Chelsea Terrace Talk – Irish Examiner Article By Trizia

I imagine that Benitez was very grateful indeed to the very unlucky Jon Walters on Saturday afternoon. Until his timely intervention we  just didn’t look like scoring. Indeed, we were getting to that desperate point again with a few of the players trying those ridiculous long range pot-shots which were invariably very wide of the mark.

As soon as Walters second own goal hit the back of the net, you could almost see the relief and confidence wash over the team and they started playing how we all know they can – confident passing, nice one-twos, some lovely crossing and a accurate Hazard long range shot which should be a contender for goal of the season.

Lampard continued to make the Chelsea hierarchy look foolish not only by scoring (again) but by demonstrating an all round impressive contribution to the game – hopefully no one has burned any bridges and there is still time for someone (Russian) to come to their senses.

If we are to believe what is being printed in the papers, the reason that Lampard and Cole have to go is that they somehow engineered AVB’s sacking. This is simply ridiculous. One thing that has become very evident since Abramovich took over the club, is that he cares little what anyone thinks – whether supporters, papers, pundits – he marches to the beat of his own drum.

He sacked AVB because he wasn’t seeing the type of football that he expected to see and because results had tailed off dramatically. The Russian’s track record with managers tells its own story so to somehow blame these two players does not wash with me. And the fact that they are players who still could contribute to making Chelsea competitive at the very highest level, just smacks at someone petty enough to cut their own nose off to spite their face, There are many questions being asked of the owner at the moment.

There will be the usual suspects (including some Chelsea fans) who claim that criticism of Abramovich in any way is ungrateful or hypocritical – but why should he be exempt from criticism? Owning a football club is a responsibility – you carry the hopes and dreams of thousands of supporters – it’s not just another business to us – no matter how many balance sheets and 5 year forecasts you show us.

Opposition fans will sneer and repeat their mantra that we deserve all we get for having “sold our soul to the Russian”. I’ve never really got this jibe. Firstly, supporters haven’t sold anything to anyone – we had absolutely no choice to whom the club was sold when Bates decided to bale – just as Liverpool and Manchester United had no say in the sale of their clubs.

Secondly, whether a football club is owned by a local lad made good or a foreign billionaire – they still have a responsibility to run that club in a manner that is best for that club – and that does not include getting rid of two of the best players in the world because of a perceived grudge.

Abramovich has been amazing for Chelsea – if he left tomorrow, his legacy would be astonishing and he would quite rightly take up a position at the pinnacle of our history due to his contribution, but he is not, and should never be, untouchable.

He is still relatively new to owning a football club and so perhaps lacks experience in some aspects of the role, despite the number of “experts” he surrounds himself with. Several trees have perished in my past diatribes against his band of advisors so I won’t go there again, but I have to once again voice my plea that it is very over-due that he in-dispersed some football people in amongst his trusted inner circle.

I have no doubts that Roman is a Chelsea fan, I have no doubts he wants what is best for the club – but I do question whether he is best positioned to decide what that is sometimes; this is all despite the fact that he of course has every right to make those decisions. Equally I understand that we as supporters are not best placed to make such decisions either as we would invariable always think with our hearts rather than our heads, which would not be appropriate or commercially viable.

But Abramovich must also acknowledge some of his short-comings in this field (and of those around him) & employ & empower experienced football people to make football decisions – this would increase confidence by supporters and benefit the club which in turn would lead to increased harmony with the fans. Surely that isn’t too much to ask?

Posted by Trizia

(You can see all of Trizia’s articles here)

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