So who will be the next manager to play Russian Roulette with Abramovich?

  So Cheslea are in the headlines yet again and it's involving the search for a new manager after Andre Villas-Boas was sacked after defeat to West Brom on Saturday 3rd March 2012. Roman Abramovich is now looking to employ his 7th full time manager (for how long) since taking control of the club in 2003. Former player Roberto Di Matteo is in charge until the end of the season and has refused to answer questions on wanting the job on a longer basis. One question I have is why would he or any other top manager (Benitez included) want a job at the club? Where there is a high risk of not even surviving a season. What exactly is Abramovich looking for? He has hired a number of different types of manager, during his time.

Ancelotti June 2009 - May 2011

He has employed some of the most experienced manager's in the World game such as Carlo Ancelotti who has won some of the top prizes in Europoean football as a player and a manager. Luiz Felipe Scolari who took Brazil to World Cup triumph in 2002. These included with Avram Grant's reign as manager emass less than five years between them.Also they do pose an average win percentage of 61%, which would seem a very respectable statistic. 

Mourinho June 2004 - Sept 2007

  Abramovich has also tried the younger more on the up and modern type of manager that may play a more attractive style of football, this includes Jose Mourinho with 2 Premierleague titles, 2 League Cup's, F.A Cup, Community Shield and an overall win percentage of 67% to his name. But after challenging Abramovich to sack him, the Russian did so, bringing the most successful period in Chelsea's footballing history to an end. should Daniel Sturrige get the sack (just a thought) as a player after failing to take a couple of decent opportunities against West Brom, Villas Boas could do nothing about that but I have not heard him come out and claim he could and even should have done better with either situation. Maybe Villas-Boas would still be in a job this week? 

  So on to the man himself Andre Villas-Boas and his 8-9 month spell in charge, I have a lot of sympathy for him as I feel he as other managers was not given a fair chance to implement his way of thinking and tactics at the club. This is especially hard where you have an owner who wants to try and buy success (yes this did work briefly under Mourinho) but it is much harder to get the European Cup (eg Man City), especially when the one thing Cheslea are certainly not at the moment, a team. I mean it has taken a while for players to come out and shoulder some of the blame (1), because at the end of the day, Villas-Boas only purchased 3 players who have been used regularly in his squads (Mata, Meireles - summer, Cahill -Jan), the others have either played bit parts or been sent out on loan straight after signing. So many of the current squad are on there way to the latter of their careers or have been there, far to long under the Abramovich era.

Scolari June 2008 -Feb 2009

 Former player Tony Cascarino claimed "If it's player power that was a problem that definitely comes down to the manager," he told BBC Radio 5 live. He also said "He has to make that dressing room work and it was clearly not the case." This is made much harder to achieve when players have a bigger friendship with the owner of the club ahead of the manager, as Scolari suggests "Some things are known, like the relations with the owner, who has the relationship with some players before the coach," This cannot be a healthy way for the club to function. I felt Villas-Boas could have been good for the players that were around his age as they may well have had similar interests and modern ideas about the game(just an idea). Overall what Abramovich is trying to do in football is impossible if he wants continued success. He should be pleased that they are still (as things stand) in the Champions League and competing in the F.A Cup and in the challenge for those coverted top four places in the league, something they have done in the most part every year for the last 8-10 seasons at least. If Abramovich could at least keep someone for a good length of time they could be going through the cycles of success that the likes of Arsene Wenger has at Arsenal, Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and in a different phase David Moyes at Everton (please feel free to add others you think of) instead of giving managers massive payouts because they didnt achieve the desired success he craves which some of it I think is impossible to have all the time.

(1) http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea