A player turned manager: Chelsea’s Roberto Di Matteo
By Travis Tyler
Chelsea is linked to making a former player a manager. Roberto Di Matteo was the last and could be a case study in what is and is not true.
Andre Villas-Boas was brought in to usher a new, more “modern” version of football at Stamford Bridge. Players that were not suited to it (which unfortunately for Villas-Boas, included most of the legends) were cast aside. Having fallen behind in the first leg of the Champions League to Napoli and losing to West Brom, Villas-Boas was sacked and replaced by former player Roberto Di Matteo.
Di Matteo had previously managed at MK Dons and West Brom. He spent a year at the former, taking them to third in League One before losing out in the playoffs. He achieved promotion back to the Premier League in his first season with the Baggies, but the season went poorly and he was sacked in February. The following year, he agreed to return to Chelsea as an assistant manager. When Villas-Boas was sacked, Di Matteo was handed the reigns in what should have been a write off of a season. It became anything but.
Seven years later, Chelsea is again linked to a former player to be their new manager. One common refrain is that it is too soon for Frank Lampard and that joining Chelsea so early would “ruin” his career. But did that happen to Di Matteo?
In Di Matteo’s first few months at Chelsea, he lifted the Champions League and the FA Cup. He did so use extremely defensive football while also trusting the players to make their own decisions. After the heavy tactical instructions of Villas-Boas, that was a breath of fresh air.
The next season showed more of the true Di Matteo tactically. It was still quite defensive at times, but the band of three in the 4-2-3-1 was incredibly fluid and put together incredible stuff at times. Unfortunately, at the time Roman Abramovich was still quite unforgiving of even the slightest slide backwards. Chelsea crashed out of the Champions League and into the Europa League and Di Matteo was sacked.
But Chelsea had not ruined Di Matteo’s career. In 2014, he was hired by Schalke. There, he tried to implement the more free flowing game from his latter months at Chelsea but it did not work incredibly well. Schalke finished in a Europa League spot and Di Matteo resigned at the end of the season.
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A year later, Di Matteo joined the recently relegated Aston Villa as he looked to recapture his success from West Brom. He lasted only to October after a series of poor results saw him sacked. He has yet to return to management in the nearly three years since.
Did Chelsea ruin Di Matteo’s career? No not really. There may have been a raised since of expectations because of the cup wins, but even his time in the 2012/2013 season was not bad. Unlucky and at times naive, but never bad. Even his time at Schalke could be counted as a success for his first season managing in a new country. But if anything, it is the Aston Villa tenure that clings to Di Matteo now.
There are no guarantees as Frank Lampard as a Chelsea manager. Many say he needs time, but time does not improve managers in the same way it does players. The only way for managers to improve is greater resources or better staff. Lampard would have both at Chelsea. And sometimes, as was the case with Di Matteo, there could simply be a case of a manager finding success in just one set of circumstances for whatever reason.
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Lampard is a Chelsea legend now and forever. If he takes over in Blue and struggles, he will still find a job afterwards. The Blues did not break Di Matteo, and it is unlikely they will break Lampard either.