Adeus, AVB: A Lesson In Top Management

So the hammer has fallen. 

And out goes AVB. Yet another Chelsea manager shown the door prematurely. 

Goodbye and thanks for ... nothing? Well, it's not the poor sod's fault, really. He just wasn't given enough time. Yes, when some billionaire plucks you out of your throne of success back in Portugal, where the locals have built you up as the greatest thing since flush toilets or Jose Mourinho, you would be forgiven to expect high expectations. When your transfer fee involves the roughly the entire GDP of small Carribbean nations, you would be sensible enough to realise that being "in transition" or "building the team slowly" are not phrases the big boss would readily accept. 

So yes, you could say AVB was parachuted into a pressure cooker from the word go. For him to have survived, he would've had to part the English Channel, turn water at Stamford Bridge into wine and then deliver the Champions League whilst give a blind man sight simultaneously.

No matter the circumstance, one must feel sorry for the old young man. He was never the right person for the job in the first place. I know hindsight often makes people seem like geniuses, but I've said it before and have been unfortunately proven right: that AVB is a great "Operations" guy, but a lousy "General". 

Great leaders are rarely Operations-type figures. No, the Operations guy usually makes a great Number 2 guy in any organisation; as the silent, trusty, hard-working, detail-oriented right-hand man who does all the (actual) dirty work, ensure orders are carried out and make the Number 1's look good.

AVB is not a natural-born leader. A natural General-type figure, i.e. a Number 1, would be someone who has laser-guided clarity of vision, lofty ambitions, ability to always see the big picture, is charismatic, risk-taking, able to appreciate talent, master delegator and have the bollocks to make the tough, critical and often high-pressured calls when it matters most. 

I realised that I had just been describing Jose Mourinho. Part of what made Jose such a legend was because he was the perfect Number 1 leader and had AVB as one of his crew of Number 2's back at Chelsea. That was why Mourinho's Chelsea was able to play beyond their collective abilities whilst AVB's of today (or technically, up to yesterday only) seem to be sickly pale and ironic reminders of what they really could be if they wanted to.

AVB's case should be a lesson not only to all football club owners out there but also anyone in the position to pick leaders for important, top-level management:

1. Do not thrust a Number 2 into the hot-seat no matter how great his track record, KPI, reputation or hairstyle may be. You should aim to have as many Number 2's as your second-tier leaders or field marshalls, as much as possible. They will ensure the ideals, visions and goals of the organisation gets carried down the ranks and implemented well. 

2. Instead, find your Number 1. And when you've separated a genuine Number 1 from the numerous Number 0.5's (those are delusional douchebags posing as Number 1's as they coast through life constantly changing employment, ordering people around and spewing bullshit to cover their inefficiencies, but that's for another post) out there, you get him and keep him. Yes, he may have an ego the size of a full-grown African elephant, he may be cocky and arrogant and he may even have the penchant for stealing your limelight and attention more often than not. However, he will mostly get the job done. He will deliver in the short term and build you an empire if given a long run to showcase his talents.

Based on the above, Abramovich has gotten it wrong on so many counts. Firstly, he had the numero uno Number 1, in Jose, but pulled the trigger when Mourinho's powerbase and popularity grew to levels he deemed unacceptable (as you would guess, Roman is a very strong Number 1 himself in a totally different field). As a result, Mourinho could only achieve the "deliver in the short term" part of his obligation but couldn't "build an empire" as he was not given the time nor chance to. 

Back in the present, Roman then hired a Number 2 in his misguided notion of wanting to build a Chelsea empire with a young manager. How that has backfired spectacularly in less than 1 full season.  

There are a plethora of rumours now. Rafa Benitez had been a favourite to replace AVB up until today, when the deal purportedly broke down (thank the Heavens for that). Now the current rumour (at the time of writing) is that Pep Guardiola could be lured from his Barcelona hotseat this summer. Is he a Number 1? 

The answer is YES. But importantly, is he the right Number 1 for Chelsea? Unfortunately, Pep comes from a place where that term would be called a Numero Uno. He is still an unproven variable in the pressure cooker of the English game.

If you asked my opinion, out of the limited Number 1's in the world out there, none would be a more ideal fit than the prodigal son who doesn't need an interpreter to tell him what Numero Um means in English. Heck, he won't even need anyone to tell him where the executive men's toilet is in Stamford Bridge.