Claudio Ranieri should be hired as chief scout. Always liked Claudio and he'd be great in that role as chief scout - he knows players and he knows different leagues. As a manager there are issues - but as a scout - he has talent. He is a very nice bloke as well. An evil-thunderbird puppet no more. . .
The core of the Chelsea team which won two Premier League titles under Mourinho, including John Terry, Petr Cech, Arjen Robben, Gallas, Makalele and Frank Lampard were all brought to Chelsea or nurtured by Ranieri. He has an eye for picking players and for nurturing talent. Not sure multiple top-level clubs were after Frank Lampard to be honest. Claudio Ranieri has talent imho.
From the Daily Fail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-bid-Gianfranco-Zola-join-backroom-staff.html Chelsea remain hopeful they can entice Zola to fill the void between the players and management. Interim boss Roberto di Matteo and his No 2 Eddie Newton are unlikely to stay on at Chelsea under the new manager. [even if he wins the Champions League I wonder? - total long shot I know]
http://www.carefreechronicles.com/2012/03/di-matteo-and-squad-rotation-statistics.html interesting read
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/mar/29/petr-cech-chelsea-andre-villas-boas The Guardian speculating on who AVB would have cleared out not sure there is much foundation to the article which still wants to hide the shortcomings of AVB behind an enviroment of rampant player power
This would have been a disaster had it happened. you do these sort of stuff in 3-4 seasons... replacing each area slowly... didn't we learn our lesson already, remember the "bad moment" in Carlo's reign which was the result of too many first team players being sold at once without true and tested replacements.
Change management – for sure – it is a necessity and it has been for a while at Chelsea. WE are in need of some change. Change imho should be constant and gradual. Always bringing in new coaches, new players, new ideas, etc and always letting some of the old guard go– some but not all. Balance. There have been some huge errors made at Chelsea recently and some huge errors made by the media – Lampard and Cole are finished, over, no good anymore, etc. The reality is some of our older players are very fit, very professional, still quick footed and still have plenty to offer to the squad – if not the first team. Some others – Malouda – should have left a while ago. Been replaced by a quick winger. We all knew this – we have all been saying it for some time. I wonder what the argument is between Cole and Malouda is. I am just not buying too much into player power to be honest. I think AVB at 34 was just a little short in the life experience as opposed to Di Matteo 41. Those seven years are a big divide imho. Also having been a player has to help Di Matteo – sure Jose wasn’t a player – but then he was Jose. <!--EndFragment--> <!--EndFragment-->
i agree the change needs to be gradual, and have been making that claim for the past 3 seasons if not more. but we're also getting to a breaking point. we're going to have to catch up a bit with some of the changes that should have been made over the last couple of seasons. i'm not saying a total clear out, but more than just a couple of players here and there. fact is, we should have been lining up a lot of these changes before this point. it's all made that much more painful at this particular time too. with the fair play rules coming into affect, we should have maybe done more to prepare. now we're sitting in 5th, without really having the same options that we did before to get ourselves out of this rut. man city's huge spending came JUST in time to now forever seal their fate as a big player (maybe) while we're faltering at the exact wrong time considering the implementation of these new rules. if we don't recover quickly, it COULD be a slippery slope if we're not careful. no one here wants to see that, but unfortunately it looks like the club have really put themselves in a bad spot. needing desperately to make some big changes in a time when the possibilities of doing so are much decreased. now this all may be exaggerated, but i think everyone can see the point i'm trying to make. the timing of everything is NOT on our side. who knows, getting 5th or 4th this season could be the most defining thing that could happen to the club for the next 3 years (or more?). that being said, its not all doom and gloom, if we do spend the next year out of the CL, one would have to think that arsenal and totts are at least beatABLE to get back in the CL. but we might have to do it without the players that we all want to bring in this summer. we still have some pull, but without CL, it WILL be harder. the real threat is if our direct rivals manage to strengthen considerably this summer and we can't quite keep up. apologies for the doom and gloom, wasn't really supposed to start that way. i'll shut up now. it's my birthday, so i should be much happier right now. carefree.
Mourinho, who was really the last manager to leave any kind of true stamp on the club, brought in a ton of fresh first team faces (Tiago, Essien, Kezman, Drogba, Carvalho, Ferreira, Robben, Cech) and got rid of a ton of players (Babayaro, Zenden, Crespo, Cole, Grankjaer, Hasselbaink, Desailly, Petit, Melchiot, Bogarde, Veron) for his first year, so I don't think it needs to be gradual. It needs to be *total*; i.e. - replace the players you get rid of, as someone mentioned above. AVB wanted to do the same exact thing, but I just don't think he was up to it for whatever reason. Edit: Sorry, Essien came in for Jose' 2nd season and many of cleared out players were sent on loan. Still, my point is the same.
Cech and Robben were not Mourinho signings IIRC, and the Essien sgning came a year after Tiago and meant the end of Tiago, so for me, that one cancels itself out. Roman was also willing to basically spend any sum possible to shape the club then and raise our profile
Along with being willing, he was also able. With FFP coming into play now, you can't just spend any sum of money, so the buys will have to be considered and shrewd along with being balanced out with sales.
My point was more that it is, in fact, possible to change a club very quickly if everyone is on board. Though you have to be prepared for the consequences 8 years down the road as we are experiencing now.
