Did AVB inherit an ageing deterioting team or is he to blame for Chelsea's poor form?

Andre Villas Boas has been talked about a lot in the press in recent weeks and more so after Chelsea's 2 vs. 1 defeat at home to Liverpool. They are already questioning his position as manager of a team he has been in charge of for just 12 Premier League games! Can a manager have such a negative affect on a top team like this? A young manager who performed very well in his previous year at Porto with a glowing reputation in the game. I don't believe he is to blame.



AVB inherited a team on the decline in my opinion. A team that has been greatly affected by the non stop chopping and changing of managers in the past few years. A team that has been built successfully on a fantastic talented spine of the team in Cech, Terry, Lampard and Drogba, the later 3 are all on a rapid decline as they reach the end of their careers. Players like these need support from a new breed, something that doesn't seem to be happening too much at Chelsea. Instead they are opting to buy players in and midfielders such as Mikel, Ramires and Meireles are not of the quality of the previous crop. The Fernando Torres situation is continuing to bring the team down. A player bought for £50 million with Premier League experience is a shadow of his former self and continually struggles to find the net in the Blue colors. Defensively David Luiz has been bought in to support the experience of John Terry, but he too has struggled immensely, proving to many he is not really a natural centre back.

This is only the half of it, as Ashley Cole is in poor form at left back and the other full back Bosingwa has struggled a lot this year, leaving centre back, Ivanovic to fill the gap, something he is not exactly 100% comfortable with. I have mentioned positions all over the pitch that are a current problem for Chelsea, so how is this down to new manager AVB?

Yes he picks the side, yes he picks the formation and yes he instructs how he wants his team to play. But it is ultimately down to the players on the park who are not performing to their potential. Maybe Chelsea are in a similar position to that of Arsenal at the start of the season, in a stage of transition. I believe this is certainly true for Chelsea and it is at this stage the chairman, Roman Abramovich, needs to give a manager time for the rebuilding process. This does not happen over night, but if done correctly, like Manchester City, it can be very successful.

Only time will tell, but I believe AVB should be given a chance to rebuild the ageing Cheslea team. The players for me need to take the majority of the brunt of the recent poor performances and rectify this throughout their next games. The only thing standing in the way is whether Abromovich has got the patience to stick with AVB, something he hasn't shown much of in the past.

SAY NO TO RACISM AND SAY YES TO BLATTER OUT

It is shocking to realise that in 2011 and the way our world is, that racism is still a big problem around the world, let alone in the sporting environment on the football pitch. But it is. We have the investigation into the alleged racist offences by John Terry and Luis Suarez taking place by the FA and the police in this country, one which if found guilty should bring about huge punishments. For John Terry it could seriously mean no more England career with the FA very keen to clamp down on racism. However, innocent until proven guilty certainly exists and I would not make any comments until that's the case, unlike that of FIFA president Sepp Blatter.



The man is the head of FIFA, the world governing body for football and he's put his ageing foot in it again. Sepp Blatter has been in charge of FIFA since 1998. He has made gaff after gaff including stating that in the women's game the players should wear tighter fitted jerseys, and that during the World Cup in Qatar where homosexuality is illegal, he stated that homosexuals should refrain from any contact during this time. And now this one, the biggest gaff of them all:

"Racist language on the field is like foul play and foul language. It happens in the heat of the moment on the football pitch and should be settled after the game with a handshake."

Words cannot describe how disgraceful these comments are. It is yet another sign of a man who's beliefs are out of date to the current state of the world. This is not the man that should be leading the charge against racism, as he claims to be doing. This is not the man that should be in charge of leading the fight to get more young people into the sport no matter what social or racial background their from. This is not the man that has the capabilities to take this sport forward. Simple.



Blatter has been explaining that he has been miss quoted, which is impossible because these comments were made straight out of the horses mouth. He claims that he is strongly against racism, that he led the fight against racism across the world, even using the fact he awarded the 2010 world cup to South Africa as part of his protest. None of these points go to explaining why he believes using racist language on the football field is acceptable.

These comments made could have a devastating affect on the football world from the lowest level up, and we could see issues sore across the world. Too prevent this devastating affect on the game, Sepp Blatter needs to be a man and hand his resignation in. We need to have somebody in charge of football with the beliefs of someone in touch with the 21st century.

GET BLATTER OUT