Chelsea Managerial Battle: Do They Really Need Pep Guardiola?

There shouldn't be any doubt in the football world about Pep Guardiola's rank as the greatest coach in the world. His unique ability to implement not only a successful style of football but also a beautiful game to watch is something which must be admired.

This still begs the question, do Chelsea really need his services?

The obvious answer is no doubt they would. Any club would benefit from having a manager of Guardiola's caliber. However, Chelsea's lack of patience with managers may be a hurdle in Guardiola's transformation of the team.

Andres Villas Boas, arguably the most promising young manager in the world, came in looking forward to bringing a new era of fast attacking football to what was considered a slow aging side. AVB's inability to command Chelsea's strong personalities inevitably led to his downfall.

Guardiola's ability to maintain a very good teal morale amongst a star-studded Barcelona is an amazing achievement, considering the depth of his squad.

Chelsea, on the other hand may be a different story. We've already heard about big name players being disappointed and unhappy about being left out of important matches during AVB's short reign, who's to say they won't react in the same manner under Guardiola?

Roberto Di Matteo has done a remarkable job in turning Chelsea's fortunes. The club was on the brink of elimination in two major trophies: the FA cup and the Champions League as well as slipping out of the top four in the English Premier League. Fifteen games into his managerial career, Di Matteo has guided Chelsea to the finals in both major trophies while still having a chance in playing Champions league football next season.

In many ways, Di Matteo's short-term transformation is more impressive than Pep Guardiola's when he first took over Barcelona. Taking into account the many 'spot fires' the AVB started within Chelsea, it certainly wouldn't have been easy to getting the club back into a winning, happy mentality. Regardless of whether Chelsea win the Champions League or not, Di Matteo for me is the perfect candidate for the position. Guardiola's transition from Spanish football to English football may take so time to adapt and who's to say he can perfect a side and game plan like he has at Barcelona?

Barcelona have been playing beautiful football, however as we saw against Chelsea, attractive football doesn't always win you matches. Over the years we've seen Arsenal play a similar style, consisting of keeping possession and passing the ball around to all lengths of the pitch but have struggled in beating Chelsea.

The strong, intimidating nature of Chelsea's players including Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and even Michael Ballack and Claude Makélélé during their time, proved keeping possession was easier said then done.

Di Matteo's game plan may not be as appealing to most, but like it or not, he's got the entire Chelsea side backing him again and most importantly, he's getting the results that matter. Who knows, maybe Di Matteo may turn out to be a former player managing their club to overwhelming success as Guardiola did?

Only time and patience will tell.