Wandering Wolves

Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Terry Connor remains winless in his first five managerial games, with pressure now increasing on all sides.

The 49 year old initially seemed to have lifted the club inspiring a two goal turnaround in his first game at Newcastle to claim a point, his only point so far. However, since then wolves have shipped fourteen goals in four and the club are now 20th in the league, lower than when Mick McCarthy was sacked.

Connor's appointment as manager capped a farcical week with several managers claiming to have been considered for the job. Chairman, Steve Morgan, has since stated that the position was only offered to one candidate: but if media reports are to be confirmed at least three candidates were interviewed before the promotion of Connor to the managers role.

Connor then seems to be a fall-back option, one without any managerial experience, which probably explains the tepid response from Wolves fans to  Connor's appointment.

To sack a manager of McCarthy's experience (six years international and 14 years at club level) and then appoint his long term assistant is not a forwards step. Being part of the old set-up, Connor would struggle to galvanise the current squad, especially with no opportunity to bring in his own players and start anew.
On paper Wolves are certainly one of the five weakest squads in the Premier League, so their position this season is hardly a huge surprise. Not to say that they deserve to go down, but in terms of quality they are clearly one of the weakest teams in the league.

Getting a squad of this calibre (and on their current form) to suddenly start winning games and moving away from danger would have been a massive achievement. Connor has failed to win from a tough opening set of matches and is now facing criticism from fans and pundits alike but I doubt whether even a Jose Mourinho could have got Wolverhampton winning games.

Opportunistic and baseless articles, see Oliver Holt's piece last week, have even accused Wolves fans of turning on Connor so quickly because of the colour of his skin. Such hyperbole exacerbates the teams woe and without a shred of evidence aims to undermine the standing of Wolves fans.

Just a few miles down the road a straight-forward but effective manager was sacked at Blackburn last year. Like Wolves, the Venkys also plumped for a former assistant manager to bring the club forward, sacking Sam Allardyce before promoting Steve Kean. And in a situation almost identical to Wolves the fans were on the back of Kean straight away when results started slipping, which can only be attributed to their lack of status and managerial experience.

Wolves are a big team, but have no divine right to be in the Premier League. Their squad is one of the worst in the league and they have simply played according to their abilities, no better and not much worse. Only days after appointing Connor, Steve Morgan publicly blamed Steve Bruce for turning the Wolves job down, and ergo forcing them to turn to Terry Connor, hardly a ringing endorsement of the new manager. To place the blame squarely on Connor in his first managerial role is to ignore other factors and not fair on the the man.

It's taken Steve Kean over a year to start getting results and start moving up the table and unfortunately it is unlikely that Terry Connor will be afforded as much to turn things round.

Battle for fourth place heats up

With ten games to go until the end of the season the all important race for a place in the top-four is reaching a critical phase. Excluding the Manchester clubs, there are five other teams battling it out for the next five places and only two of those teams will reach the holy-grail of Champions League football.

Four of these teams will be in action this Wednesday evening, with the showpiece game being a resurgent Chelsea versus Manchester City, looking to bounce back from successive defeats. Here's my take each of the teams in the running and where they can expect to and will want to finish the season.

Tottenham Hotspurs

Up until moral-sapping defeats against the two Manchester sides, Spurs looked like they might have been able to mount a serious title challenge. However, these two setbacks were compounded with a heavy 5-2 defeat against Arsenal and their season is in danger of imploding with three defeats in a row in the league. Harry Redknapp’s position as favourite for the England job seems to be affecting the team and even getting to him on a personal level; appearing frustrated and irritated in his last few games. Now the stated aim is to secure a place in the top four and they face a tricky game tomorrow evening, with Stoke coming to visit. Redknapp’s side face Chelsea straight after Stoke and the all-London affair may go some way as to deciding whether Spurs get a second crack at the Champions League. A top four berth seems vital if they are to succeed in signing the big movers this summer, notably Eden Hazard and Jan Vertonghen. 

Arsenal

After an appalling start to the season, including an 8-2 defeat against United and a 4-3 defeat against an even more floundering Blackburn side, Arsenal have steadily rebuilt their season. Their injury ravaged defence have finally all returned and with Robin Van Persie up-front, Arsenal will always remain a serious goal threat. After coming from behind to win in their last four league games, a League record, Arsene Wenger’s boys are one of the form teams in the league and there will be hope that they can pinch the automatic Champions League spot from their North London rivals. Whilst summer investment appears essential, Arsenal have a youthful and attacking squad, with young Oxlade-Chamberlain impressing and staking a serious claim for EURO 2012. They face a tricky away visit to Everton on Wednesday but if their recent, almost United like performances (insofar as snatching late wins) is an indicator, then they could find themselves edging Spurs to third place. 

Chelsea

Interim boss Roberto Di Matteo’s 100% record since replacing Villas Boas faces another stern test against City on Wednesday evening. After overturning the two goal deficit against Naploi last week, Di Matteo even succeeded in getting Fernando Torres to score, as he hit two to book a FA Cup semi final date. The ageing players who seemed below par for much of this season have stepped it up in the last four matches, knowing that they are playing for a place in the team and their future. Mourinho’s spine still runs through the side; with Cech, Cole, Terry, Essien, Lampard and Drogba all starting the last few matches and seeming to prove AVB wrong with some performances of yesteryear. In hosting a well organised Manchester City they will face their toughest test, knowing that they can’t afford to drop many points if they wish to be a Champions League side next season. The shoots of recovery are there for Chelsea and their old squad; to make the top four this year is going to be difficult and even if they do the squad still requires an overhaul. 

Newcastle

Alan Pardew’s side continue to ride high in sixth place in the Premier League, though you sense they would bite your hand off for a sixth place finish now, rather than targeting the top four. Having spent modestly, compared to the surrounding clubs, Newcastle are actually making money thanks to the diligent ownership of Mike Ashley. As well as competing financially Newcastle have found some form in the league, mainly thanks to the goals of Demba Ba and the impressive Tim Krul and Fabricio Coloccini in front of him. Newcastle have struggled for form since Steven Taylor’s injury but a vital win over Norwich means the dream of European football is still a possibility. Finishing in the top six might prevent Newcastle’s key players moving on in the summer, with suitors casting admiring glances at Krul, Tiote, Ba, Cabaye and Ben Arfa.

Liverpool

With an outlay of over £100 million Liverpool were expected to be seriously challenging for fourth place this season but have struggled domestically and are ten points behind Arsenal in fourth place. It will take a mammoth effort to finish in the top four this season, starting with their game at QPR, which was the publicly stated aim of the club. Liverpool’s main problem this campaign has been goals; with Luis Suarez needing, on average, 14 shots to score and a £35 million striker who can’t even get a look in. Dalglish may have appeased the fans with the Carling Cup but a number of question marks remain over their expensive signings and Liverpool may need even more investment in order to compete with the big boys again.  

Hodgson deserves England chance

As a prickly Harry Redknapp faced journalists after losing to Everton the incessant pressure of the vacant England job seemed to be getting to the public’s choice. At a loss to explain the result beyond blaming bad luck and insisting “we battered em second half” the Tottenham manager seemed to be growing increasingly frustrated both with the questioning and Spurs recent slump.

In the immediate aftermath of Capello’s exit Spurs seemed, if anything, galvanised and determined to show Redknapp why he should stay as they cruised to a 5-0 win over Newcastle. However, since the Newcastle drubbing Tottenham have drawn with Stevenage, beaten them in a replay and lost their last three league games to Arsenal, United and Everton respectively. The defence, which had been the most effective in the league started looking as if it was carrying an injured player, in Ledley King, and other key performers Kaboul and Assou-Ekotto have disappointed in recent games.

The collapse at Arsenal was most mystifying with Redknapp admitting even with his side 2-0 up after 34 minutes he didn’t have faith in them keeping that score line through until half-time. Despite playing your fierce rivals this admission and dearth in confidence seems to have materialised since Redknapp was roundly touted as the favourite for the England job.

Tottenham’s last three league defeats also highlight some of Redknapps flaws as a manager, which up until the last few weeks had been the best stock for an English manager worldwide. The 65 year old is widely regarded as an excellent man manager (not a wheeler-dealer) who can get the best out of players, which it is presumed he can do with a bunch of mediocre England players.

Tactically though Redknapp must surely admit he is far from the most proficient of the candidates for the England position. Once revealing he told substitute Roman Pavlychenko to “run around a bit” before sending him on against Liverpool, though to be fair it worked as the Russian scored, tactics seem to assistants Joe Jordan and Kevin Bond. The recent repositioning of Gareth Bale through the middle has failed to come off, with the Welsh international looking far less threatening down the middle rather than stretching teams on the flanks. Bale has many strengths but being able to pick a defence-splitting pass is not one of them and as such his move off the wing has coincided with Spurs slump.

There is however a manager with international experience and a great tactical appreciation of the game who has seen his team turn on the form since the England job became available. In terms of top English candidates Roy Hodgson must be at least second favourite, edging ahead of interim manager Stuart Pearce. With sixteen managerial positions, mostly abroad, Hodgson was touted as the successor to Capello if he left after the mess in South Africa.

Since that time Hodgson had his hands singed in a short reign at Liverpool, before the new owners decided they wanted their own man, the ever looming figurehead of Kenny Dalglish. Given Dalglish’s position upstairs at Liverpool it was inevitable that should performances dip, then a desire for the fan-favourite to take over would make the position untenable for Hodgson, as Sir Alex acknowledged recently.

AVB failed to get results at his biggest job, but that does not mean he is a bad manager or cannot handle a ‘big’ team. Hodgson should not be discounted based on one disappointing six month spell, by contrast Redknapp has only won one trophy in English football and ended up bankrupting Portsmouth in the process. Both are ‘journeymen’ managers to an extent, with arguments for both men having a shot at the England job.

Redknapp is the darling of the English media, currently appearing to have the edge, but for my money Hodgson would mould the England team into a more solid unit. England sadly do not have the players to play like a Spain or Germany so the manager would have to turn the players into the most effective team possible. Hodgson with his defensive nous and experience of the game would turn England into an incredibly difficult side to beat and working alongside a Stuart Pearce for this tournament, would have much more of an impact than simply geeing up the camp. The overwhelming favourite appears to be Redknapp but I hope the FA seriously consider the less media friendly Hodgson and listen to what he could achieve with England.

Andre Villas Boas put out of his Chelsea misery

Andre Villas Boas "parted company" with Chelsea today less than 24 hours after another disappointing defeat in the Premier League.

The 1-0 loss to West Brom proved to be the final straw for paymaster elect Roman Abramovich, as he acted to dispense with his £13 million signing from Porto. Chelsea now face tricky matches away to Birmingham in the FA Cup replay and must overcome a two goal deficit against a clinical Napoli side with Roberto Di Matteo in charge.

Less than a year after winning a domestic treble in his native Portugal, AVB finds himself cast aside from his own 'project' and you must wonder how Chelsea intend to revive their side if they insist on sacking the young manager tasked with overhauling the ageing side. As Villas Boas was keen to point out the job brief, to him, was a three year plan yet he was only granted eight months to make his mark on a dressing room which is dominated by its older egos.

Despite netting double figures in the league for a record ninth time, the form of Frank Lampard has been questionable for the last two seasons. That he has emerged victorious in his ongoing clash with AVB suggest how rife player power must be at Chelsea. Despite losing his place in the England team pundits and the media reacted with almost abhorrence whenever Lampard was left on the bench by the 34 year old manager. Lampard is very much a darling of the English media and a huge character, one that the young Portuguese manager, of no playing experience, had to compete with.

Villas Boas was attempting a complete overhaul of Chelsea's playing style and philosophy with a switch to a possession based 4-3-3, which he favoured at Porto and Academica. As such Lampard found himself without a role; not suited to playing as one of the two holding central midfielders and not technically proficient to play as the attacking midfielder. Chelsea's play was based less upon crossing into the box and second ball transitions on which Lampard used to pounce.

As it was Villas Boas was often in a no-win situation. If he left Lampard and fan favourites on the bench, he opened himself up to a barrage of criticism should the team lose and if he started Lampard then there was no guarantee that performances would be high enough. Lampard was in the starting XI against West Brom but again put in a poor performance, even missing a chance that would have levelled the score.

That transfer decisions were taken out of his hands hardly helped, with promising young talent like Courtois and De Bruyne being loaned out as soon as they were purchased. Courtois would have provided a real challenge to Peter Cech's dominance in the Chelsea goal despite years of under-performing and the winger De Bruyne would have increased competition amongst a bloated and ageing midfield.

Much of Chelsea's squad is still dining out on their meteoric two year title winning spell under Mourinho. Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cech, Essien, Cole were instrumental in winning back to back league titles but these glories occurred over five years ago. Chelsea have failed to gradually evolve the team as Manchester United do and so are forced to change the ageing team now, with a tighter time-scale.

The cash injections that have been sanctioned by Abramovich recently appear to be cash cows. £75 million on Torres and Luiz looks extremely ill advised and the team still requires at least that amount again to replace the old stars and rejuvenate the squad.

Villas Boas never seemed to have the full backing of these older players, some of whom still keep in regular contact with another Portuguese manager, and this ultimately was his undoing. So many of the goals that Chelsea conceded were down to individual error, which even the best manager in the world can not legislate for. A young manager coming in should not make a defence turn to rubble as happened in several games this season, with several players needing to ask themselves serious questions.

One might even wonder about the relative strength of the Chelsea squad that AVB inherited from Carlo Ancelotti. In terms of depth I'd argue that Chelsea are outside of the top four and would even struggle to match up to Villas Boas' old team at Porto. The then attacking trident of Hulk, Falcao and Varela supported by the technically gifted Joao Moutinho from midfield would at the moment bear more of a threat than a Chelsea strike-force.

Any manager who can win a treble and produce a team who played such attacking football does not become a bad manager upon moving to another country. Again Abramovich has acted swiftly to deny any hope for continuity as Chelsea lurch from one short termed crisis to another. If Chelsea are ever to overhaul their squad and start competing consistently for the title then they need to invest in and stick by a manager for a minimum of three years. AVB could have been that man but the talented 34 year old has been moved on with his and Chelsea's project again in tatters.