Lo point: Why Michael Emenalo must take responsibility for Chelsea's troubles
Rafael Benitez and Roman Abramovich get the blame for Chelsea's failings, but should we be looking elsewhere?
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After all, the great managers in our nation’s football history have all tended to be your dictatorial types; Bill Shankly, Brian Clough, Sir Alex Ferguson.
Yet the reluctance to accept a more tiered, thoughtful model of club governance is not necessary a problem as long as all of the employees within the club are pulling in the same direction. In the Premier League, West Bromwich Albion have been the shining example with Dan Ashworth the constant as Director of Football, and although the head coach or manager has changed through promotions and relegations, the club has kept the same plan, the same direction, and success has come from this.
Clubs like Wolverhampton Wanderers, of similar size and resources to Albion, have gambled on the policies and beliefs of one man at a time, with their subsequent failures pushing the club into a deeper and deeper crisis. A few miles up the road at The Hawthorns, even when their manager was lured away by the FA they have continued their progress by slotting another highly proficient coach into an effective management structure.
So where do Chelsea fit in?
Well the name that has been conspicuous by its absence in this long-running Rafa debacle has been that of Michael Emenalo.
Perhaps it is his low-profile career before arriving at Chelsea that has seen him evade criticism - a spell in Israel and seven Notts County appearances represented the peak of his club football career – while Benitez and even Roman Abramovich have copped the flak.
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What seems clear to everyone, and has done for some time, is
that hiring Rafael Benitez was simply the wrong decision for Chelsea
football club and you see why Roman Abramovich would be blamed for that,
but apart from being the money man how much does the Russian actually
do?Abramovich largely governs the club in absentia and relies greatly on those that he trusts and has placed in high-up positions in SW6. After games, he speaks on the phone with his most trusted aides and friends, the likes of Eugene Tenenbaum and Ron Gourlay, who talk to him about the players’ performances, the manager and anything else that they feel he should know about.
In bestowing Michael Emenalo with the technical director post, he made him the link between the suited upper echelons of the club and the tracksuited employees of the club that tread the turf.
It is known that Emenalo had a key advisory role in the hiring of Benitez, but when there is a manager so unpopular that even winning games doesn't help, the deafening silence from his superiors at Stamford Bridge left the Spaniard an isolated figure, leading to his unceremonious rant after the Middlesbrough game.
Benitez had favoured uncommitted soundbites over the dignified, acquiescent silence used by Avram Grant, but the press room eruption on Teesside was not just indicative of a man under sustained attack, but a man being offered no protection by the pitiful men that had employed him - of those happy to be entrusted with responsibility yet refusing to accept the very same when it concerned decisions that they had taken.
The theory of sporting directors/directors of football is of a success bred by continuity in the club, but it is the continuity of failures and mismanagement at Chelsea that make Emenalo accountable for the Blues being in a mess once more--- Mirror Football
Michael, pls tell them to "free me now"...
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