Andre Villas-Boas Take Heart, There's Life After Chelsea

It's the stretch run in England and a few things are as consistent as the mail.  United have a shot at the title, Arsenal have decided fourth is the new first and Chelsea have fired their manager.

The breaking point for Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's itchy trigger finger came in Saturday's 1-0 loss to West Bromwich Albion that saw Chelsea fall three points behind Arsenal and the final Champions League place.

And so, eight months after taking over at Stamford Bridge (and at least a few weeks after falling out with parts of the locker room), Andre Villas-Boas finds himself unemployed.

But if he takes a look at the list of managers who have preceded him in not filling the Jose Mourinho shaped hole at the top of Chelsea's football operations, he can take heart in the thought that he will probably land on his feet.

Whatever his predecessor's fates, whether big clubs or little clubs (although almost always for big money), AVB can take heart from this list.

Avram Grant

The former manager of the Israeli national team, Grant had the honor of following Mourinho into the spotlight at Chelsea.  And despite taking his new team to a second place Premier League finish and coming within a John Terry penalty kick of winning the 2008 Champions League final, he was fired after just one campaign.

The next season Grant landed in a tragic Portsmouth front office, only to take over on the sidelines after Paul Hart's dismissal.  The club struggled to pay the players and the creditors and saw a crucial nine points deducted in the standings when it entered administration.

Despite the off-field drama, Grant led Portsmouth on a run in the FA Cup that saw them reach the finals and put up a valiant fight before succumbing to Grant's old club, Chelsea.

When Portsmouth was relegated at season's end, Grant moved on to West Ham where he promptly managed the team directly to the bottom of the table.  Despite overseeing a side that only managed two wins from its first 18 games, Grant held on to his job until May when West Ham had mathematically ensured relegation.

In January of this year, Partizan Belgrade announced Grant as their new manager.  His one-year deal kicked off with an Iranian team refusing to play a scheduled friendly with the Serbian side because Grant is Israeli.  Grant takes over a Partizan side currently sitting atop the league table.

Luiz Felipe Scolari

Chelsea wasn't satisfied with the job done by an obscure national team manager in Grant, so they next went for a slightly higher profile national team manager.

Luiz Felipe Scolari had taken over a struggling Brazilian national team and led it to a 2002 World Cup win.  After leaving that position, he went on to guide Portugal through two Euros and a semifinal run at the 2006 World Cup.

Scolari's Chelsea sat at or near the top of the table throughout the 2008-09 season.  But a run of mid-season matches that saw Chelsea win just four out of 12 dropped the club into fourth place.  That proved too much for Abramovich to handle and Scolari was fired.

The financially astute Scolari didn't have to wait long before cashing in on his availability.  In June 2009, he agreed to a contract with Uzbek club Bunyodkor that made him the world's highest paid manager.  He won the league in his first year, but it proved to not be enough.  Bunyodkor and Scolari agreed to part ways in May 2010 after the team crashed out of the Asian Champions League.

Less than a month later, Scolari returned to Brazil to take over Palmeiras.  Currently this season, Scolari's Palmeiras sits second in the Paulista.

Guus Hiddink

Hiddink came to Chelsea as a caretaker manager while simultaneously managing Russia's national team.  He stated that he had no intention on staying long-term, and he was as good as his word.

Taking over a fourth place Chelsea, Hiddink restored their good form and finished the season winning 11 of 13 matches.  It was enough to secure a third place league finish and the enthusiastic backing of Chelsea fans who chanted his name and begged him to stay.

Hiddink also took home a trophy from his short tenure by winning the FA Cup with a 2-1 result over Everton.

But he always said he would leave at the end of the season and he did, making himself the only Chelsea manager during the Roman Abramovich era to leave the club on his own terms.

Hiddink returned to Russia and just missed out on qualifying for World Cup 2010.

His next stop was in Turkey where he led the national team's failed quest to qualify for Euro 2012.

Just last month, free spending Russian club side Anzhi Makhachkala announced Hiddink had accepted an offer to become their manager.  He joins high profile players such as Samuel Eto'o, Yuri Zhirkov and Roberto Carlos who have all made big money moves to the club.

Carlo Ancelotti

AVB's predecessor at Chelsea, Carlos Ancelotti, came to the job with every qualification in the world to fulfill his new boss' yearning for a Champions League trophy.  After all, he'd already done it twice with AC Milan.

Ancelotti won the league and domestic cup double in his first season in charge.  But two successive early exits from the Champions League sealed the Italian's fate.

Dismissed at the end of last season, it took Ancelotti just a few months to land on his feet when he accepted the top job at newly oil-rich Paris Saint-Germain in December.  After three months in charge, Ancelotti's PSG is leading the league and seemingly being tied to transfer deals for every big name player in the world.

It makes you wonder if they might have a few dollars left over for a newly freed up Portuguese coach.