Its easy, and I`ve been guilty of this a lot of late as well, to get carried away with the multitude of class players we`re being linked with, with systems, with signings and with the dreams of breathtaking one-touch attacking football taking the Premiership by storm next season. It`s a lovely notion isn`t it? I have been harking back to the days of Duff and Robben swapping flanks midgame, running at the fullbacks, knocking crosses over for Crespo or Gudjohnsen to get on the end of and just absolutely dominating games for us. I have been remembering fondly the games we were treated to in those halcyon days. One that has always stuck out for me was Fulham away that season. I remember walking away shellshocked. I don`t think I`ve seen Chelsea look that good going forward, so brutally, unstoppably effective, before or since if I`m honest. I`m genuinely excited we`ve been buying some top end wingers.
Of course the romantic notion that we might start doing something similar this season coming depends not on Hulk, Eden Hazard, Marko Marin or the hugely likeable young Belgian Kevin De Bruyne.
How can such romantic notions and lofty expectations be entertained while the managerial situation is as far up in the air as Aaron Mokuena`s studs in his season-ending assault on Robben later that season.
I`d like to think the managerial situation is sorted. I`ve ever said earlier in a previous SOTN that it is my tentatively held belief that Joachim Loew is our new manager and the club are waiting to announce it. But the more I see of the Guardiola reports in the media, the more I start to think that perhaps it might be him after all, and that the charade over wanting to take a sabbatical was just to enable him to leave Catalonia with the locals in good humour and full of praise, rather than outside his house with torches and pitchforks, as they would be had he announced he was leaving them for us. Might he be coming to Chelsea?
I have to say, I`m very split on him. I`d be interested to see how he stacks up against the man in the hotseat right now. So, I`ve decided to do an interview in absentio, and see what shakes out of it. For the record I`ve been senior management level business analyst at two different companies, including global operations director and then MD at my last company. I`ve got extensive HR and strategy planning experience and am one of the top experts worldwide in my field (nothing to do with football alas!) so hopefully I can at least try to lend a professional air to proceedings. The best way to do this I think would be to look at the role qualitatively and quantatively and then assess each candidate using a scoring system. Of course in the real world, you would do this sort of thing before meeting each interviewee and then re-score after you`ve seen them, so you can quantify how well they did in the interview and outline any areas where they are outside your expectations in person.
1 – Tactics
RDM – Tactically versatile, savvy and very “Italian”. Run to Munich showed awareness of different tactical approaches, and the skill to implement them with a group of players not necessarily used to different models. There has been some criticism of being over-defensive against Barca and Bayern, but against Barca it was the only sensible approach, whereas against Bayern we had a lot of key players out and there was a need to screen the back four against a formidable Bayern attack. In both cases we won, although there was a major slice of luck in both ties. Tactics in other key games, notably the two Wembley games against Sp*rs and Liverpool absolutely spot on, and very different in approach. 4/5
JG – Tough one. The Barca side Pep has assembled is without any doubt the finest club side we`ve seen in European football for at least 20 years or more, and contains some of the most dangerous attacking players playing today. He assembled the team and is entitled to stick to his attacking principles, so to judge him on the basis of a lack of versatility shown in a few key games is perhaps unfair. Even so, there have been some instances where a very well organized defence has frustrated them and there has been little evidence of a plan B. Further, Pep`s philosophy is that of one-touch tiki taka football and questions much be raised as to whether this is suitable in the English Premier League. A question I would want to ask him is how suitable he feels this approach is in the faster, more physical English game. Another would be his ideas are on how he might deal with bigger, more physical teams who crowd the middle and refuse to come out of their own half, working very hard to close down the space, push the wingers wide down the channels and having quick counter-attacking players dropping deep to run at the defence pushing up – this is tiki taka Kryptonite. We did it masterfully at the Nou Camp this season and teams will know that if Pep`s Chelsea play like his Barca team did, then this is how you beat them. 8/10 you`ll break them down, but what happens when you can`t? Jury`s out here I think. 3/5
2 – Discipline
RDM – The Chelsea side we saw when AVB left was a disciplined thing. There was no dissent and the players went out and did the jobs they were asked to, save for JT`s idiotic sending off in the Nou Camp. RDM`s style appears to be less rigid than some of his countrymen, but it is clear the players knew the score. There were some big egos in the camp and he controlled them well. 4/5
JG – Pep`s Barca team had a solidarity to it that was perhaps one of its best features. Breaches of discipline were rare in his time, but there were some high profile and very public fallings out with the likes of Ibrahimovic and Toure amongst a couple of others. In a team with the egos he had to deal with, this is perhaps inevitable. What is important is that each time the group of players emerged from each controversy more solid and more unified than before. Pep is similar to RDM in that he isn`t a Cappello style authoritarian and prefers to make the players work with him rather than yield to him. 4/5
3 – Ethos
RDM – The likeable Italian`s ethos is results driven, and he has shown that he will play ugly if he needs to, but that he would rather win pretty where possible. Came under massive criticism from media and footballing governing body heads for winning the biggest prize in club football with “anti-football” but this was just Roberto doing what he knows. The Italian majors have become as successful as they have been on the same basis of rock-solid defending, and nobody called them “anti-football”. Jose played some dire defensive football at Chelsea yet remains a cult hero, so do we really care? Surely football purists appreciate the defensive arts as well as the offensive arts? If so, there is a lot to admire about Roberto`s Chelsea. Scoring this is impossible as there is no definitive answer to say one is more “right” than the other, so 5/5
JG – a key difference to RDM is Pep`s total commitment to good football, and of entertaining the crowd and world at large. His teams do showboat, they do dwell on the ball sometimes but they also play breathtaking football at times. This is core to what JG is all about and tiki taka or not, this is what he`ll be doing at the Bridge if he signs. Pep`s ethos is goals, goals and more pretty pretty goals. It hasn`t worked for Arsenal but could it work for us? Scoring this is impossible as there is no definitive answer to say one is more “right” than the other, so 5/5
4 – Media
RDM – Has shown a remarkably calm manner in dealing with the predatory English media. He clearly understands that AVB`s biggest mistake, perhaps larger than the way in which he treated some senior players, was not to use the media correctly, to work them with him rather than have them work against us. The media find no chinks in the armour to pick at and are beguiled by his calm, smiling, effortlessly cool demeanor and matter-of-fact sense talking. Whoever the next Chelsea boss is, he will have to understand this and RDM does, in spades. If he has a weakness it is perhaps that it is hard to imagine him courting attention and headlines to take the attention and pressure off his players when we lose a game, as Jose was the master at. 4/5
JG – Pep is possibly the best manager in the world when it comes to dealing with the media in Spain. Nobody does it like he does. Cool, calm, insightful and sporting he knows exactly how to speak to the media and to carefully use his playing profile to make them look up to him. Few managers can withstand the harsh spotlight of the Spanish press, but Pep flourishes in understated cool under the same spotlight. Of course he has a bonus because most of the world (Madridista media aside) loves him and the way Barca play football so he has a lot of equity with the neutrals, whereas he`ll have no such luxury in the UK were he to become manager. How might he react to the lies and outright spite and derision that anyone associated with Chelsea can expect from the so-called neutral media? Hard to say. 4/5.
5 – Man Management
RDM – arguably Roberto`s biggest strength. As noted previously there are some giant egos in the Chelsea dressing room, and some massive confidence issues. RDM`s handling of these has been impeccable and the transformation in Drogba, Torres and Kalou when he took over was massive in our two trophy wins. He`s the sort of manager who puts his arm round the player and encourages him, soothing and working out issues sensibly, rather than Jose who would get inside the players` heads and take them apart mentally. My only doubt would be that he has not had to contend with a full dressing room revolt yet, and does he have the steel and authority to lay the law down, hairdryer style when the players are not playing as they should. His sacking at West Brom was amid reports that he had lost the dressing room. What happened there? 4/5
JG – Able to keep a group of players who have won everything going at least two or three times, hungry and motivated. Demonstrated that his players want to play for him in the emotional scenes at the end of the Copa del Ray – they were gutted he left. That says a lot. Even so, he has never had to contend with a three or four game losing streak yet in his career and how might he deal with something like that? It`s a lot more possible at Chelsea than it is at Barca, and Pep would need to be ready for that. 4/5
6 – Marketability/Neutral Appeal
RDM – Roberto is very appealing to the neutrals. He is “old school” Chelsea and from an era where many neutrals liked us and wanted to watch us. He dresses well, comes across very well on television and is marketable. He`s no Jose though. 4/5
JG – Possibly the only manager in the world who holds his own in the cool stakes with Jose Mourinho. Hugely marketable, household name and a legendary player in his time. One of the elite managers in world football with a PR wedge to match. 5/5
7 – Long-term plan
RDM – AVB was all about his “project” but RDM is the sort of manager you could imagine staying and building a Fergie/Gradi-style dynasty at the club, with a stay spanning a couple of decades or more. He is Chelsea in his DNA and no doubt has some fantastic ideas of where he wants us to be in ten years should he still have the manager`s job, even if he perhaps does not have the experience of some of the more senior guys in dynasty-building. 4/5
JG – Pep is as Barca as RDM is Chelsea. It is tough to imagine him staying for as long as Wenger at Arsenal etc just because eventually you know Barca would call him back. Chelsea will never be his home, it is just somewhere he hopes to be successful and earn lots of money before retiring back to Catalonia, either with Barca or without. Even so, the team he left behind is inimitably “his” Barca and it is clear the owner wants someone to put into place a similar project at the Bridge. Question is, would the team he builds if he came be “his” Chelsea or Chelsea`s Chelsea? 3/5
8 – Tactics
RDM – Roberto`s tactical preference has been a more expansive, wider game than we`ve been used to at Chelsea of late. His 4-2-3-1 formation appears the most resilient and balanced solution the recent managers have come up with, and the recent player purchases suggest the board agree with him. Not being glued to a rigid 4-4-2-or-else (or 4-4-3-or-bust) scores Roberto some serious points here, as he has shown that there is indeed a Plan B at Chelsea. 4/5
JG – Exactly the same as RDM, Pep`s Barca adopts a similar system but has shown himself able to play 4-4-3 at times when needed, and has even played three at the back at times. Pep appears more tactically versatile than RDM, but he has a massive squad of top quality players to choose from at Barca, whereas many of RDM`s changes were forced on him. 4/5
9 – The Fans
RDM – Scores highly here. Easily the most popular manager with the fans since Jose and is so popular because he is one of us. The fans are much more forgiving of his mistakes than with those of the men who had gone before him, and this is important. AVB did not last long once the fans turned on him. 5/5
JG – Nominally “Mr Barca” so not a popular figure amongst Chelsea fans, but he is unquestionably one of the top managers in the world and brings with him the sort of trophy-littered CV than makes even the most hardened anti-Barca fan respect him. The fans would turn on him quickly were he to go the same way as AVB, though. 4/5
10 – General sentiment
RDM – the media cannot fathom out why Roberto has not been given the job already. Surely winning the Champions League and the FA Cup is proof enough that he is up to it? Not so, it would seem. Many fans and certain sections of the media think Roberto got lucky and that the trophies flatter him. There is certainly some truth in that, but the players he had to work with and will to win he instilled in the side meant that he made his own luck to a large extent. Judging him on our league position is unfair. Realistically after draws with T*ttenham and Arsenal (very tough games), we could not really have any meaningful hopes of finishing fourth and our performances in the Newcastle and Liverpool games reflected this, with a team with one eye on a Champions League final. Even so, doubts remain. 3/5
JG – Can Guardiola win things without his precious Messi, Iniesta, Xavi etc? Does having the best midfield in the world and the best player in the world scoring 70+ goals this season cover up a multitude of sins? Many Chelsea fans think so. The truth is, if we knew this for sure then Guardiola would already be in the Chelsea hotseat. You cannot argue with the number of trophies he has won over hundreds and hundreds of games for Barca, both as a player and a manager. Doubts remain but he appears on paper to be a superior manager in some metrics to RDM at this stage. 4/5
11 – Mentality
RDM – One of football`s nice guys and someone with a ready smile who even the neutrals like to see do well. 4/5
JG – A born winner. Enough said. 5/5
12 – Luck
RDM – Unquestionably lucky at Chelsea so far. Winners make their own luck and Roberto`s done very well, and importantly taken full advantage of the advantages he`s been given. 5/5
JG – We know exactly how lucky Pep has been at times for Barca as we`ve been on the wrong end of those lucky lucky evenings for him too many times. 5/5
13 – Youth
RDM – He has had arguably a bigger impact in blooding youth than any of his predecessors for the last decade or so, and the advancement of Ryan Bertrand from fringe malcontent certain to leave to one of the most exciting young English players around and a key squad member is testament to this. Still work to be done to convince us that the likes of Nat Chalobah, Todd Kane, Lucas Piazon, Gael Kakuta and the many many young players at Chelsea will get a fair crack, but a step in the right direction for sure. 3/5
JG – Barca have a massive and massively successful youth team set up and Pep has brought some fantastic young players through. The likes of Pedro, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets and others are all La Masia graduates and are all now household names. How much of this is down to Pep and how much is down to the Barca ethos is unclear, but lets not be churlish here – clearly Pep (being a La Masia graduate himself) knows how to bring young players through and is able to do it, has a track record of it and would come to Chelsea with high expectations of what he might do with arguably the world`s second best youth team set up. 5/5
14 – Adversity
RDM – Had a tough time at West Brom in the end and has had to build things with little or no money, in the lower leagues with MK Dons to begin with. He has known adversity and has had to learn from it. Doesn`t score higher because he is still young and has not been relegated in his career. 3/5
JG – Has never known adversity at Barca really and the first season they didn`t either win the title or the Champions League or both, he resigns. A major red flag here, raising doubts over Pep`s strength in adversity. 1/5
15 – CV/Honours
RDM – Has won the Champions League at Chelsea and the FA Cup several times as player and now as a manager. Never won the title, but is still young and his best years are still to come. 3/5
PG – The best CV out there, save for perhaps Jose Mourinho. Has won everything going and won a lot of hearts and minds doing it. 5/5
16 – How “Chelsea” is he?
RDM – Archetypal old school Chelsea, which is a funny thing to say about someone as young as him. He embodies everything Chelsea fans of a certain age love about the club. Bleeds blue. 5/5
JG – Archetypal new school Chelsea in so much as he embodies what Roman is trying to do with the club, from grass roots academy upwards. He might not bleed blue but may as well do as far as the owner is concerned. 4/5
17 – How would he do with the players we have at the club already?
RDM – Demonstrated that he is very able to win things with the players we have, and the strengthening going on over the Summer can only help. Knows English football and knows his tactics. 5/5
JG – We don`t have a Messi, an Iniesta or a Xavi, but we do have a Mata, a Hazard, a Torres, a Lampard and a Terry. Impossible to say for sure, but impression is he`d do ok as the players will respect him. 4/5
18 – Public Profile, what are the implications for the Chelsea brand, globally?
RDM – this is where Roberto is weakest. He is not a household name and although winning the Champions League was a massive boost, he is not in the same league as Mourinho, Ferguson or Guardiola. 2/5
JG – High profile, brand equity gold. 5/5
So, who wins?
I think what we’ve got here is a tighter contest than i thought it would be.
RDM scores 71 out of 90. JG scores 74.
Of course its not as simple as just a matrix which makes me think Gourlay and Co have some interesting interviews coming up.
You thoughts please?
CAREFREE.
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