Carlo Ancelotti is arguably the most beloved Chelsea manager by the fan base as a whole. His sacking was harsh so what if it never happened?
There is a notion of being a victim of one’s own success. Carlo Ancelotti created what many believe to be the greatest Chelsea team ever in 2009/2010. But that success was difficult to match the following season and despite a late resurgence, Ancelotti was sacked in the tunnel at Goodison Park.
Andre Villas-Boas succeeded him and was sacked in March. Roberto Di Matteo went on to win the Champions League with the team Ancelotti built. It is difficult to tell if things would be different if Ancelotti had stayed, but many still would have loved for the Italian to remain the Chelsea boss.
So what if he had? Would the 2011/2012 season have turned out differently? Would Chelsea still have won the Champions League?
Ancelotti actually saw similar downturns during his time at Paris Saint Germain, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich. At each, his team would start extremely hot before cooling off like they did in Chelsea’s second season. At the first two at least, the club stuck by him as he rebounded into more success. Real Madrid did not do it a second time and Bayern Munich did as Chelsea did and cut ties at the first downturn.
But overall the evidence is there that Ancelotti can turn things around. Ancelotti is not the type of manager to stubbornly stick with one way if it is no longer working; he is constantly looking for a new solution. So staying at Chelsea in 2011/2012 would not likely have resulted in further stagnation.
Instead, it is likely Chelsea would have flourished as they did in Ancelotti’s first season. With a new and fluid 4-4-2, Ancelotti gets the best of the old guard, the youth he had been trying to integrate, and even Fernando Torres.
Chelsea storm to the top of the league as they had done in 09/10. They breeze past Napoli in the Champions League and unfortunately struggle against Barcelona in the semifinal. It is a close contest which, coupled with a Premier League victory, is why Ancelotti is allowed to continue into a fourth season with the Blues.
The club still manages to snag Eden Hazard, which prompts a change to a 4-3-3 with the departure of Didier Drogba. Again, the Blues are rampant that season but begin to show signs of slippage in the winter months. Roman Abramovich informs the Italian manager that the Premier League is not a priority; it is all hands on deck for the Champions League.
The league slips away as Chelsea puts all their eggs into the big eared basket. They face Bayern Munich in the final where Hazard narrowly hands Ancelotti another Champions League and the Blues their first only a year later than in reality. The difference is that Chelsea is poised to create a dynasty under the Italian mastermind going into the 2013/2014 season.
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