Ancelloti No Longer a Blue!

Roman Abramovich made the decision that Ancelloti can do nothing more for Chelsea F.C.  After winning no silverware this year, and barely finishing 2nd place, Roman decided that Chelsea needed a new manager.  Carlo Ancelloti has just finished his second year as coach of Chelsea, which is the longest a coach has been there in recent years.


Ancelloti will no longer
coach Chelsea FC

 In the 2009/10 season, Ancelloti led Chelsea to a double, winning the League and the FA Cup, something they had never done before.  They won the league scoring over 100 goals.  Didier Drogba, Chelsea striker, received the Golden Boot and Petr Cech, Chelsea goalkeeper received the Golden Glove.  The 2009/10 season was very successful for the club.

During the summer, Chelsea let go of Joe Cole, Michael Ballack, Juliano Belleti, Ricardo Carvalho, Deco, and many more.  They brought in only four players to counter all the releases, bringing in Yossi Benayoun, Ramires, and others.  In my opinion, this is where Chelsea's downfall began.  This is where the domino's began to fall.  By letting go of three key midfielder players, and only bringing in two, they lost a man in their depth at midfield.  And what happened mid-season?  Yossi Benayoun suffers a major injury, as well as Frank Lampard.  Now, you really wish you still had the hustler Joe Cole, the powerhouse Ballack, and the crafty Deco.

Over the winter transfer window, Roman brings out the big bucks.  He buys Benefica defender David Luiz and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.  So far, and this post was written the day Ancelloti was let go, Torres has scored one goal in a Chelsea jersey.  David Luiz has scored more goals than he has.  Now, I'm not doubting Torres' abilities, the man is absolutely amazing.  However, I for one believe that it will take time for Torres to become comfortable with the Chelsea attacking style.  Chelsea likes to hold possession and make their goals as fluent as possible.  Liverpool were very "jerky", and when Torres was healthy, much of their attack was giving him the ball in either a long ball or through ball and letting him do his thing. 

Fernando Torres
Chelsea Striker

Now, I'm 100% sure that either Chelsea or Torres will tweak their style just a little to accomodate the other effectively and precisely.  If Torres can effectively use the other amazing players that help him on the attack, they will be unstoppable.  However, this syncing did not happen in the 4 months he's been there, and no one should have expected it too.  Now, he's got a long summer, and this will give them time to slow down, and become accustomed with each other as a team.

It seems as if things simply just "went wrong" for Carlo this year.  Injuries, and a lot of missed chances failed to give Chelsea any silverware this year.  However, no one should forget the high points of Chelsea's season.

Up until Week 15, Chelsea was in 1st place.  After a winless six weeks, they dropped as far as 5th.  They bounced between 5th and 4th up until Week 28.  5th place...a week later, 4th place...2 weeks later, 3rd place...4 weeks later, 2nd place.  In Week 36, they had the chance of the season to secure the Barclay's Premier League title.  But, they were stopped short by Manchester United, and the title went out of reach.  Prior to that game, they were on a 10 game non-losing streak, and a 6 game winning streak.  Chelsea F.C. overall have a good season, but it just wasn't quite enough, and they decided a managerial change was in order.

Next season, I don't believe Chelsea need to spend a lot of money.  One quality midfielder will do the trick.  They have a lot of youth coming back from loans (Mancienne, Kakuta, Sturridge) and should look forward to next year, and simply look back at this season as a "bump in the road".

Ancelloti did a fabulous job as Chelsea's manager, and I wish him luck in wherever he plans on going next.

What do you think on Chelsea's season and the removal of Ancelloti?