Football Orphan: Chelsea still singing the Blues.
Chelsea now face an anxious do or die game against Valencia to save an otherwise dismal season. Last night’s poor showing at home to Liverpool in the Carling Cup gave AVB no relief whatsoever. The Portuguese rested some first team players while freshening up his team with some much needed youth. Still no dice. Chelsea were pedestrian at best. When the game was scoreless, Liverpool were even able to afford a missed penalty in the first half by Andy Carroll. When Chelsea finally went one down, it looked as though a difibrillator wouldn’t have resuscitated the west London club. I have staunchly defended the Chelsea manager while things have been less than favourable for him, but it’s hard to see how he can turn it around now.
I can only see one winner coming from the showdown with Valencia at the Bridge next week, followed by a less than favourable reference and his P45 being dispensed. Where on earth do Chelsea go from there you may ask? Guus Hiddink? Jose Mourinho? In short the answer is simply, no. When a club is desperate for success, the owner is insistent on “Sexy football”. The answer is so glaringly obvious that it could be easily missed. The man most capable of turning Chelsea’s fortunes around is Harry Redknapp. Not only will he anglicise the club and return a decent spine to the team, he is a master of the “Reversal of fortune”. He also has the invaluable experience of Champions League football with Tottenham. The only obstacle that will stand in the way of the man who refuses to be tagged a “Wheeler Dealer” is the upcoming opportunity to be the England national coach when Fabio Capello vacates the position after next summer’s Euro’s.
IF Roman Abramovich is sharpening the axe, he may just be about to able to hijack the move before the FA can get out of the blocks for negotiations. In my humble opinion, this may be potentially the best appointment the Russian will have ever made at the club. I know Mr Abramovich is an avid reader of footballorphan.com so I hope I am not directly held responsible for the heaping of pressure on AVB. I genuinely wish him a lucky break or two, and would love him to turn things around, but from where I’m standing it looks like we are fast approaching the point of no return.
Football Orphan 