"Interim" Chelsea

Chelsea has been up and down over the last few years. In 2011 Carlo Ancelotti was fired as the club "only" made it to second place in the Premier League (the previous year he had led them to their first "Double"). For the start of the 2011-12 season Andre Villas-Boas became manager, and under him team performance dipped with a string of defeats. Villas-Boas was fired in March 2012, and was replaced by "interim" coach Roberto Di Matteo, who in the subsequent months pulled the side up to win the FA Cup and the Champions League in May 2012. One could have been led to think that this would be enough to keep him in the club, but Chelsea's elimination in the first round of the 2012-13 Champions League season (as the first defending champions ever) led Di Matteo to lose his job in November 2012, and a new "interim" manager took over: Rafa Benitez.

And Rafa Benitez stayed as "interim" in spite of continued controversies and criticism, and eventually he announced that he would be leaving at the end of the season in spite of securing a CL spot in the Premier League. In the meantime the team progressed in the Europa League and last night Rafa Benitez led Chelsea to the Europa League title when defeating Benfica 2-1 in Amsterdam. It wasn't pretty: only Benfica inefficiency and an excellent late header by Branislav Ivanovic gave them a victory that must surely have felt somewhat bittersweet for Benitez, who will nevertheless probably not have to look much around for a more steady job.

And Chelsea? Rumors abound about a certain Portuguese gentleman returning to Chelsea. He will probably not have the title "interim", although that may always be the case in Chelsea anyway.

The cruel fate of Di Matteo

Last March Roberto Di Matteo became interim coach for Chelsea at a moment when the Londoners were in crisis. Within a few months he guided Chelsea to the FA Cup title and to their first Champions League title ever. Within a few weeks he was no longer interim, but permanent manager. Now, barely six months after taking Chelsea to the greatest triumph in its history Di Matteo has been fired after some disappointing results. They are "only" third in the Premier League and are struggling in the Champions League were Juventus' 3-0 win over them sealed Di Matteo's fate.
A cruel fate, to be hailed and then fired within the same year! And one has to doubt whether this is not a too hasty decision by Chelsea's management: Di Matteo may have given rapid success, but he had a strong team, where there have been changes since last season (they lost their star player, Didier Drogba!). One would think that a manager needs time to build up a competitive team!
But no, short-term thinking is the rule in Chelsea, just as it is in other teams that think they can buy quick success, and where loyalty only reaches to their wallets.
There are rumours now about a new coach. Rafa Benitez has been mentioned, but in some places only as "interim" if Chelsea can get hold of Pep Guardiola.
I think everyone is "interim" in Chelsea.

While I was in Europe

I just spent ten days in Europe: Barcelona, Prague, Brussels and Madrid. I had originally planned to try to go to Munich to the CL final, but when I could not get tickets, I went to Prague and watched the final at the lovely and lively Old Square. It was on the same day where the Czech Republic had played and lost to Slovakia in the semifinal of the hockey World Cup, so there was a disappointed atmosphere under the sun in the square. Still, most places were full as the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea started.
Much bad has been said of Chelsea's defensive style in their defeat of Barcelona, so surely how they played against Bayern Munich cannot be surprising. Chelsea has been reborn under Roberto DiMatteo, so why change style? Surely Bayern Munich was most attacking, but it is also about defending and counterattacking, and Chelsea have proven great at both. Just as we were expecting a home triumph after Thomas Mullers' late goal for Bayern, Didier Drogba scored after Chelsea's first corner kick in the entire match. Undeserved perhaps, but any football fan knew what this meant for Drogba, who again scored in the most important game ever for Chelsea.
Then, that Bayern's great player Arjen Robben could not keep his nerve on the penalty spot, made everyone feel that this would be Chelsea's night after all, and indeed it was: after penalty kicks Chelsea took their first, and well-deserved CL title ever!
Roman Abramovich, the guy that did exactly what I would do if I had a billion dollars, has finally taken the most prestigious prize of all. And he should surely keep Roberto DiMatteo as coach!

 

I was in Madrid on May 25th on the day of the Copa del Rey Final between FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao. Two hours before the match I went to Vicente Calderon Stadium, in part to experience the already lively atmosphere around the stadium, but also to see if it was possible to find some re-sell ticket. The latter was impossible, but surely experienced the lively atmosphere between fans of two teams that were having their last chance to win something this season. FC Barcelona surely would have expected to be somewhere else, but were triumphed by Chelsea and Real Madrid in the CL and Spanish League respectively. In the meantime, Athletic Bilbao had not expected to be so close at the start of the season, but they have surely grown under coach Marcelo Bielsa. They nevertheless lost the Europa League final to Atletico Madrid, and were surely hoping for glory in this match. Before the match started I found a tapas bar to watch it in, and talked with a passionate Bilbao fan who told me with tears in his eyes his memory of Bilbao winning the league as a child, and how for them, this meant much more than for Barcelona fans: "We have the club in our hearts, and we have won nothing for 28 years!"
There really was no contention about the best team of the match though: With two goals by Pedro and one by Lionel Messi, Barcelona was comfortably ahead 3-0 in the first half, and really did not seem to make too much of an effort to win the match in the end. The biggest pleasure of the players was clearly to give coach Josep Guardiola a proper goodbye with yet another title.
A pity for the Bilbao fan I talked to, but he was right about their passion: after the match I saw proud and dignified Bilbao fans all around the streets of Madrid, while Barcelona fans seemed to disappear into bed to sleep over yet another victory of those they are so used to...

Chelsea champion

After a meager season, coach Andre Vilas Boas was fired and replaced with Di Matteo as Chelsea coach. Things have greatly improved under the Italian, who has brought the London side to the Champions League final, and now to his first title, winning the FA Cup final 2-1 against Liverpool. The FA Cup is one Di Matteo has helped Chelsea with a lot throughout the years: Roberto di Matteo played for Chelsea in 1997, when they won their only second FA Cup, calling forth a new period of greatness of the Chelsea side. He scored the first goal in their 2-0 victory over Middlesborough, and two years later, Di Matteo was again at the center stage scoring the winning goal in the 1-0 victory over Aston Villa in the FA final.
However, this is Chelsea's fourth FA Cup victory since 2007, and another player has helped them greatly in these four victories, the mighty Didier Drogba. Today, he scored the second goal for his side, continuing his impressive spell of scoring in every FA Cup final Chelsea has played since 2007, and is indeed the first player ever to score in four different FA Cup finals!
On top of it all, one must mention Ramires, who scored Chelsea's opening goal today: he is in fact the first Brazilian who has scored in an FA Cup final, thus adding a little bit of history to this great final, where all Chelsea fans deserve to be celebrating!