A short statement on the Chelsea website and Grant’s eight months in charge are over. No-one’s left in open-mouthed disbelief and whilst some have said they ‘feel sorry’ for him, I’ve yet to hear any statements of outrage that the decision was taken to terminate his contract.

He was always on borrowed time as Chelsea manager from the moment he took over from TSO and given the fact he may well have believed Roman & Co had the faith in him they professed to, he was always a lamb to be slaughtered. Taking his ‘record’ into account, it’s hard to imagine that any other manager in such a position could be slated, mocked and abused quite as much. Let’s not forget, this was a manager within spitting distance of Fergie’s ‘best ever’ Utd side in both the league and the Champions League – ask JT! But then, maybe it was precisely when he was up against the best, that his deficiencies really came to the fore?

While Fergie’s brash presence, imposes itself as subtly as Petr Cech’s latest kit, given the touchline as a stage on which to perform, Grant’s dour, unanimated demeanour smacked of stage-fright and was duly heckled by the crowd. He was always on a hiding to nothing stepping into the shoes of a manager the majority hailed their hero and with the players’ failure to respond resulting in football that’d challenge any eyelid to stay open, it really didn’t help his cause. For the most part, the results kept coming, but the entertaining football didn’t and with that being the ‘reason’ for the removal of Grant’s much loved predecessor, it was certainly a stick to beat him with – hard and often. Of course the cup defeats didn’t help his cause much either, drawing the inevitable comparisons with seasons gone by.

Fair play to him though, amid the constant criticism and never-ending speculation we somehow ended up a lot tighter in the title race with Utd than some of our performances suggested we should have, and ironically enough, he managed to etch himself firmly into Chelsea’s history by taking us to our first ever Champions League final. However, with both the big prizes going to our free-flowing rivals, the fact that we’re manager-less again comes as no surprise at all.

On our next manager, Chelsea have said “we will be concentrating all our efforts on identifying a new manager for Chelsea and there will be no further comment until that appointment is made,” but given the fact their previous ‘concentrated efforts’ saw the cone-man take the hotseat, they could be interviewing the ground staff as we speak. The papers of course were proposing replacements way before Le Sulk was pushed towards the penalty spot, with all the usual suspects in the frame, although Frank Rijkaard or Roberto Mancini are looking the most likely.

FRANK RIJKAARD – Well, we know he’s available having collected his P45 from Barca and whilst I’m not convinced by him as a stand-alone, the fact that the other half of his previously successful partnership is already at Stamford Bridge, could result in football that’s much easier on the eye. We also know he’s capable of winning, particularly given a Chelsea style budget, but the downside is that he’s got out of the winning habit in recent times and going up against Fergie might prove too much of a test.

ROBERTO MANCINI – A successful but turbulent season with Inter has seen Mancini storm into the lead of favourites to take the reins at Chelsea. But whilst some will point to three consecutive Serie A titles as proof of his pedigree, it shouldn’t be forgotten that two of these were pretty much by default and he appeared to do his level best to throw this season’s lead away. Best described as ‘Mourinho without charisma’, his style of football and suspect temperament make him a very risky candidate in my opinion.

GUUS HIDDINK – Successful at both club and international level, Hiddink is widely regarded as one of the best tactician’s in the world, with the required style of football to please the boss. However, any interest appears to come purely from the press and not the man himself, so he’s an unlikely candidate. He’s also an old friend of Roman’s and we all know how successful the old boys network has been for us!

SVEN GORAN ERIKSSON – A style of football that doesn’t command the same sort of headlines as his dodgy private life doesn’t really inspire this choice. He may well have had cosy chats with Kenyon in the past, but didn’t fancy the job then and having seen the ride Grant’s had over the past 8 months, I’m not sure a change of heart is on the cards for the ex-England boss.

MICHAEL LAUDRUP – I’m really not sure where this suggestion comes from because while I’ve no doubt he may be making a name for himself, it’s hardly a big enough name to be amongst the list of potential Chelsea managers at the present time.

JOSE MOURINHO – Pushed into the race, to fill column inches I suspect, is a return of The Special One. Undoubtedly the most successful manager in the club’s history and still adored by many of the fans. However, despite the recent building of bridges with Abramovich, a complete U-turn is highly unlikely. Mourinho’s recent press has shown no abatement of his love for controversy and with Roman’s continued desire to see a return of the beautiful game at Stamford Bridge, he’ll know from experience that Mourinho’s not the man to deliver it.

So, that’s a list of possible candidates and I’ve no doubt there’ll be a few more added before the club arrive at their decision. But after such an unstable time at Chelsea I personally just want to see the right manager employed for the right reasons, so that this time, we can give him the right support.

But who is the ‘right man’?

Filed under: Rants