Why are Chelsea chasing boss’ whose record are simply not that good?

Football FanCast guest
columnist Andrew Brook wonders why Chelsea are chasing managers
with records that are simply not that good.

IT SEEMS everyone now believes what Guus Hiddink has
been telling them ever since he came to Chelsea – he won't be at the club next
season.

So thoughts now turn to who will be in the managerial hotseat come the start of
next season.
The smart money (he is odds-on with the
bookies) is on Carlo Ancelotti and fair enough too as Ancelotti is saying
so often that he isn't going to Chelsea that he surely must be.

The reason, simply, is Ancelotti's experience with Europe's biggest clubs,
having managed AC Milan since 2001 and Juventus for two seasons before that.

That Ancelotti has only won Serie A once in ten seasons with Italy's two most
successful clubs is seemingly irrelevant.

Fair enough, he lifted the Champions' League in 2003 and 2007, but this season
Milan are 10 points behind their great rivals Inter with two matches left,
having last season failed to qualify for the Champions' League.

The other candidate seemingly high on Chelsea's list is Dutchman Frank
Rijkaard, another man with the much-celebrated big club experience.

Rijkaard won two La Liga's and a Champions' League in five seasons at
Barcelona, a decent return, but the team he left after two trophyless seasons,
has since risen under Josep Guardiola to a League and Cup double with a
Champions' League final waiting.

Guardiola's success should tell Chelsea everything they need to know -
experience is not everything.
Rijkaard himself came to Barcelona on the back of relegation in Holland with
Sparta Rotterdam.
No-one is suggesting that Chelsea should do as Barcelona did and pluck a man
from the youth team to manage their first team, but why are they chasing
managers with records which, simply, aren't that good.

Chelsea's most successful manager is Jose Mourinho, who, although he had won
the Champions' League, had come across nothing more taxing domestically than
the Portuguese league.
And then Avram Grant came within goal difference and penalties of a Premier
League/Champions' League double, having previously only managed teams in
Israel.

There are plenty of managers capable of running a top-four club, but have just
never been asked to do so.

Roy Hodgson has taken Fulham from certain relegation to the Europa League
places in a season and a half (and even had a spell at Inter Milan if Chelsea
are desperate for some big-club experience.)
David Moyes and Martin O'Neill have taken sides consistently lingering in the
bottom half to the top-six.

Harry Redknapp has lifted Tottenham from bottom to eighth since October.

It would take a lot to budge these managers from their current clubs (although
Hodgson might be persuaded), but come on Chelsea show some imagination.

Laurent Blanc is set to win the French title in just his second season of
management with Bordeaux after seven years of Lyon dominance.

The Blues have already missed out on Felix Magath with Schalke 04 snapping him
up from the summer, before which Magath will probably win Wolfsburg's first
Bundesliga in their history, following doubles with Bayern Munich in 04-05 and
05-06.

But let's look closer to home. Why not give Hodgson a crack? Or wouldn't it be
great if Tony Pulis became the new man at the Bridge?

Or, and secretly I think we all want this, following his sacking by Juventus,
just give the job back to Claudio Ranieri.