In life there are only a handful of things that are certain. You will watch Big Brother. It will irritate you. MPs will lie through their back teeth (and their front ones). Summer does make girls more attractive. And makes you feel less so. People who ring in radio stations with traffic updates are idiots.

And then there is the transfer window. That beautifully annoying invention that basically restricts trade in what should, theoretically, be a free market. That rumour-filled bearpit where the slightest whisper can suddenly become the dominant story, not just in football, but in society it would seem. MPs expenses or Ronaldo to Real? You decide? New series of Big Brother or David Villa’s future? Your choice.

The silly season is officially here, and if you listen to what you read and hear, there are more futures up in the air this summer than at an EasyJet recruitment convention.

Starting with the managers. Guus Hiddink had barely vacated his makeshift office at Chelsea by the time Carlo Ancelotti had arrived, laden with Versace luggage. The Italian will take command at Stamford Bridge officially from July 1st, but talk, incredibly, is already beginning to edge towards potential successors to his throne should he fail to deliver the kind of success Roman Abramovich apparently demands with such passion.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, Sunderland have moved swiftly to replace Ricky Sbragia- who departed tearfully minutes after his side had avoided relegation on the final day of the season- with Wigan’s Steve Bruce. Bruce’s Newcastle connections have been played up neatly by the media, but ignoring such playground mentality will enable Black Cats fans to see they have made what looks a very shrewd appointment. The fact that Bruce’s Wigan finished five places above Sunderland last season would confirm this. Certainly his appointment makes a lot more sense than the one touted by Roberto Mancini prior to Bruce’s appointment. One wonders if the former Inter Milan chief had received some sort of prank call as he gleefully announced that he was all set to arrive at the Stadium of Light, before being forced into an embarrassed climb-down only days later.

And for every departure, there must be an arrival of course. The Bruce-shaped hole at Wigan will be filled- metaphorically speaking- by Swansea’s Roberto Martinez, subject to the agreement of a compensation package. Martinez has made steady progress at the Liberty Stadium, but as a former Wigan favourite, and with his reputation significantly enhanced by the aesthetic qualities of his Championship outfit, the time seems perfect for a step up into the top-flight.

Even outside of the Premier League, things are looking strange. Steve Coppell’s vacation of the Reading hotseat in the wake of their Play-Off semi final defeat to Premiership newboys Burnley meant that chairman John Madejski had to act quickly. An approach for Peterborough’s Darren Ferguson was rebuked, so in sauntered Watford boss Brendan Rogers. Rogers had only just taken delivery of a personalised name-plate for his office at Vicarage Road before he was digging out his suitcase and zooming from Hertfordshire to Berkshire, having spent just five months at Watford.

And the Championship’s most illustrious disastrous club, Newcastle, should not be forgotten. Alan Shearer has already made the least surprising U-Turn since Sven-Goran Eriksson tried to walk past Ulrika Jonsson’s hotel room by announcing his intention to stay on as manager at St James’ Park, but the ownership situation on Tyneside has meant that such an appointment has been forced to stay on ice. Good news for Joe Kinnear then, who was set to sign a two-year contract this summer before the arrival of a sharp dressed messiah put him firmly in the shade.

And then there is Celtic. Wee Gordon Strachan, patronising nickname notwithstanding, decided the time was right to bring an end to his four year stay in Glasgow in the wake of a disappointing end to the SPL season, and will not be particularly missed by certain sections of Parkhead. But Hoops fans who have long questioned the credentials of a flame haired former Aberdeen man would be wise to remember the old adage “Be careful what you wish for” as former Wycombe & Portsmouth failure Tony Adams throws his hat into the ring for the role of Strachan’s replacement. Unless Adams has been receiving the same kind of calls as Mr Mancini- unlikely considering the pair’s background differences- it is a worrying situation for Celtic, especially with more suitable candidates in David Moyes & Owen Coyle distancing themselves from the inevitable speculation, and Tony Mowbray keeping an equally low profile.

So what about the players? Well the football world has been riddled skulduggery in the past twenty years anyway, but this summer things look set to escalate. If it isn’t nailed down it is unsafe, so it would seem. Cristiano Ronaldo’s will-he-won’t he move to Real Madrid this year may well be the most tiresome saga since, erm, last years saga of the same name, but with Florentino Perez targeting players like Big Brother contestants target fame, it is likely to rumble on long into the summer.

Real are not looking to stop at Ronaldo either, they have already secured Villarreal coach Manuel Pellegrini to lead the revolution, a notoriously ego-free coach in a notoriously egotistical club is a dangerous thought. Spanish football writer Sid Lowe was asked this week to predict Real’s starting eleven for next season, and incredibly went for this- Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Bruno Alves, Gael Clichy, Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso, Lassana Diarra, Franck Ribery, Kaka, Diego Forlan/David Villa. Impressive to say the least, and such transfers would set in motion an incredible snowballing effect surely, with ripples felt as far north as….well, Manchester I suppose.

Of those signings, Alonso looks unlikely. Liverpool’s owners may well be losing more money than Steve Claridge in Cheltenham week, but with Gareth Barry having swapped sixth placed Aston Villa for tenth placed Manchester City in a bid to secure Champions League football, Alonso is expected to stay on Merseyside. One man who resisted overtures from City, Kaka, is high on Madrid’s wishlist, and sources close to the club and the player claim a world-record deal is close to completion, despite rumoured interest from Chelsea.

Should Kaka leave Milan then it will give Silvio Berlusconi & Adriano Galliani license to spend some of their lucre in a more flamboyant manner, although the likelihood is that they will offer the lot to LA Galaxy for three more weeks of David Beckham. Emmanuel Adebayor has long been on their list, although English media reports suggest that Chelsea may make a bid to gazump them in that respect, providing they can wake the Togolese striker up from his twelve month slumber in the meantime.

Chelsea are supposed to be spending big this summer. After all, they only paid £14m for a right back to replace their £13.2m one last summer, along with £9m for a luxury midfielder, following a £25m splurge in the January 08 window. Small fry. Kaka & Adebayor aside, rumours abound that David Villa, Franck Ribery and….erm…Daniel Sturridge will be arriving at Stamford Bridge, though no concrete bid has been reported as of yet.

And what of Manchester United. Ronaldo and Tevez are looking able to leave, whilst Berbatov looks barely able to run, but Ferguson is a wily old fox. Having already added two Serbian stars in Zoran Tosic & Adam Ljajic in January, the man from Govan is likely to be looking bigger this summer, with Ribery, Lyon’s Karim Benzema, and even Arjen Robben spotted apparently. Should Ronaldo leave, the funds freed up would arguably cover two of those players, though little has been said by the man himself. He has left that to rent-a-quote Ronaldo.

Liverpool meanwhile are looking a little bit less adventurous in the wake of their owners’ confirmed £42m losses last year, a £2m bid for Portsmouth’s Sylvain Distin is unlikely to get pulses racing, and there are fears that they may be priced out of a move for Tevez, Valencia duo Villa & Silva, or even another Portsmouth defender in Glen Johnson. Still, Andriy Voronin is back from a loan spell in Germany, and Jermaine Pennant will return from Portsmouth too. Like having two new signings that.

At Arsenal, Arsene Wenger is scouring Football Manager searching for young talent. The signing of Andrey Arshavin in January may have bucked the transfer trend at the Emirates, but Wenger will be more concerned about rumoured interest in Robin Van Persie & Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona at the moment, with Thierry Henry & Aliaksandr Hleb doubtless whispering sweet nothings in their ears. Barcelona are looking to add a left back to their European Cup winning squad, so don’t be surprised to see Gael Clichy appear on their radar at some point also.

And what of Manchester City of course. Barry’s arrival, said Mark Hughes, will not be the last. They have already been linked with 4562 players, including Samuel Eto’o (unlikely), Xabi Alonso (very unlikely) and Carlos Tevez (ridiculous). Armed with cash, expect City to get hold of some eye-catching signings before August is out. And then expect them to still be inconsistent and self-destuctive.

Elsewhere there have already been some big moves, Bayern Munich’s response to missing out on the Bundesliga title was a big money splurge on VfB Stuttgart’s goal-machine Mario Gomez, to add to Zenit St Petersburg skipper Anatoliy Tymoschuk, moves which could well pave the way for Ribery to depart for Real, Barca, Manchester United or Chelsea. Two of their rivals have already been weakened then, Diego swapping the green of Bremen for the stripes of Juventus, who have also recaptured (and it isn’t hard considering how slow he moves these days) Fabio Cannavaro from Real Madrid.

Serie A champions Inter have already made moves to strengthen also, swapping Ricardo Quaresma & Hernan Crespo for Genoa duo Diego Milito & Thiago Motta, with doubts lingering over the future of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, although his wage demands and apparent lack of success in Europe may see him remain at the San Siro.

So with Ronaldo going to Real, meaning Ribery goes to United, meaning Hleb goes to Bayern, and Fabregas goes to Barca, so Kalou goes to Arsenal, so Villa goes to Chelsea, so Drogba goes to Milan, so Kaka goes to Real, so Van der Vaart goes to Arsenal, so Van Persie goes to Barca, so Eto’o goes to City, and so forth until we all experience an aneurism, expect the spectacular, expect the astonishing, expect the unexpected. Expect to get slightly bored by it all and start watching the Ashes. I know I will.

With the recent appointment of Carlo Ancelotti as the new Chelsea manager and the recent announcement that Andriy Shevchenko will be coming back to the Bridge now that his one-year loan deal with AC Milan has expired, there are questions being asked of what Ancelotti / Chelsea will do with the 32-year-old striker.

While Shevchenko and many Chelsea fans are not optimistic about his future at the Bridge, Sheva still has great potential to finish his career in style and justify the money that was spent on him. The article discusses the following points:

1. Why Shevchnko did not live up to his potential at Chelsea
2. How Chelsea could have made better use of the Ukrainian international
3. Why Shevchenko deserves one more season as a Chelsea starter under Ancelotti.

The time was fall of 1997 and the place was one that has become extremely familiar to Chelsea fans recently – the 98,000 capacity stadium in Barcelona – Camp Nou. The Spanish champions were taking on the 5 time Ukrainian Champions Dinamo Kiev in the Champions League group stage. After losing 3-0 to Dinamo in their hometown, Barcelona, led by Van Gaal, was looking to bounce back from their shocking defeat.

However, Barcelona had their hopes demolished by half-time after a hat trick from a phenomenal young Ukrainian – his name was Andrei Shevchenko. Would any blue-blooded Chelsea fan seriously say that they would not have wanted that Shevchenko to have played on the starting squad against Barcelona in this year’s semi-final?

Ever since Andrei Shevchenko joined Chelsea for a record transfer fee of 30 million pounds in the summer of 2006, it appeared inevitable that with such a star studded team; Chelsea would reign supreme over England and Europe. After nearly three years have passed, various pundits, analysts, and Chelsea mangers from Jose Mourinho to Felipe Scolari have leveled severe criticism about my hometown hero’s lackluster performance. However, those former Chelsea managers never used Sheva properly as they did not understand him.

First of all, in order to understand how Shevchenko operates, you must first understand Valeriy Lobanovsky, the old Dinamo Kiev manager whose unique philosophy made him the star that he eventually became. Shevchenko has stated on many occasions that he owes all of his success to his deceased old manager and he went as far as leaving his Champions League medal on his grave.

In a nutshell, Lobanovsky (a plumber by trade) was a pioneer in football theory when he became the first Soviet Manager in the 1960’s to request a computer to be used by his football club. The theory he developed was dubbed “scientific football” in which certain numerical values were assigned to each “action” in the game such as tackles, passes, and shots. (Foer 159, “How Soccer Explains the World”) and the computer would calculate each player’s “intensively” (tackles and goal shots), “activity” (tackles and passes), “error rate” (unsuccessful actions), and “effectively” (tackles, goals, assists, passes).

Lobanovsky considered the football team to be a collective (not unlike the Borg) and judged how each individual contributed to the team’s overall performance without specific positions for players. While this led to a focus on defense, it created highly disciplined teams and largely kept egos in place. He saw pace and cohesion as the keys to victory. Not only were his teams much fitter than opposing sides, the players also seemed to have a near-telepathic understanding of each other. A result perhaps of one of his favourite drills: blindfolded five-a-side matches.

When Lobanovsky took over the struggling Dinamo again in the fall of 1996, he implemented the system once again and stated that the team is a collective and not centered on individuals. Hence, the victory over the individual focused Barcelona a year later was not only due to Shevchenko’s brilliance, but each player doing their part in making the defense, the midfield, and the strikers effective.

After Shevchenko joined AC Milan in ‘99, the team, under Carlo Ancelotti (2001-2009) eventually adapted somewhat to Shevchenko’s collectively oriented style by having the team work together in an almost Christmas tree formation to get the maximum number of goals to Shevchenko and his partner up front Inzaghi. The Balon d’Or and the CL goal scoring records set by Shevchenko overlooked the fact that AC Milan, similar to Dinamo Kiev in the 1990’s was a well oiled machine that worked tirelessly on all parts of the pitch to make the team succeed. Shevchenko was simply performing his role to his best ability.

Since Roman Abramovich acquired Chelsea in 2003, his eyes were set on the brilliant striker. However, the owner of Milan, Silvio Berlusconi, who became Shevchenko’s Godfather, did everything possible to hold on to his “son” until Roman finally made the offer Silvio could not refuse – the record breaking £30.8 million pound transfer in May of 2006. At this point Roman was becoming very impatient with Mourinho’s Chelsea coming up short of winning the Champions League and decided to “help out” Jose by acquiring Ballack , Kalou and Shevchenko against the manager’s wishes. As a result, Shevchenko was in a bad situation from the start as the Chelsea midfield became destabilized while the manager was not happy to have him.

To elaborate, from 2004 to 2006 the Chelsea midfield had been very cohesive with the combination of Lampard and the Iceland international Eiour Godjohnsen, who was one of the most versatile players around as he had performed as a central-midfielder; as a right or left winger; as a holding-defensive midfielder or as a striker. He was replaced by the slower and older Ballack who just did not seem to give the necessary effort. Hence, the midfield feeding mechanism to the strikers such as Drogba, Shevchenko and Kalou had become weak. In addition, Shevchenko, in spite of being tired after Ukraine’s World Cup performance and having to go from a very mild Mediterranean climate in Milan to the cold and humid climate of England compounded the problem.

Despite all of this, Shevchenko scored in his Chelsea debut in the Community Shield in the 2-1 loss to Liverpool, and quickly delivered again in his first Premier League goal against Middlesborough. After this, Shevchenko’s exhaustion caught up with him and he fell into a bit of a drought. The back-to-back trophy-winning Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho blamed all of Chelsea’s problems on Shevchenko and benched him as a result. He went as far as saying that Shevchenko considered himself above the other players and was expecting preferential treatment. However, Jose was wrong to have Shevchenko take the blame as an individual for the collective lackluster performance of the team.

The breakdown of the locker room atmosphere at Chelsea has been well chronicled in Claude Makalele’s recent biography Tout Simplementu. “For two years at Chelsea we lived as a group of friends, dining together, getting drunk together, going to training together and winning matches together,” wrote the French international. The team resembled Lobonovsky’s vision of a collective. But then all of a sudden Mourinho broke the solidarity by treating certain players that he was instrumental in acquiring such as Drogba as stars.

The catalyst for this may have been Roman encouraging the team to play a more open and offensive oriented game, which Jose flatly refused to do. He began treating players that he perceived as being close to the Roman such as Shevchenko and Terry with contempt. Makelele was stunned that the “Special One” had forgotten to value the contribution of players and began taking credit for all success and blaming individual players for any failures. “He no longer believed that players were responsible for success but only his methods did.” In short, Jose’s ego was clouding his judgment.

In response, Roman, who was obviously good friends with Shevchenko due to a common language and perhaps not wanting to see his investment wasted, forced Jose to play Sheva. Andrei proved to be invaluable in the FA Cup when he scored the goal of the year on January 19th, 2007 against Tottenham by curling the ball into the Spurs net from an impossible angle. He would prove equally useful in the Champions League by scoring key equalizers against Valencia in the Group Stage and Porto in the Quarterfinals. Unfortunately, an untimely injury and the subsequent hernia operation would keep him out at the end of the season when Chelsea needed him most.

All in all, despite all of the problems, Shevchenko ended up having an adequate season with 14 goals, well short of his 24 goals for Milan in the award winning year of 2004 but by no means was a terrible performance as Jose implied. Shevchenko gave the following explanation: “The real problem is that I cannot find any continuity. I was doing well this season, scoring seven goals in my last 10 matches, but then I suffered a back injury. Before I am judged I would like to enjoy a decent run in the side now that I have adapted to English football. Italian football is about tactics and logic, whereas England is different, it is all about speed and instinct.”

During the summer, Shevchenko did everything he could to get back in shape and work on his speed after surgery, even going as far as training with an Olympic sprinter to bring himself up to form. Roman even brought in Avram Grant as Director of Football to help Andrei, which was interpreted by Jose’s as undermining his authority. However, the training would prove to be useful as Andrei scored the equalizing goal to prevent a humiliating loss to Rosenborg BK in the Champions League Group Game. Apparently, Jose could not stand Grant and Roman being right and left “by mutual consent” as a result. It appeared that now under Grant as head coach Shevchenko would finally shine. Unfortunately, Shevchenko only scored 5 goals in the Premier League that season and Grant appeared to have given up on him when he transferred in former gunner Nicholas Anelka to essentially take Shevchenko’s spot as backup striker, leaving Shevchenko on the bench once again.

When Scolari took over the Chelsea reigns in the summer of 2008, he promised to give Shevchenko a “fresh start” but later contradicted himself by playing Deco in his place in the season opener against Portsmouth. Shevchenko was sent on loan to Milan and has begun regained his form. His goal against England in the World Cup qualifier illustrated his resurgence.

The newly appointed Chelsea manager and Sheva’s old AC Milan manager, Carlo Ancelotti, stated that Chelsea’s mistake was that they did not use Shevchenko properly by persistently using the one-striker system with Drogba upfront rather than being more flexible and adjusting the midfield to feed the ball to two strikers (Drogba and Sheva) upfront like Milan did. In addition, Shevchenko never prospered because he never felt welcome in London – mostly because of Jose’s arrogance. The unjustified blame game under Mourinho certainly took its toll on him and likely hurt his subsequent performance.

All in all, with Drogba facing a possible 5 match ban from the Champions League, the Boys in Blue are in dire need of a second striker besides Anelka. In my humble opinion, Shevchenko could fill this role provided that the team is willing to accept him and the midfield is willing to adjust to accommodate the two striker strategy.

Why spend another 30 million pounds on Tevez or David Villa when Chelsea already has Sheva under contract and the real problem is in the midfield? Just like a roofer would not spend money on buying a customized golden drill bit when the drill battery is dead and the power cord is broken, Chelsea must fix the truly broken part of its team (midfield) rather than spending enormous sums fixing something that is working reasonably well (offense).

Despite his age of 32 (top players like Zidane, Beckham, Pele, Maldini played well into their 30’s), Shevchenko still has the skills and now has something to prove to Chelsea fans. Under Ancelotti, who understands Sheva and how to make a team play a common strategy rather than a group of individuals, Sheva may once again become the top striker we know him to be.

Sources: How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer

Additional research and reporting by Mark Gallinsky.

When Manchester City were taken over last Autumn by foreign investors with pockets deeper than their oil wells, there was hysteria across the footballing world. The media whipped up a frenzy feasting on a seemingly endless list of managerial and transfer targets encouraged by ambitious and occasionally ridiculous club transfer targets.

Manchester City’s performance last season and failure to sign a cohort of superstars showed that money cannot buy you everything instantaneously. Whilst I am confident that Manchester City will become a Champions League calibre team within 3 years; much will depend on realistic ambitions, sensible planning and consistency by the owners.

Therefore it is evolution, not revolution, that is required. Despite the Kaka saga in January, things seem to be moving in the right direction for the Eastlands club.

The Manager

The backing of Mark Hughes despite a poor campaign is a sound decision. Whatever a team’s status, a manager must be allowed time to build a team and style of play. Frequent manager changes have played a clear role in the inability of Real Madrid and Chelsea to reach levels of Barcelona or Manchester United, whilst links can be made to the downfall of Newcastle United with managerial turmoil.

Manchester City cannot allow themselves to be sucked into the trap of trying to appoint a ‘brand name’ manager at the expense of progress; whether Hughes can deliver a title is unknown, but his success at Blackburn and ability to build a team make him the right man for the hot seat.

Hughes has shown that he is building a team, the headline signing of Robinho shows the clubs intent, but the signings of players such as Craig Bellamy, Shay Given, Nigel de Jong and Wayne Bridge show that the club has been realistic on many levels in the short-medium term. These players are not superstars but proven performers that the club need to  build towards Champions League football.

The Players

Although parallels have been drawn to the Roman Abramovich takeover at Chelsea the Abu Dhabi consortium did not inherit a team anywhere near matching Chelsea’s in terms of league position or squad depth at takeover.

Without a Premier League or Champions League campaign on the horizon, attracting sufficient talent to Eastland’s to take the club forward is always going to be a challenge.

Enticing players at the pinnacle of the game will be difficult until the team qualifies for the Champions League; players at the top of the game are already millionaires in their own right and are more likely to be motivated by winning than money.

Obviously money will always be a factor and a bargaining chip, but why would players already living superstar lifestyles swap warmer climes and cosmopolitan cities such as Milan, Barcelona, Madrid or London for cold January mornings in Manchester without the carrot of on-field success?

Detractors may point to Manchester United’s stars or Robinho’s presence but it is Manchester United’s on-pitch success in the Premier League era that has allowed them to attract elite players It can be argued the Robinho signing is more a circumstantial anomaly than a general pattern, but if Kaka joins Madrid after snubbing Manchester City in January it will reinforce this view.

The strategy the club has adopted needs to be continued, obviously headline signings of star players of Robinho’s undoubted quality (if not his temperament), should be pursued there is a requirement for a squad nucleus built on realistic ambition to complement the superstars.

It is for this reason that Gareth Barry seems to be a very good signing for Manchester City, a versatile player with extensive Premier League experience, he is just what the doctor ordered. As an added bonus a reported fee of just £12m is 33% cheaper than the fee Aston Villa were demanding during last seasons ‘will he/wont he?’ debacle with Liverpool.

Surprisingly Manchester City were not forced to overpay for Barry unlike previous transfers, the ‘sugar daddy effect’ where players prices double on hearing of interest from a club with unlimited funds will plague Manchester City’s efforts to sign players.

To summarise, Manchester City have added an interesting facet to the make up of English football and indications show that despite their ambitions the owners seem to understand what is required to build the club. Whilst I expect that there may be approaches for many big name players this summer I also expect there to be a few more modest purchases.

Manchester City can only develop if ambitions and timelines are realistic. Money can buy most things but sometimes no matter what your resources, getting what you want takes time.

Last weekend’s FA Cup final merely served to rubberstamp what we all knew anyway, Guus Hiddink is something of a managerial genius. Indeed, it is a testament to how the Dutchman has gotten his Chelsea side to perform over these past 3 months, that even when Everton opened the scoring at Wembley, there was still an inevitable sense that they would recover to turn it around.

So it proved, with the Blues of SW6 clicking into gear and putting in a display typical of the Hiddink era, effortlessly overpowering their Merseyside opponents on the way to one of the most comfortable 2-1 wins you are ever likely to see.

But despite the near perfect ending, the wily old Dutch master will have left Wembley on Saturday, after all the celebrations, the cigar smoking and the dancing with Roman Abramovich had finished, with the nagging sense that there is unfinished business between him and the Kings Road club. Hiddink knows that while his Chelsea record of 22 games, 16 wins, 5 draws and a solitary defeat may be outstanding and the Cup win memorable, the real prizes have eluded him.

The man from Varsseveld is nothing if not a born winner, and the fact that he arrived at Chelsea too late to mount a serious Premier League challenge, and that his side were desperately unlucky not to reach the Champions League final will be scant consolation to him. In particular, that most dramatic of nights at Stamford Bridge against Barcelona will live long in the memory, with the sense of injustice still as strong now as it was then, as he admitted in the build up to Saturday’s Final.

Equally for Chelsea, a period of transition is on the horizon, and they need desperately to re-establish some kind of stability. Star performers like Lampard, Carvalho, Ballack and Drogba are all north of 30, and soon thoughts will have to go to who is going to replace them. Another worry is the form of goalkeeper Petr Cech, who has developed a David James-like Jekyll and Hyde approach to goalkeeping, whereby stunning saves are followed up swiftly by Sunday League howlers. These are both problems and they need to be addressed, but at the minute it is impossible for any kind of long-term plans to be implemented with the revolving door policy the club has, with new man Carlo Ancelotti being the 7th of Abramovich’s reign.

Stability of course is going to be difficult to find when everybody at the club, from the chairman to the players to the fans really knows that the manager they want, they can’t have. Such is the strong feeling for Hiddink around that particular area of South London, it is almost an impossible job for any new manager, even one as decorated as Carlo Ancelotti.

Looking at it objectively, Ancelotti may well be the better man for Chelsea. Two recent Champions League wins and the ability to get the most out of players older than time itself, it seems a match made in heaven. But in football, perception is 9/10ths of the law, and the current perception at Chelsea is that Hiddink is the man for the job, and anyone else is effectively just keeping his seat in the dugout warm. The Italian will need to win over the entire club, without being able to speak any real English or having any experience of English football, an uphill task to say the least.

Ancelotti’s English is improving, but it’s far from perfect, and it’s going to prove to be a massive obstacle to overcome. You could argue that not being fluent in the language has been no barrier for Fabio Capello, but the day to day running of club management is a world apart from that at international level, especially at Chelsea.

The Stamford Bridge dressing room is one filled with big ego’s that need the kind of man management that the likes of Hiddink and Mouriniho can offer, and it’s hard to see Ancelotti inspiring a similar level of devotion among his players without being able to speak the language.

There will be a brief honeymoon period, after all, Ancelotti’s past achievements deserve that at least, but after a couple of early season losses the vultures will start to circle. The spectre of Hiddink is one that will loom large over Stamford Bridge, and it is likely that fans and players alike at Chelsea will always have at least one eye on the fortunes of the Russian side, hoping that they fail to qualify for the World Cup.

Indeed, should Russia be unsuccessful in their quest to reach the finals in South Africa, Hiddink will be available from around October time onwards. Can a man even as reknowned as Ancelotti succeed with the Dutch master waiting in the wings on his white horse ready to save Chelseas season all over again?

The result? Inevitable. As good a manager as Carlo Ancelotti is, he appears to be on a hiding to nothing, and Hiddink will return to Chelsea. It is only a matter of when.

Looking back over the years, during the ownership of Roman Abramovich many Chelsea fans can be proud of what their club has achieved, and rightly they should be. However there has been one issue that has disrupted their game more than any other; not the outrageous wages or telephone-number transfer budgets but the man leading the way, the manager.

When the Russian billionaire took over Claudio Ranieri was in charge. He was popular with the fans and guided Chelsea to second in the Premiership however this wasn’t enough. Out he went and in came the much anticipated Special One.

Jose Mourinho entered Stamford Bridge with a swagger and arrogance that seemed perfectly suited to the new rich boys of English football. The Portuguese master won the League Cup and the League he went onto retain the title, won the Community Shield, he then won the FA Cup, set a new record for unbeaten league matches at home and took the club to various knockout stages of the Champions League.

Abramovich wanted more, and his differences with Mourinho didn’t help matters. Soon after conceding the title to rivals Manchester United and a not-so-exciting start to the season, the Special One decided to leave and walked away from Chelsea by mutual consent.

This left Grant to take over, who lost the League Cup final and went on to be knocked out of the FA Cup by Barnsley then lost in the Champions League final on penalties. Abramovich decided this wasn’t up to his high standards so he too had to go. In came Big Phil Scolari, the man that masterminded Brazil’s most recent World Cup title. He was brought in during the summer to high, high expectations but was sacked by February due to poor results.

That brings us to Guus Hiddink.

It has been announced today by Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck that there is no chance of Hiddink staying at Stamford Bridge past the end of this season. The Dutchman has a contract with Russia and has always stated his intention to honour that after the completion of this campaign.

Many are questioning why Hiddink would not want to take up the mantle of leading one of the most powerful teams in the world. However just a quick glance back at the impeccable standard expected from the London club’s management structure would surely give a clear indication as to why Hiddink isn’t jumping over the moon at the offer.

It could be argued that considering the vast amount of money being spent on the team every year that success should rightly be demanded. However Sir Alex Ferguson, didn’t win anything in his first few years as Manchester United manager and is now the most successful boss in English football. People scoffed at Arsene Wenger when he brought in unknown youngster after unknown youngster, yet they grew into a team dubbed the unbeatables. It’s taken Rafa Benitez several years to mount a serious title challenge. Consistent success demands time, time that managers haven’t been given at Stamford Bridge.

Whoever ends up in charge of Chelsea next season has got to do something pretty special, not only win everything, but stay on the merry go round that is the world of the Chelsea manager. It’s probably not going to be Hiddink but whoever takes over can expect a lucrative contract, a heavy severance payment clause and unrealistic expectations by Roman Abramovich.

At least the next Chelsea manager can be assured of one thing – if they don’t do well, the best part of the job might be the day they get fired.

Luiz Felipe Scolari shed some insight into his situation at Chelsea right before he was given the pink slip by Roman Abramovich on Monday. He admitted that he had no relationship with his players off the pitch, and took several players (their initials are D.D. and F.M.) to task for not playing well. Oh, and he believes that Robinho would have solved all his problems.

By the way, Chelsea are hemorrhaging funds, and that doesn’t include Scolari’s expected £7.5m buyout. Hmm… They paid Mourinho and Grant a combined £23 million. That’s £30.5m for their last three managers. You know who they could have gotten for (almost) that amount of money? Here’s a hint, he plays at Manchester City, he really wanted Kaka to come over, and he scored one of the sweetest goals you’ll ever see against Italy, this past Tuesday.

It will be a tense weekend in the Beckham home, and not because Becks’ alleged former paramour is pregnant. L.A. Galaxy is expected to decide on Friday if they want to sell their prized asset to A.C. Milan. Becks, for his part, seems to be shunning the Milan night life, much to Posh’s happiness.

The ageless Ryan Giggs has signed a new contract with Manchester United. Hey, if he keeps scoring them like this, then he’s a steal as far as I’m concerned.

Sven Goran Eriksson got the dreaded vote of confidence from the Mexican Football Federation as he continues to be linked to Portsmouth. By the way, one of his assistant coaches slapped U.S. defender Frankie Hejduk after the U.S. defeated Mexico on Wednesday. Stay classy Mexico!

Unsettled Tottenham striker Darren Bent is upset and he isn’t going to take it anymore! No truth to the rumor that Harry Redknapp asked for that vow in writing.

Virgin Airlines has capitalized on Robbie Keane’s misery. That ain’t right.

Louis Saha hopes to be back, this weekend, for Everton’s F.A. Cup tie with Aston Villa. In other news, it’s showing in Hell and Godot finally showed up.

Want to know way more about Andrei Arshavin than you ever wanted to?

What would fans prefer to see and pay to watch: entertaining, attacking football which might result in their team losing the odd game, or a defensive, effective game that brings trophies and titles?

Chelsea seem to be struggling with this dilemma this season. Jose Mourinho was delivering titles and trophies to Stamford Bridge but Roman Abramovich wanted more – he put a lot of money into Chelsea and wanted to be entertained.

Mourinho was winning games but Cheslea weren’t overly entertaining. They would score a goal and then see the game out, relentlessly picking up three points after three points. They’d show the occasional glimpses of brilliance but Mounrinho was never too keen on his full-backs getting forward, with Ashley Cole famously restricted as a result.

Under Phil Scolari, Chelsea are set up to attack. The midfield and full-backs are encouraged to push forward and for the early part of the season Chelsea were irresistible, hammering sides and playing some great football. But other teams in the Premiership have worked them out and are able to snuff out their main threats, and Scolari seems at a loss to change things round when they’re not going so well.

They’ve lost their unbeaten home record and are looking vulnerable, and the defence – lacking Carvalho – is often exposed. In fact, incredibly, despite their lofty league position, one newspaper revealed this week that Scolari has made the worst start of any manager under Abramovich when it comes to his win record.

So coud Abramovich be getting a little twitchy? The fans didn’t want to see Mourinho leave and some are starting to get restless. They might be being entertained but that won’t mean much if they have a trophyless season. There’s a comparison to be had with Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. They’re a great team to watch but haven’t won anything since 2005. There’s no better team on their day but would their fans, on occasion, prefer the 1-0 victories of old?

By Louise Moran, who blogs about football betting at Betfair.com

There are some interesting rumors floating out there today. Is Lukas Podolski staying or going? Are Everton looking for a new striker? Are Tottenham looking to replace Gomes as their goalkeeper? What big name could be heading to the U.S.? And are Manchester City preparing to shatter the transfer record once again?

Manchester City’s Audacious Moves

Manchester City could be preparing to bid up to £60 for Chelsea and England skipper, John Terry, and make him the highest paid player in the world at £200,000 a week. Manchester City could also bid up to £30 for Terry’s teammate, Ashley Cole.

Analysis: I’d be absolutely shocked if Terry went to City. Then again, if Terry is sore about Frank Lampard’s contract and unsure of Chelsea’s finances (Roman Abramovich is rumored to be losing interest and they’re reportedly sitting out the January transfer window), then you never know. As for Cole, the price seems extremely high, but clearly, the Abu Dhabi group doesn’t care about that.

Real Madrid Snag Huntelaar?

Real Madrid look like they’re going to get a top striker after all as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar may finally be on the move away from Ajax for £17 million.

Not so fast, Tottenham, Everton, and Manchester City. The anticipated bidding war for the services of Bayern Munich striker, Lukas Podolski, took a turn as Bayern officials have stated that Podolski will remain with the team until the summer, whereupon he’ll return to his former club, Cologne.

Analysis: Indications are that Podolski doesn’t want to leave Germany due to family reasons. Podolski has said he wants to leave in the winter, but he’s been mum about where he wants to go. We’ll see if this is genuine or if it’s simply a ploy to get more money.

Everton in for Martins?

If David Moyes can’t get Podolski, then he could very well make a play for Newcastle’s Obafemi Martins. Martins threw a tantrum after being taken off over the weekend, and his days at St. James Park could be numbered.

Analysis: The Toffees desperate need a striker, what with Yakubu’s season-ending injury and Saha’s chronic lack of fitness (some things never change…). Expect them to be in the running for any moderately priced striker from here on out.

Spurs Looking for New Keeper?

With incumbent goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes’s well-documented struggles, Tottenham is looking to appropriate part of their massive January budget towards finding a new goalkeeper. Newcastle seem determined to hold on to Shay Given, which leaves West Ham’s Robert Green as the top target, with Bolton’s Jussi Jääskeläinen and Wolves’ Carl Ikeme also on the list. Meanwhile, Gomes’ deputy, Cesar Sanchez, could be moving to Valencia.

Analysis: You’d think that a goalkeeper would be higher on their list of priorities, given Gomes’ struggles. For some reason, the board continues to chase midfielders and strikers when they already have a bunch of them on board.

Roman Abramovich really is a Chelsea fan – and we have a 134-page ruling from Mr Justice Christopher Clarke to prove it.

The ruling, dealing with a Siberian oil dispute, reveals a great deal of information about Abramovich’s lifestyle. It emerged that as much as 92 per cent of the time he spent in England in any given year was specifically connected with Chelsea matches, rather than any personal or professional ties.

Mr Justice Clarke rules that the club, on which he has lavished around £500m, was a ‘hobby and a leisure interest’. ‘It is not a business investment,’ the judge determined. ‘The sums that Mr Abramovich has given to the club far exceed any return that could possibly be expected.’

If that doesn’t convince you, little will…

The news is full of how the financial crisis / credit crunch / economic recession / clusterfuck is putting pressure on football clubs with debts and / or billionaire owners.

But there are positives to be found for a few (prospective) owners, provided they play the situation to their advantage.

Chelsea and Roman Abramovich

If one accepts that Roman is at Chelsea for the long run then Chelsea are best placed to ride out the current financial crisis and even come out at the other end as a profitable club. They have the resources and commitment to be leaders in football in the long run even if it means taking a hit in the short term. The financial crisis means that Chelsea’s future earnings will fall short of projections which in turn will lead Chelsea to cut costs while remaining competitive so that they meet their footballing and financial targets. It might even mean compromising on results in some ways, with Champions League qualification being the minimum requirement instead of a top-2 finish every season.

However, unless Roman loses everything he has, I don’t see why he would sell Chelsea. If anything, he would be more committed to ensuring that Chelsea start earning a profit. Trust a young billionaire to have the insight and determination to make that happen.

Arsenal and Usmanov

Usmanov isn’t as rich as Roman and more vulnerable to the financial crisis, but he is still better off than Arsenal or Arsenal’s primary shareholders. The board is squarely against him but the credit crunch will do two things – one, it will put pressure on Arsenal via the debt (Arsenal fans should thank Wenger for his prudence – if that 40m overdraft had been used, Arsenal would be under more pressure now…then again they might also be champions) and two, it will provide more incentive for shareholders to sell.

The board don’t have to sell, don’t need to sell, but the board don’t own all the shares and have so far failed to make moves to secure enough shares as a group to prevent Usmanov from launching a proper takeover bid or taking 51% control of the club. Usmanov’s target is 25%, he has 24% already, the current climate just makes it more likely for him to get a minor shareholder to sell and pick up the shares he desires.

Usmanov will be looking at the coming recession as a opportunity for him to gain leverage at Arsenal while trying to ensure that fans accept him, even if they don’t love him.

Who said it was tough on the billionaires?