On this day in 2012, Andre Villas-Boas left Chelsea as former midfielder Roberto Di Matteo was appointed interim supervisor till the top of the season.
Villas-Boas, 34, misplaced the job he had held for simply eight months lower than 24 hours after a 1-0 defeat at West Brom which left the Blues sitting in fifth place in the Premier League desk and having received simply 5 of their earlier 15 video games in all competitions.
The Portuguese had been recruited at nice expense – round £13.3million – as Carlo Ancelotti’s alternative by then Chelsea proprietor Roman Abramovich in June 2011 and handed the duty of overhauling an ageing squad after successful a exceptional quadruple with Porto.
However, he rapidly discovered himself below stress and stories of dressing room unrest coupled with faltering type prompted the membership to behave forward of an FA Cup journey to Birmingham and an impending Champions League showdown with Napoli.
In an announcement, they stated: “Unfortunately the outcomes and performances of the workforce haven’t been adequate and have been displaying no indicators of bettering at a key time in the season.
“The membership remains to be competing in the latter phases of the UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup, in addition to difficult for a top-four spot in the Premier League, and we purpose to stay as aggressive as doable on all fronts.
“With that in mind, we felt our only option was to make a change at this time.”
Assistant Di Matteo was positioned in short-term cost and made somewhat a superb fist of it, at the least initially.
The Italian guided Chelsea to FA Cup closing victory over Liverpool after which famously on the Allianz Arena, a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League closing as Didier Drogba, whose late header had taken the sport to additional time, transformed the decisive spot-kick to finish Abramovich’s quest for European glory.
Di Matteo’s reward was a everlasting two-year contract, though his reign too proved short-lived when he was sacked after simply 5 months on the helm.
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