A Brit in charge of Chelsea? Why Abramovich wrong to ignore local revolution
COMMENT: A British manager at Chelsea? Could this season's shake-up spread to the Blues board?
The revolution isn't happening in Turin. Nor Munich. Nor Madrid. The best football. The biggest transformations. They're all happening under the nose of Roman Abramovich in England.
Never in the history of the Premier League has those with tickets to the Brit, Selhurst Park or Goodison seen a better brand of football.
Stoke City at the Britannia has always been a fortress. But nothing like it is today. Under Tony Pulis it was scrappy. Nasty. Survival of the fittest stuff. Today, it's still a test of bottle, but you'll also get swept away by the genius of Mark Hughes' carefully assembled attack.
Alan Pardew has Crystal Palace sitting fifth on the table with a team full of power, but also with pace and guile from the likes of Yohan Cabaye and Wilfried Zaha. And then there's Everton and Roberto Martinez. The UK can claim the Spaniard, given he's been on the island for over 20 years. Really, do you need to say more about his Everton team? Kevin Keegan would be proud. The players are actually complaining to the manager that they're too attacking, too wide-open. Manchester United players must be crying over their cornflakes when reading this in their morning paper.
And what makes it all so exciting is that all three managers are employing a style of play in the very best of British football traditions. There's no possession game. No tippy-tappy, la-di-dah stuff from this lot. Rather than Louis van Gaal's philosophy of 'you can't score if we have the ball', its more 'you score three, then we'll score four'. Which was the absolute approach of Martinez and Hughes for the seven-goal thriller at Goodison on Monday.
We've all talked about the massive TV revenue flowing into the Premier League and what that means to clubs outside the top four. All of sudden, not only can the likes of Stoke and Palace raid the Bundesliga for major talent, they also have the resources to keep hold of their best players.
But the Premier League's cash power actually goes further. It allows British managers to go out and sign a standard of player unlike never before. As happened with Peter Coates of Stoke, Bill Kenwright at Everton and Steve Parish at Palace, with the right, supportive chairman (apologies to Big Sam), British managers now do not need that Champions League job to identify, buy and work with top drawer talent. Eddie Howe, at Bournemouth, has just taken Juan Manuel Iturbe off the hands of Roma - a Champions League participant this season. Howe has shown he can bring out the best in good, British talent. Now he gets the chance to work with a player likened to Lionel Messi just a few years ago. And this is happening at Dean Court - not Old Trafford or Anfield.
At Chelsea, post-Guus Hiddink, the usual suspects are in the frame. Diego Simeone of Atletico Madrid. Massimiliano Allegri at Juventus. And Sevilla's Unai Emery. All good coaches, with impressive CVs. What Chelsea will be getting with these three are proven title winners.
But none of their teams have produced the brand of football we've seen at Stoke, Everton and Palace this season.
Surely at Cobham, the way Martinez has brought the best out of Romelu Lukaku hasn't gone unnoticed. And if Emery is a serious contender, it's worth reminding those concerned that at Sevilla, Gerard Deulofeu couldn't get a game, yet with Everton, working with Martinez, he's been outstanding to the point where Barcelona are considering buying him back.
Hughes has his Chelsea ties and now, after QPR, his reputation. The thought of him not being under consideration at Stamford Bridge is ridiculous. And then there's the Londoner Pardew. With Yannick Bolasie and Zaha exploding down the flanks and Cabaye pulling the strings, he has Palace incredibly in the race for Champions League qualification.
"Pardew did a marvellous job in this period he's working there," so says, of all people, Hiddink.
"Clubs shouldn't be afraid, at least to interview and give British managers a chance."
Where is the League Managers' Association in all this? They're good at moaning when a local manager gets the sack. But what about highlighting the transformation we're now witnessing? And how the commercial drive of the Premier League is actually benefiting British coaching?
Seeing Hughes, Martinez or Pardew in the home dugout at Stamford Bridge is a long shot. But Abramovich should think long and hard about going foreign again.
The wingers. The thrill-a-minute football. The British managers. Maybe Blues fans won't see it at the Bridge, but it will keep happening elsewhere in the Premier League.
This revolution isn't going away.
INJURY TIME
So what about this for a Chelsea dream team? Guus Hiddink as technical director. John Terry as manager. With Didier Drogba and Steve Holland his assistants.
Of course, something like this always looks great on paper. But with Terry taking his coaching badges and Drogba set to join Hiddink's staff in the coming days, such a team isn't beyond reality.
Hiddink would provide the experience and a sounding board for Terry. Holland the technical know-how. Drogba would act as a liaison with the locker room. And Terry simply the inspiration - just as Kenny Dalglish did with Liverpool.
Roman Abramovich needs to break this cycle of manager sackings and player power. Something as radical as giving Terry the job, with the required support staff, could just be the solution.
