Di Matteo For Chelsea?

Last night Chelsea buried some demons as they defeated Barcelona at Stamford Bridge. The statistis were brutal in their assertion of Barca’s dominance and the theatrics of the likes of Drogba rolling on the floor, wasting time, often bordered on the farcical.

Nevertheless Chelsea earned a victory that resulted in my local pub awarding free pints to all its patrons in a marketing scheme gone wrong – so confident were they that Chelsea couldn’t win.

So how has this happened? How have a team that under Andre Villas-Boas could not guarantee a result in any competition forced such a turn around. Chelsea against all probability, given some of there performances, are still in the running for the FA Cup, the Champions League and a place in England’s elite top four.

Was the spark the loss of AVB, the rise of Di Matteo or the reclaiming of player power?

Under AVB Chelsea looked half the team they used to be, players like Lampard and Drogba were subdued and there seemed no desire to play. Questions were immediately leveled at AVB’s inexperience and his obvious comparison to Mourinho did him no favours either.

In my opinion AVB never had the dressing room. Although players like Mata and Ramires openly praised the effect AVB had on their career the old Chelsea backbone were never so glowing in their assertions. At one point it was suggested that AVB forced the team to celebrate with him on the sidelines and in watching this it was clear that there were those who were more and those who were less keen to show the solidarity between team and staff.

Despite constant claims that there is no system of player power at Chelsea it seems to be mentioned far too often for it not to be true in some way. There is no smoke without fire. The hardcore of Mourinho’s title winning teams run that football club, in my opinion, even down to the training regime.

How then has Di Matteo been able to wrestle this untamable beast into a prime team again? My thoughts behind it are, quite simply, that he hasn’t done anything.

AVB came in and was seemingly given the promise of a long-term plan or some kind of job security that made him believe, in the long term, that he didn’t have to rely on the old campaigners. It was this misplaced confidence in his position as the spearhead of a new dynasty that seemed to inspire the example he made of dropping Lampard. By all accounts his decisions went so spectacularly wrong that these assurances of time were reversed and he was sacked.

In came Di Matteo, the assistant, the second man. From this position of subservience does he really have the power or personality to complete what AVB attempted and create his own regime? Alternatively, does he learn from what he saw as the reason behind AVB’s downfall?

In my opinion it has been the latter, this is not disrespectful to Di Matteo, if anything it is the highest praise for his man management skills. Although nominally in charge it seems he has simply handed the reigns to those players who restricted AVB’s success. Under Di Matteo the likes of Drogba and Lampard seem to be flourishing, once more playing with a real desire that could drive them on to a brilliant season.

The Champions League from the beginning of Abramovich’s reign has been the ultimate goal and if Di Matteo some how manages to bring the trophy to Stamford Bridge it would seem there is no option but to offer him the job. In fact, given the change in form, even without silverware Di Matteo makes an excellent case for himself.

But, and there always is a but, if I am correct and rather than creating his own regime he is simply giving the power to the players ,then it is a system with a limited life span. These players can not go on forever and Chelsea, probably more than any other big team, needs an over haul of its squad if it is to ensure longevity in its successes; so with Abramovich poised to open up the cheque book, is Di Matteo the man to be put in charge of the next Chelsea dynasty?

He has seemingly wrestled the old guard from its apathy with unexpected success but does that make him the man for the job. Just because he has been able to massage the egos of an ageing Chelsea dressing room does that mean he is the man to establish a new Chelsea order that will ensure there presence around the top of world football in years to come?

To me he isn’t but with Abramovich at the helm anything can happen, whether it makes sense or not.