Chelsea Sack Andre Villas-Boas; Roberto Di Matteo Appointed Interim Manager
Following a disappointing loss to West Brom on Saturday, Chelsea have fired manager Andre Villas-Boas. It’s a decision that many saw coming as Chelsea had fallen out of the EPL title race and in a battle for a top 4 finish. This combined with a poor performance in the Champions League (1-3 loss at Napoli, 2nd leg at home on March 14) proved to be too much for AVB.
Assistant manager Roberto Di Matteo will take over the job on an interim basis. He’s expected to be the manager for the rest of the season. There are a lot of rumors on who will take over the position for next season but a decision is probably unlikely until sometime in the summer.
The following is the official statement from Chelsea.
Andre Villas-Boas has parted company with Chelsea Football Club today.
The board would like to record our gratitude for his work and express our disappointment that the relationship has ended so early.
Unfortunately the results and performances of the team have not been good enough and were showing no signs of improving at a key time in the season.
The club is still competing in the latter stages of the Uefa Champions League and the FA Cup, as well as challenging for a top-four spot in the Premier League, and we aim to remain as competitive as possible on all fronts.
With that in mind we felt our only option was to make a change at this time.
With immediate effect Roberto Di Matteo has been appointed first team coach on an interim basis until the end of the season.
