Held aloft: Di Matteo is lifted by the victorious Chelsea team - an honour Villa Boas would have killed for.
In terms of drama, last night's Champions League final might be high up the list, with the likes of Milan & Liverpool and ironically Bayern & Manchester United in 1999. But in terms of footballing quality, it was a bit tame.
The stats paint a pretty good picture of the final: Bayern with 55% of the possession compared to Chelsea's 45%. When it comes to shots, again it was Bayern who were superior, getting 34 shots to just 9 that came from Chelsea. Some have said that Chelsea were lucky; they spent most of their time on the back foot, withstanding a Munich offensive that could be likened to blitzskrieg. Yet when Bayern did break through in the 83rd minute, it took just five for Chelsea to equalise from their first and only corner of the game, whereas Bayern had 20. To me, that figure is perhaps the best way of describing the match. Munich failed to take their chances and Ribery, Robben and Gomez should be disappointed not to have finished it early when they were tearing the Chelsea back-line to shreds in the first 30 minutes.
Such is football though, where the strongest of teams cannot make it count and the heroes could have easily been the villains. Take Didier Drogba for example, who was awarded the man of the match (personally I would given it to Ashley Cole). His foul on Franck Ribery was clumsy and if it was not for Petr Cech, Drogba could have been leaving Stamford Bridge in flames not fanfare.
The biggest question now is that of Roberto Di Matteo's future. He has certainly brought together a team that was cracking down the seams in the wake of Andre Villas Boas' departure. When Di Matteo took charge, Chelsea were adrift in the Premier League, packing their bags for a early exit from the Champions League and lacked the confidence, losing the aura that Chelsea had made for themselves. They looked like men: tired, old men struggling to keep it together. A Champions League and a FA Cup win later, they are playing with energy and a passion that was lost in the fray.
Di Matteo's style is not a beautiful one. He focuses on defence, allowing the back-line to take a battering, shake it off and counter. For Chelsea, it has worked and he has a win record of 61.90%. But to judge Di Matteo on his time at Chelsea is not looking at the bigger picture. His managerial career has spanned 156 games at MK Dons and West Brom, where his overall win percentage is 51.28%. It is still a good record, beating that of the newest Chelsea candidate, Harry Redknapp (40.82% over 1,274 games). Di Matteo is still behind Jose Mourinho (69.49% over 567 games) and Pep Guardiola (72.65% over 246 games). The strongest choice looks like Guardiola, but he has since ruled himself out.
So it comes to Di Matteo, Redknapp or Mourinho. Redknapp is unlikely to move to Chelsea, despite his apparent yearning for a new challenge, a change of scenery (5 miles down the road). The head says a return for "the Special One" Jose Mourinho. He is a proven winner, having won trophies in the top four European countries: England, Spain, Italy and Portugal. But is it perhaps too late for Mourinho to make his spectacular return? Would he rather stay at Real Madrid and capture the Champions League? It is the one trophy that has eluded him at Madrid and he has built a solid team of modern-day Galacticos that could make that step.
The heart says Chelsea should take a risk and go with Di Matteo. In the Abramovich-era, they have always seeked out the big-name option to go into the dugout: Mourinho, Luis Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti. Some had success, but most did not. Villas Boas was a step in the opposite direction, hiring someone with less credentials than those previous. But he could not manage the dressing room and it cost him, in my opinion, unfairly. Di Matteo has what Villas Boas did not: control. He has earnt the respect of the team and now has some of the credibility needed to take them forward. Fortune favoured Roberto in Munich and it could favour him again.
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