Abramovich slammed for AVB sacking

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has come under attack from the League Managers’ Association over his managerial policy at Stamford Bridge.

As Chelsea stand on the brink of elimination from the Champions League, the Russian billionaire has been criticised by LMA chairman Howard Wilkinson for sacking Andre Villas-Boas after less than nine months at the club.

“Clearly, it seems to me that Roman Abramovich is not aware of the difference between having a successful team and building a successful club,” Wilkinson told Goal.com.

“The evidence shows that the successful clubs – ones that have been constructed in a planned, long-term and strategic way and which have a vision of where they want to go and know how they want to get there.”

“What happens is that the product of that is they continue to produce successful teams. The lesson is that if you want to be winning things then history shows that is the way that you have got to go.”

Wilkinson, who guided Leeds United to the League Championship in 1992, called upon Abramovich to learn from long-term models at Barcelona, Manchester United and Arsenal.

“Manchester United have been built by (Sir) Alex Ferguson and those above him who have bought into his vision for the club,” Wilkinson added.

“Barcelona have been building a culture now and therefore a club for a decade. Pep Guardiola was brought up with that culture and when he was asked to become manager he built on it.”

“Certainly managers who have the capacity to look long-term such as Ferguson and Guardiola and also Arsene Wenger also have an enormous amount to contribute to the development of a successful club.”

“I don’t know Jose Mourinho inside-out but from the outside looking in it would seem that he had that capacity but clearly that wasn’t part of the deal at Chelsea and that is why he left.”

The former Football Association technical director also backed former Porto manager Villas-Boas to bounce back from his sacking.

“Andre Villas-Boas will recover from his experience at Chelsea and he will probably be a stronger and better manager for it,” Wilkinson said.

“He was just one pawn in the story that is Chelsea Football Club. But there are a lot more managers who have been treated worse than him and there are a lot of managers who are in a lot worse position than him and they work just as hard.”

“When we enter management we know for sure that setbacks are a certainty. He is one victim in all this but the biggest victim is the football club and those genuine Chelsea supporters who have more than just a passing fancy in a winning team.”