Originally Posted by
Coney
Di Matteo took over a bunch of totally demoralised players who did have great talent. He took over when they had already made it past the group stage and some qualifiers so he only had to get them through 3 matches in the CL. He showed the right drive and ability to motivate enough to get them through the games and fair play to him for doing that. However, he has not built a team from the bottom up over time. Avram Grant took over after Moronio went and did much the same thing, though he had the bad luck to have Terry to take the final penalty instead of Drogba - otherwise he would be in the same position as Di Matteo, and I don't hear lots of people holding up Grant as a great manager that turned the club round.
If Matteo is chosen as their manager for next year (which means he has until about March to prove to Abramovich that he is definitely going to win something) then we will begin to see what he can do. Whoever takes over chavs needs to spend the next year phasing in some players to replace those who are coming to the end of their top flight careers. That will be the challenge he faces.