There has been some debate this week on whether Chelsea should get a new manager in right now, or whether they should wait until the summer and let Frank Lampard see out his caretaker role.
I’ve seen good arguments on both sides to be honest.
Paul Merson thinks we should get a new manager in right now, and he actually makes a very good argument for it, which had me thinking. Listeners of my Podcast on Wednesday would have heard me saying no to this question, as I just didn’t see the point. Also, imagine he comes in and and we continue being cr*p, fickle fans will be on his back already.
However, what Merson is saying below actually makes some sense.
Paul Merson:
“It don’t matter who the manager is. They need to get the manager in now. They need to sort this out now. This is no disrespect to Frank, but they have got to go ‘right who do we want, who do we get’.
“You go in now, there’s four, five, six games to go, you can tinker, who’s about to be their next season, who’s not. He knows he’s only there for the short time anyway. Frank knows he was their for a short time, he was there for the Champions League games.
“They’ve got to get a manager in because he’ll come in in May, the players will all go on holiday, they’ll come back and he’ll go ‘right who do I need’.”
I do see the sense in this. Bringing a manager in right now, if they are available of course and prepared to come in now, would certainly have some positives.
He would know who the club are selling in the summer and pick his team based on that (at least hopefully). Coming in pre-season gives him less time to work with the players and work on his tactics.
However, my final decision and what I would do is the middle ground to this and perhaps the best option, which would be to agree a new manager ASAP in terms of a pre-contract. The new manager could then start evaluating the squad and liaising with current staff and Frank Lampard to start phasing players out.
Having said that, any candidate still strong in the race for Chelsea manager will absolutely already be doing this, all bar perhaps speaking to Frank.
Either way, I think fans want some stability and to see what direction we are going in, but they also know the importance of making the right decision now.