Madness!

Having just come off the back of creating history for his club, you would think Di Matteo's position as manager at Chelsea would be relatively safe. However, the reality was very different. Despite having masterminded Chelsea's Champions League winning campaign, and having guided them from a horrific state to a solid 5th place finish as well as defeating Liverpool to lift the FA Cup, merely 6 months later Roberto Di Matteo was packing his bags and was sacked. Roman Abramovich has been known as a no mercy type executioner at Chelsea, but undoubtedly on this occasion he was way too early to wield the axe.

When things are not going right, Abramovich isn't shy in
changing things around

Based on his achievements, you would say that his sacking was extremely harsh. He only lasted just over 8 months in the job between March and November, but was still able to secure 2 major trophies. One of which was the Champions League, a trophy that Abramovich himself had such a desire to win since joining the club in 2003. To fuel his desire to have his team crowned Champions of Europe, Abramovich has been chopping and changing ever since his arrival; with Chelsea having 10 managers in the 9 year time period the Russian has been at the club. But after making Abramovich's dream a reality, this was still not good enough and Di Matteo was sacked merely 6 months later. Ludicrous!

Di Matteo could perhaps count himself unfortunate for losing
his job

Di Matteo was a fan favourite amongst the Chelsea faithful, having spent a successful 7 years at the club between 1996-2002, before injury cut his playing career short at the age of 32. He also famously scored what was the fastest ever FA Cup final goal whilst wearing the blue shirt, in a 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough in 1997. During his time there he developed a love affair with the club and when he returned as manager, he continued this by providing great success for the club. Most impressively of all, Di Matteo won 24/42 games whilst at the helm, which equates to a respectable win percentage of 57%. To highlight just how good this is, Sir Alex Ferguson’s win percentage at Manchester United is around 60%. To have a win percentage which nearly matches that of the greatest manager of all time, surely Di Matteo was doing something right at Chelsea!?



Benitez was a controversial replacement and he has not made
a very good impression in his first 3 games in charge



Di Matteo's Chelsea suffered a 5 game winless streak, and suddenly the popular Italian lost his job, to the anguish of the large majority of Chelsea fans around the world. With Pep Guardiola having apparently announced his desire to return to managing, he was the only man who Chelsea fans would be content with replacing him. But it wasn't Guardiola, it was former arch nemesis Rafa Benitez who was announced as Interim manager, which further added to the growing dismay felt by the clubs supporters. Chelsea fans have not warmed to him at all, and in his first 3 games in charge Chelsea have looked mediocre, drawing unconvincingly at home against Manchester City and Fulham before being humbled 3-1 at West Ham. With Chelsea looking even worse under Benitez, Abramovich's decision to sack Di Matteo looks even more questionable.

All in all, I just can't understand Di Matteo's sacking. When he took over in March, Chelsea were in a bad place, labouring in the league and on the brink of crashing out of the Champions League in the first knockout round. He transformed Chelsea from head to toe, leading them to Champions League and FA Cup glory. He was even in a good position in the league, lying in 3rd place a couple of points behind the Manchester clubs. You have to be a top manager to achieve such incredible feats in such a short space of time, but Di Matteo was cast aside, as were his 9 predecessors by Roman 'the executioner' Abramovich. The Chelsea owner does have a reputation for chopping and changing, but I just don't understand why Di Matteo was sacked. It is madness.