policy and banked on local heroes like Bryan Robson, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs. It was a touch of masterclass that saw him bring on Eric Cantona, Ronaldo or even Wayne Rooney that will add that extra bit of world class to the rampaging Red Machine of Manchester. It was Alex Ferguson who made Man Utd a world phenomenon of free flowing football, passion and the enduring commitment to be the best.

Who will replace the Grandmaster at the hotseat waiting to be filled when one day Sir Alex shall finally step down. It is anybody's guess but it is hard to fathom what big shoes the new manager will have to fill in. Will he ever be good enough? For surely he must lack in some area Sir Alex has achieved in abundance; PR skills, player management, tactical acumen, risk-taker, drill seargeant, cheerleader, mentor, coach, disciplinarian, father, the gaffer...

Sir Alex shall remain in the folklore of Manchester United as long as the club shall exist. And he obviously is not quite finished yet.

Instinct

Sometimes in life, you don't have the luxury of time when making a decision or analyzing a situation.

That's when you trust your instincts. It is an acumen that is unique to the most successful and favours the courageous. It doesn't come overnight of course, it comes through trained foresight overtime, experience, talent and sometimes luck.

The best soldiers have it, the most brilliant investors have it, the highly skilled doctors have it too.

The recent acquisition of Bebe, the Portugese street footballer by Sir Alex Ferguson is a prime example of that. Who is going to bet against a manger who discovered Giggs, Scholes, Ronaldo, Rooney, Beckham, Nevilles etc. and groomed them to stardom.

From time to time, instinct fails you. (i.e. African flops Manucho, Djemba Djemba, Brazilian disappointment Kleberson, unhappy Argentine Veron, the Italian clown Massimo Taibi.) but more often than not, instinct brought him more good than bad (see above names again).

"Sometimes you have to go on an instinct, you look at material, you look at the player's age and whether they're bringing pace, balance, desire to play and things like that. That's how a category is formed." Sir Alex Ferguson

Trust your instincts.

Is Roy Hodgson the one?

Some news to distract all serious football fans from the World Cup.

Is Roy Hodgson the man to lead Liverpool forward?

Well, I think for some fans, this will come as a shock to their system. Especially those who have come to expect a Gerard Houllier or Rafa Benitez; managers who stimulate the affections of the Kop at the start but fade quickly in two seasons.

But clearly, the board is taking on a new direction in employing perhaps a wiser and older British manager, one that is pretty shrewd, experienced yes... but probably has no major credentials on his honour roll... yet.

It is way too early to speculate if Roy is the man for the job, but this could well be a step in the right direction for Liverpool. For one, his job must be to hold on to what remnants he has in the dressing room and convince Fernando Torres that he is an ambitious manager.

Two, he needs to find some young British talent from lower divisions and bring them into an ageing and shallow squad. It is a challenge for him to harness his scouting network to look for rare gems in unexpected places; but that he did manage to pick out for Fulham during his time at Craven Cottage, just to name a few... Dickson Etuhu, Clint Dempsey, Brande Hangeland etc. considering Liverpool has little funds to compete with the big boys. Won't be surprised if Etuhu joins to replace a certain-to-leave Javier Mascherano.

I think the coming season is a season of consolidation for Liverpool and Roy Hodgson is the man for the job. Fulham did manage to consolidate a respectable position in the BPL despite being low on transfer funds when he was in charge.

Boring boring Liverpool might just be the pragmatic step forward for the most successful club in English football. *shrugs*

Bye bye Rafa ??

Is it finally goodbye to Rafa for Liverpool fans?

Looks likely. The owners are eager to get rid of him and Rafa looks forlorn and beaten.

The fans who stood by him are no longer so sure of his capabilities to return the club to the glory days of yester-years.

Rafa is starting to lose his dressing room as well, with rumors flying all over of unsettled players and unhappy campers.

It is time for change at Liverpool Football Club.

Whispers are growing in volume that King Kenny Daglish will be taking over as temp manager. I say that is a right move forward for a club which used to pride themselves in British talent... badly missed under the reign of Rafa.

Ah... "You never walk alone"... ...

Looks like Rafa is facing the dreaded walk alone... out of Anfield.

The Special One is indeed special.

A man so arrogant yet so charismatic. He shares a love-hate relationship with the media and footballing paparazzi, he is well loved by fans on his side, but so detestable to fans of opposing teams. He is blunt, yet his words are strangely prophetic and wise, in the footballing sense that is. He is unafraid of any opponent, yet he respects all opponents. He plays boring football at times, but hey... they reap fantastic results.

Such is Jose Mourinho, the self proclaimed Special One. It is that undeniable charisma of a man who has led a struggling Italian giant in its European campaign to attaining European glory in just over two years, above and beyond the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich. He has single handedly put Serie A back on the world map of footballing dynasties.

I don't quite think Jose achieved his best at Chelsea. He was sacked prematurely. To me, Jose didn't believe in beautiful soccer, he believed in intelligent football and Chelski under its Russian owner wanted Joga Bonito. Alas, Jose proved he is no fluke when he first won the coveted European trophy with FC Porto.

If anyone should deny Jose the honor of being called the Special One in managing footballing teams, they should really look at his record, 2 European trophies already, multiple championships in various countries, that is a track record of success. No one likes a loudmouth, worse; no one likes a loudmouth that actually attains what he says he can.

To be the best that ever lived is one claim that Jose will have the rest of his career to live up to but boy... never has anyone in his generation coming closer to that than Jose himself. And guess what, he gets to steady the ship at the ultra entertaining but substance-lacking circus of football clubs; Real Madrid.

Will Jose get the best out of Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema, Alonso and Raul? Don't bet against it.

Swimming with the sharks.

The BPL is one of the toughest leagues in the world... and it is so for a reason. There is no learning curve, you get thrown in with the sharks and you are expected to swim faster.

The BPL also showcases the gulf between the naive managers from the wily old ones. Zola of West Ham and Roberto Martinez of Wigan reminds us why it took Sir Alex so many years to establish his reign at the top of the pile. It is great to play pretty football but when the rubber hits the road, you've got to play ugly to survive. That is what Sam Allardyce, Mick McCarthy and Tony Pulis know and that has seen their teams win crucial matches for relegation battle's survival of the fittest. Portsmouth and Burnley are going down.

With a shrewd and battle hardened manager like Iain Dowie now in charge at Hull City, you will feel that they always have a fighting chance.

Will West Ham get relegated? I fear so. Will Wigan get dragged in as well. I think so. There is no place for naive management in the BPL. A certain Rafa Benitez at Merseyside should also take note of that.

GG knows nothing.

Yes, all beloved Liverpool fans who are reading this. I am sure by now, you should have realised just how bad this season is going to be. The good news is Benitez isn't going... ...

And guess what, his owner has come out to back him. George Gillett or affectionately known here at thesoccertalk as GG (Gigi) has come out to defend his manager who has come under heavy fire from pundits, commentators, fans and every ex-player who bothers to say something. Benitez just cannot pay his ass off for a win these days. His players are not responding to a war cry synonomous with Liverpool football club, and his warrior in chiefs, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres are obviously feeling the strain, they are crumbling with injuries too often now...

What in the world is Liverpool up to? That drive, that determination, that hunger is lost on the players... and only a fool will deny that Benitez is responsible at least to a certain degree of what is happening. Sure, he hasn't got much to spend, but he spent a helluva lot of money on one clumsy right back now, called Glen Johnson. Too much in my opinion even if Glen was great last season. Benitez is a whiny pig, I wish Liverpool fans realise how much they got to lose by keeping him. Frankly, I don't like his chances of lifting Liverpool up to the lofty heights it achieved last season. He is a "nearly" man, and so often than not, the "nearly" man has been depending on his Champs League glory years to back himself up.

And who the heck is GG to talk about football. He is a Yankee whose home sport is baseball, basketball and American style football, not the beautiful game we are talking about here. GG says Benitez is one of the top five mangers in the world.... pfft.... not by his predicament now... no way !! I could easily count five managers way ahead of Benitez in the craft of management. The five untouchables... Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Fabio Capello and Pep Guardiola... and I betcha Roy Hodgson, Carlo Ancelotti, Guus Hiddink, Steve Bruce and Frank Rijkaard can outdo Benitez any day with the resources and the fan base Liverpool has. How about local legends like Kenny Daglish and Kevin Keegan?

Eat your words GG, you shouldn't even talk about soccer. Just keep watching that debt you are running sky high for the club...

Hughesy gets the sack

Saw it coming.

Man City's owners make what has long been predicted in my last post on Man City. Mark Hughes will get the sack before the end of the season. Only thing is no one expected it to be that soon.

Hughes was never the big name manager that Man City's lofty ambitions demand. Even if he had won most of his games, his pedigree as a Blackburn manager was never going to convince the big spending owners. What they were looking for was a marquee name, that could galvanise a dressing room full of egos, whether Robinho or Adebayor.

Mancini might not be that fantastic a name as well, but the Italian has got himself some credit for winning the Scudetto and having quell a team full of egos himself when at Inter Milan. For the Man City fans, this could be the beginning of a Chelsea whirlwind ala Roman Abramovich style. Manager turnovers, new signings and potential misfits, expensive flops.

Mark Hughes can only blame timing, he could have built himself a dynasty but the owners these days have little patience for building a soccer club. They want instant success and that in itself is contrary to a dynasty. Unless Mancini is as strong a tactician, character and influence in the dressing room as Jose Mourinho and deliver consistency as Jose incredibly did in his first season, I seriously doubt he will survive next season.

Time's up?

The curtains for Champions League football this year falls early for Liverpool. Winning 1-0 against Hungarian opponents Debrecen was a useless stat as they fail to qualify for the 2nd round.

Its a shame that Liverpool, traditional European powerhouses are knocked out so early in the competition. It wasn't so long ago that Rafa Benitez was deemed the saviour of Liverpool football club having won the Champions League in a dramatic comeback win. Things have obviously moved on, and Liverpool has been on a journey of ups and downs. Last year was more of an up as they challenged for the BPL crown and almost got it had it not been for a dip in form mid-season. This year is a terrible start for the Kop faithful. Unable to win domestically, their poor form had even affected their usual dominance in European football. It is one of the lowest points for all Liverpool fans.

Truth is, is it time for Rafa Benitez to go? Sure, we should not put all the blame on the manager. Afterall, he has had bad luck, losing Torres and Gerrard to injuries this season. But can he blame his luck? We all know the failure to plan is a plan to failure. As a seasoned manager who knows how important it is to have able backups for key positions, he has not done reasonably well enough to cover up the holes upfront. Without Gerrard and Torres, Liverpool is thin and toothless. Whatever happened to Kuyt? He is left on the right these days. Only Rafa knows how to misplace players from their best positions.

Robbie Keane will be so useful backing Gerrard up, but Rafa didn't see it that way. Alonso will not have left if Rafa did not condemn him before he shone in the heart of midfield. 20 million for a right back is debatable by any standard of spending by a manager. The owners meanwhile get lambasted by the Kop faithful for spending little. Well, the stats show that Rafa had been the spendthrift. The reserves are dry because the Spainard had spent on misfits like Babel, Degen, Dossena and now maybe Aquilani. He got rid of a class player like Robbie Keane and God knows why he let go of Bellamy who could have given him great wing play. Mark Hughes demonstrates how to use Bellamy effectively on the wing at Man City, something Rafa never saw.

Rafa has also done little to develop the Liverpool youngsters. How many Liverpool youth academy players can you mouth off now, considering Man Utd has got players like Fletcher, O'Shea, Brown, Evans, Welbeck and Macheda playing regularly for Man Utd, having been groomed at Man Utd's Academy. Disappointing really for a club of Liverpool stature that had produced greats like Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Jason McAteer, Jamie Redknapp, Steve McManaman and many others.

Has Rafa lost the plot? He might have won the Champions League and came close to pipping Man Utd, but reputation counts for little at times when a fresh change might ignite new ideas and renewed vigour. Think Guus Hiddink or maybe the Special One Jose Mourinho (boy, will that be an explosive relationship...)

Well, the Liverpool faithful are not complaining, so why should a Man Utd supporter worry?

Unpopular Managers

The job of a soccer manager often times highlight what every organizational leader goes through. Decision making, power control, man management, motivation, playing the right cards at the right time, handling media pressure, public relation skills.... these are all the crucial elements that make up a good manager. Truth be told, these are the same for every other leader in his/her organization.

The most crucial thing about a manager's job is this... he leads and he makes decisons. He cannot and will never be liked by everybody whether directly or indirectly involved in his work. Why? Because a manager makes hard decisions, and like it or not, any decision he makes is going to be unpopular with somebody.

What do you think the pressure was on Alex Ferguson when he chose to sell the star of Man Utd, David Beckham? Probably excruciating pressure from the whole club plus the fans plus the media and maybe even his own wife. Everyone will have questioned Sir Alex for selling Brand Beckham who was the most profitable sports figure and the future captain of England at that time. But I don't see Sir Alex flinching; he probably wasn't a 100% sure at that time that it was going to be the right choice but he made the decision for the benefit of the club and based it on his vision of a winning team... and that quite frankly was that. Nobody was going to change his mind once he made it up. Today, no one can question his decision, because more than being European and English champions... Man Utd remains the richest club in world football. Sir Alex is not the most popular man in football but who can question his success?

The job of a soccer manager is for a certain type of people. And you will agree with me that every one of them had made and will continue to make unpopular decisions. If there ever is a Mr Nice Guy and Mr Everybody Loves Him among football managers, please point him out because I will like to prove you otherwise.

If you wish to be liked by everyone, then you probably cannot consider "soccer manager" as a profession. May I even boldly suggest this... if you wish to be liked by everyone, you probably won't make the most effective leader in your organization because the truth is... a leader in a team/organization is placed there to make decisions for the benefit of the team and if his unpopularity with his opposers is something he must pay, then he will gladly pay it. Managers and leaders who have earned their success this way... by earning the highest level of respect for sticking to a mantra few will find it a tad too much to take... you are a rare breed.

Oh, the things pressure do to you...

I don't admire the jobs of managers at top football clubs. They have a demanding job. And I mean it.

Look at Joe Kinnear, the caretaker coach of Newcastle United for most of the season. The ginormous task of saving The Toon Army coupled with his critics' close scrutiny probably triggered his heart attack. Most of you should remember his once in a lifetime press conference when he went mad and spewed "f**k" no less than 20 times at reporters who condemned his "average joe" abilities. A sign of mental breakdown maybe? That probably culminated to his poor health. Get well soon Joe.

The manager doesn't just get it from the media. How about the recent Arsene Wenger saga? Poor Arsene who really has nothing to prove to anyone these days got a mouthful from his own fans who cannot believe they have not won anything this year (as if it was a big shock in the first place). A typical Frenchman's reaction you would expect; Wenger threatened to leave the club... which immediately got everyone involved to shut up and realise they have offended the one man who held and still holds the club together. Oh come on, spare the manager some slack... Arsenal had already overachieved with a paper thin squad this season. What else could he do with a team of kids? They could only get better next season with a few additional signings.

How about the whiney whiney Spainard at Merseyside? I smell the distinct stink of sour grapes at Anfield. If you watched the interview of Benitez at the end of the match between West Brom and Liverpool, you would have turned away in disgust at the manager's childish antics. As if Alex Ferguson did anything that caused him to make so many mistakes in the season... as if Fergie was the culprit behind the failure of Liverpool to be trophyless again this season. Come on Rafa, has the pressure gotten to your brain so much that you are punching at shadows now? While I see extensions of gentlemen behavior and congragulatory comments from Liverpool fans all over the world, their manager is sadly not man enough to stand up to his mistakes nor did he have the balls to acknowledge that he had been pipped by a better man in Sir Alex. Boo... .... shame shame...

Why not take a leaf out of Arsene Wenger's book Rafa? Pay your opponents some respect... stop whining and start competing. If you can't take the pressure of a Top Four Club, take your bow and leave gracefully.

Benitez, Please Shut Your Trap!

If you have been reading the news, you will have read that Benitez is continuing his little feud of words with Alex Ferguson. Benitez has continued on to attribute Liverpool's lack of silverware to Liverpool's lack of financial ability as compared to Manchester United. Benitez is behaving like a sore loser who refuses to lose (graciously) with his integrity and honour intact, taking Liverpool down together with him by refusing to congratulate Alex Ferguson graciously.

Listening and reading all these makes me sad to be a Liverpool fan, as we have a sore loser at the helm. Liverpool is a club of long and great tradition. In my earlier posts, I have spoken about what a true champion is and yet, the club I faithfully support is behaving the direct opposite of that.

Mr. Benitez, think before you speak and learn to SHUT UP! It is not about how much money you have. Liverpool have spent a great deal of money on transfers since your arrival. Probably to the same extent as Manchester United or even more. We have quality players all throughout the squad. However, it is your crazy antics that is causing Liverpool the lack of success. Even more so, we have not exactly lost, we just have not won. We do not go around being sarcastic and whine about our lack of success to the media.

This season has been a great season for Liverpool because for so many years, we have been serious title contenders and I was looking forward to Liverpool finally winning the Premier League. However, a turn of events mid-season has cost us the lead and crucial points. Next season, we can expect Arsenal to challenge the title as their players mature and we can also expect Chelsea and Man City to splurge and probably bring in established stars. What are we (Liverpool) going to do then? Are we going to continue to whine about how other teams have more stars or more money than us? Are we going to sit there and cry and say that we do not have stars sitting on our bench while Manchester United have people like Berbatov as a substitute? No....We need to strengthen our existing squad by firstly, playing our game right at every match. We need to seriously consider and recruit players that will help increase depth in our squad so we can challenge not only the Premier League but other competitions too.

Liverpool needs focus. Liverpool needs to have a plan. Benitez needs to stop being a whiner and start being a winner. A true champion loses with his head held high. As long as we play our game right, winning or losing is no longer something that we should be concerned with. Perfection is our game and we need to work towards that. Live up to the Liverpool's tradition Mr. Benitez. Walk and talk like a Champion. Before we can be champions, we need to learn not only to lose but lose like a champion.

20 years down the road, no normal fan will remember who won the league title in 2009 or the champions league in 2009. People will remember the club and team not for the silverware achievements but for something beyond trophies. People will remember the club and team for their legacy. Continue the legacy of Liverpool and Liverpool shall remain a great club for a long time to come.

Who will be the next manager of Chelsea?

Million dollar question: Now that Guus Hiddink is gone, who will be the next manager of Chelsea?

We all know the fickle-mindedness of Chelsea club owner Roman Abramovich, When he first came in, he sacked Claudio Ranieri when the Italian has been doing well, and consequently sacked 2 more world class coaches in Jose Mourinho and Luis Felipe Scolari. Frankly, with Roman at the club, expect a few more sacks in the next few seasons... the owner has no sense of what it means to run a successful football club. If all he needed was an obvious clue, just look at the current BPL champions Man Utd, Arsenal not so long ago, and the Liverpool of the 80s. Dynasties are built into a club from the youth system, and longevity of the manager is crucial in seeing the vision of the club come to past. No prize for guessing why Sir Alex and Arsene Wenger have been 2 of the more successful managers in club history; they were trusted to do their job.

Even though it looks increasingly likely that Carlo Ancelotti is the top pick for the Chelsea job, I highly doubt he will do a good job. Why? Because Chelsea is a players' club; John Terry, Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba have too much say at the club. A manager who cannot communicate in English, lest motivate this gang inherited from Mourinho cannot succeed in getting the best out of them. Look at Scolari, his English wasn't that bad, but he couldn't get along with the players and that cost him his job. Hiddink did relatively well because he probably is the most affable and likeable man in football, look at him motivate and guide his moderate players from all over the world to greatness in World Cups, from South Korea to Australia to now Russia.

No manager will succeed unless his players back him up. IF Carlo Ancelotti signs eventually, he needs to rid the players who are still stuck in the age of Jose Mourinho and bring in his trusted subjects. Sell Drogba, exchange him for Inter want-away Ibrahimovich. Sell Ballack, bring in Pirlo. Sell Malouda, bring in Kaka. Revive the magician in Deco, bring out the best in Bosingwa, Essien and Anelka. Build on the respect of Terry and Lampard, recognize they are indispensable and club motivators, command the tactics to be used but trust the execution with them. Hire a proven footballing mind to be the director of football; who is solely responsible for building the youth system.

But the hardest part of it all? Getting the clueless owner to leave you to do your job. Unless Abramovich retains his powers to just signing chequebooks for the club, Chelsea will forever be stuck in the group of has-beens and rich owner football clubs. Their fortunes will end with Abramovich's short-lived and shallow interests.