Roberto Di Matteo, the toast of West London. In his brief stint as Chelsea’s Interim Manager he has delivered the FA Cup and the long awaited Champions League, Chelsea’s first. At any other club in the world the chairmen would be hugging the quiet Italian tight and never letting him go. But this isn’t any other club, it’s Chelsea, and Di Matteo’s future still hangs in the balance.
In February last year, when Roberto Di Matteo was being relieved of his duties as West Brom manager, not even his most avid supporter could have predicted that he would be leading Chelsea to European glory just 15 months later. It’s partly this that makes his achievements at Stamford Bridge all the more astounding.
When Roberto was number two to Andre Villas Boas they looked a different team, one leg at home to Napoli away from crashing out of the very same European competition that they won in Munich this week.
Villas Boas leaves, Di Matteo is promoted and the team is transformed. The once tired-looking ‘old guard’ of Lampard, Drogba and the like look rejuvenated. £5Omillion flop Fernando Torres is suddenly performing AND finding the back of the net. Chelsea look world beaters. And now they sit proudly as European Champions.
It’s no secret that the Champions League has been priority number one for owner Roman Abramovich since he purchased the club. And they have come close. Semi Final heartache at the hands of Monaco, Liverpool and Barcelona, and that gut-wrenching loss on penalties in the final to Manchester United.
But after all of that waiting it’s Interim manager Di Matteo who has brought Roman Europe’s biggest prise. Roberto has succeeded where Avram Grant, Luis Felipe Scolari, Carlo Ancelotti and yes, even José Mourinho have failed.
That should illustrate what a monumental achievement this has been. Yet the word coming out of the Chelsea camp is that ‘no decision has been made’ on the future of their Interim boss. It could well be that delivering what is arguably the biggest prize in world football may not be enough for Roberto Di Matteo. How could this be?
We know that Abramovich likes a high profile manager, a ‘big name’. And that admittedly is not Di Matteo. His work at the MK Dons and West Brom is not the same as the Milan and the Porto and the Brazil that has littered the CV’s of Abramovich’s other appointments. When Abramovich wants to recruit somebody he wants it to be heard around the world, he wants to make waves. He wants a galactico.
This may be why the managers being linked with the post are established household names like Capello or Guardiola. But why would one of these well respected coaches want to mortgage their glistening reputations to try and do a passable job at Chelsea. Surely any well respected, experienced manager would look at this job and think “the last guy won the Champions League and wasn’t kept on, what am I supposed to do?”
The Chelsea doubters have been quick to say that Di Matteo’s European success had more than an element of luck and it’s easy to understand that thought process. Chelsea hardly saw the ball for two semi-final legs against Barca and one final against Bayern, yet somehow they came out on top.
Barca hit the word work repeatedly, Bayern squandered chance after chance that on any other night would have nestled in the back of the net. Two of the world’s best attacking players in Lionel Messi and Arjen Robben missed penalties. Someone, somewhere, wanted Chelsea to win it seems.
But those same doubters who thought that Chelsea were fortunate are probably the same people who take pride in telling you that this ‘is a results business’ as justification for when a manager is sacked. Well, if results and results alone are what count then Roberto Di Matteo couldn’t have done a lot more.
Only time will tell if Chelsea will see fit to appoint Di Matteo on a permanent basis. But they may have little alternative. Capello seems to have distanced himself from the job, Mourinho has signed a contract extension in Madrid, Guardiola is taking a break from the game. Chelsea’s options seem limited, even with Roman Abramovich behind them.
In truth we’re all in the same position as Roberto Di Matteo. All we can do is sit here and wait for an outcome, unable to influence the proceedings any further. He is in limbo, no closer to knowing the end of his Chelsea story than any of us. But if Chelsea don’t want the Italian as their manager then I’m sure there is a host of top clubs who will.
The real irony of the situation is that if Di Matteo had had this success at any other club in Europe then Roman Abramovich would be getting out that famous cheque book of his, hell bent on recruiting the man who could deliver the Champions League.