AVB : The season and what went wrong

On 22nd june 2011 Andre Villas Boas left Porto FC to join the English side Chelsea FC. On a deal which saw Chelsea pay 15million Euros to the Portuguese side to avail his services. At a tender age of 34 AVB was regarded as one of the most talented young managers in world football. After an amazing season with FC Porto which saw him lift the Portuguese league,cup,Portuguese super cup and also the UEFA cup (now known as Europa Cup). Villas Boas side went unbeaten that season with 27 victories to their name. Villas Boas was highly regarded in world football. Having worked besides the likes of Sir Bobby Robson and Jose Mourinho the expectation level on the guy's shoulders were high. AVB worked well in the transfer window signing the likes of Spanish duo Oriol Romeu and Juan Mata as well as Liverpool mid-fielder Meireles. Villas Boas had an amazing start to his pre-season career in Chelsea with lifting the Barclays Asia trophy and managed to win all his pre season games with Chelsea. AVB's first game in-charge was against Stoke city at the Britannia stadium which saw his side held to a 0-0 draw. AVB finally lost his first game for Chelsea away to Champions Manchester United 3-1 which saw Fernando Torres's miss of the season. Villas Boas's signings had a quick impact with Juan Mata and Oriol Romeu having an amazing start to their Premier League career with both of them starting regularly. Villas Boas had his plans simple and quite straight forward. He wanted to re build this Chelsea side by replacing the likes of Frank Lampard,Didier Drogba to name a few. Villas Boas plans were working pretty decent with Daniel Sturridge hitting his peak form under the Portuguese manager with the likes of Mata and Meireles supporting him,but all was not well in that Chelsea dressing room with the likes of Lampard un-happy with the lack of appearances they were getting under the manager. Villas Boas suffered his first set back when his side crashed out of League cup after loosing to Liverpool at Stamford Bridge 2-0. This defeat was followed by 3 back to back wins against Wolves,newcastle and Valencia with the same score line of 3-0. Victory against Valencia also saw Chelsea top their Group E and qualify to the knock out rounds of the UEFA Champions league.Villas Boas's Chelsea also defeated undefeated Manchester City at the Bridge 2-1 in the league and things looked good for the Portuguese manager. Pressure again started to rise when Chelsea lost 2-0 to Everton which saw Villas Boas's men put up an unconvincing performance and drop put of the top 4. Come January Villas Boas signed Bolton star defender Gary Cahill to Chelsea,but that deal had little affect as Villas Boas hardly gave Cahill an appearance. Pressure continued to mount on Villas Boas after his side lost to Napoli 3-1 in the UCL. Villas Boas had left out Chelsea stars Frank Lampard,Ashley Cole out of the playing XI. The final nail in the coffin arrived when AVB's side lost to West Brom 1-0 in the league which saw them 3 points behind of Arsenal and outside a top 4 place in the league. AVB was later on relieved of his duties and assistant manager and ex-Chelsea player Roberto Di Matteo was handed over the mantle.

What went wrong: The aim AVB had was quite clear and  it was something Chelsea really need right now. But the timing was all wrong and the personnel he had were not good enough. Villas Boas started the transformation period a little too early. He should have looked to establish himself for the first 2 seasons and slowly and steadily should have worked upon the rebuilding phase. Replacing the likes of Lampard and Drogba was never going to be an easy task and Villas Boas started this phase a little to early. Villas Boas should have slowly and steadily invested in the transfer window and looked for the ideal replacements of his ageing squad. The biggest blow for AVB in the transfer window was the failure to sign Croatian midfielder Luka Modric from Spurs. The Chelsea team lacked creativity and AVB's tactics demanded more attacking and creative players. The high line that AVB played in the defense was another factor that haunted him more than often. Ageing Chelsea defenders lacked pace and high line meant tracking back and the likes of Terry,Ivanovic lacked pace with Luiz the only defender with a good amount of pace at his disposal. AVB had issues with the senior players as well when his tactics were being questioned openly in the media by the senior players after a string of bad results and he definitely lacked the backing of his dressing room.

-Shikharr Chandra
Follow me on Twitter: @ShikharrC