Power Ranking the Five Post-Mourinho Managers Sacked by Roman Abramovich

The Chelsea job is a cursed chalice in world football, there is no doubt about that. Don’t win silverware in a season? It’s the pink slip for you.

Since the fateful departure of Jose Mourinho in 2007, Chelsea has gone from dizzy heights to now pathetic lows that have not been seen ever in the Abramovich era. Let’s examine the managers that have held the position over the last five years, and how they stack up against each other.

5. Luiz Felipe Scolari

Without a doubt, Scolari was the worst manager that Abramovich appointed. He had a great start to his career at Stamford Bridge, taking twenty points from his first eight Premier League matches, but never convinced.

His transfer decisions were confusing, and player management very poor. He chose to bring in a then thirty-one year old attacking midfielder from Barcelona, Deco, to an already slightly aging squad. He foolishly played Deco on the wing, instead of in a central role (where he had the most success), in order to accommodate Frank Lampard. It begs the question as to why he bought Deco in the first place, if he didn’t intend to give him a chance to play to his best.

He also alienated Didier Drogba, moving to a permanent 4-5-1 rotation and leaving Nicolas Anelka up front by himself most of the time. With the wealth of attacking talent at his disposal, was this necessary? This looked doubly foolish after Drogba scored 37 goals the next season under Carlo Ancelotti.

The most telling stat of Scolari’s nightmare reign was that he failed to beat any one of Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal or Tottenham in six attempts.

Chelsea fans heaved a sigh of relief when the Brazilian was sacked.

4. Andres Villas Boas

It was a toss-up between “AvB” and Scolari for the last spot. I only bumped Villas Boas up because he’s made a few transfer decisions which will benefit Chelsea greatly as time passes, namely Oriol Romeu from Barcelona, Gary Cahill, and, of course, Mata.

I honestly feel awful at having to rank him so low, as he was a brilliant man with a vision. His intention was to turn Chelsea into a possession-based, high-pressing, attacking-oriented side, not unlike the type of football Barcelona plays.

It would have made the club more popular as time passed and would also have been a more sustainable brand of football.

However, it takes more than seven months to completely change the culture at a club. The media constantly muttering out his job security and the egos of the more senior players would obviously have not made things easier.

Look for him to ease into a managerial role at another big club next season and script his name among the legends over the next decade.

3. Avram Grant

Yet another casualty of the trigger-happy Roman Abramovich. Grant had barely nine months in charge after the sacking of Mourinho, and did a brilliant job picking up the pieces. He led Chelsea to a second-place finish in the Premier League after an awful start under Mourinho in which they managed to pick up only twelve points from their first eight games.

He made the very important purchases of Nicolas Anelka and Brasinslav Ivanovic in the January transfer window. Anelka in particular proved to be a key player for the Blues over the next three seasons, and was the leading scorer in the Premier League in 2008-09.

His greatest achievement, however, was doing what even Mourinho was unable to do at the club: make the Champion’s League final.

We all know what happened there, and it’s rather sad to think that Grant lost not only his job but also a chance at immortality with the club due to a patch of wet grass on which John Terry slipped.

2. Guus Hiddink

The only manager who did not leave Chelsea because he was fired.

Hiddink took over in February 2009, after Scolari was sacked.

Picture this.

You inherit a squad that is in a right mess. Even though it is probably more talent-filled than any squad in the club’s history, it has slipped to fourth in the league and has been knocked out of the League Cup.

So, what do you do?

Why, win eleven of the thirteen remaining matches for 34 of 39 points in the league, come within a bunch of absolutely abominable refereeing decisions of making the Champion’s League final, and win the F.A. Cup, of course.

Well, at least that’s what you do if you are Guus Hiddink.

He didn’t even have the benefit of a transfer window, and yet turned Chelsea from a discombobulated bunch into winners, setting up their resurgent 2008-09 campaign. Many players in fact begged him to remain with the club, but he maintained that he wanted to return to Russia.

If he had stayed for even one more season, Hiddink would easily be number one on this list. As it is, he provided stiff competition to….

1. Carlo Ancelotti

After all, the Italian only became the first coach in Chelsea’s history to win the Double of the Premier League and FA Cup in the same season, transformed Didier Drogba from a lurking maverick to the best striker in Europe, turned Chelsea into a ferocious attacking unit that scored 103 goals in the league alone and scored seven goals or more in a single game four times, and actually made Chelsea fun to watch.

Nah, he didn’t do much. No idea why he’s ranked at one.