Hi football fans, word out is that Chelsea are focusing on two options for the vacancy they have available after the sacking of Avram Grant. These two options are none other than Roberto Mancini and Frank Rijkaard who both lost their jobs recently.
With their other targets already preoccupied or having moved elsewhere these two are favorites to land the job. Guus Hiddink pledged his future to the Russian national team , Mark Hughes opted to caoch Manchester City, Jose Mourinho ruled out a return and was appointed coach of Inter, and Milan have declared that they will not let Ancelotti leave. Therefore if you were Chelsea who would you pick Rijkaard or Mancini.
Both these managers have been successful but Frank Rijkaard has the better track record, although Mancini has been more successful in recent times winning three back to back scudettos, while Rijkaard has been titleless in the last two seasons with Barca which ultimately cost him his job.
With Roman Abromovich wanting to see a classier style of football being played at Chelsea and his urge to win the Champions League, if I were Chelsea I would appoint Rijkaard, who has won it unlike Roberto Mancini. I would also appoint Rijkaard for his coaching philosphy and style, which includes playing very attacking football as a cohesive unit. In his system there are no stars and every player is important to the team. This kind of philosophy builds personal morale and subsequently team morale. I'm not particularly sure what coaching philosophy Mancini holds but given the way Barca played when they were in their prime I would choose Rijkaard hands down.
Chelsea are set to conduct interviews with both managers during the kick off of Euro 2008, so as to get some time out of the limelight for once. Regardless of whoever they appoint as coach, I believe either manager would be a good choice. Maybe they could have Rijkaard as head coach and Mancini as assistant or vice versa, as the assistant manager role is also vacant after Henk Ten Cate was also fired. However i could hardly see such prolific managers wanting to coach in an assistant role.
