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| Boas clearly wants to win, but can he? |
Mathematically there are thousands of ways the final Premier League table could read. Some of them (where Wigan wins out and United miss the top 4) are "possible," but then again so is flipping tails 100 times in a row. On the other hand, strange scenarios like Chelsea finishing 7th and Newcastle riding into the Champions League cannot be ruled out entirely.
The intriguing uncertainty of where the current top 7 teams will finish when the dust settles is due in large part to the Chelsea team, led by cartoon character come to life Andres Villas Boas. His squad have produced stunning results at both ends of the spectrum (losing to Queens Park Rangers, beating Manchester City) and possess a mixture of quality and inconsistency that could land them anywhere between 2nd and 7th place come May.
Possibly the most interesting and crucial element of Chelsea's success is their new manager. Exactly where they finish will be dependent on a few key factors, Boas being one of them. He has been deployed to manage a team with young talent, a $50 million striker who can't produce, and aging stars slipping slowly but noticeably out of their glory day form.
If that's not interesting enough, the guy is a complete nut on the sideline (I imagine this is because he pinches from David Luiz's stash of pre-game blow before each match, but I could be wrong). He sometimes reacts to big plays like a cheerleader at a high school basketball game. Other times he resembles a conductor at an orchestra (who was pinching from David Luiz's stash of pre-performance blow).
That's not all though. His post-game behavior has drawn just as much attention as his on-field spaz outs. He defiantly rejects the medias criticism of his management and does not hold his tongue with regard to his opinions on officiating (which have resulted in raised eyebrows from Manchini and Redknapp, who had something to say about it.)
He appears to have accepted the role with a mind to make difficult decisions like:
If that's not interesting enough, the guy is a complete nut on the sideline (I imagine this is because he pinches from David Luiz's stash of pre-game blow before each match, but I could be wrong). He sometimes reacts to big plays like a cheerleader at a high school basketball game. Other times he resembles a conductor at an orchestra (who was pinching from David Luiz's stash of pre-performance blow).
That's not all though. His post-game behavior has drawn just as much attention as his on-field spaz outs. He defiantly rejects the medias criticism of his management and does not hold his tongue with regard to his opinions on officiating (which have resulted in raised eyebrows from Manchini and Redknapp, who had something to say about it.)
He appears to have accepted the role with a mind to make difficult decisions like:
- Parking Frank Lampard on the bench for an important Villareal Champions League fixture.
- Preferring Daniel Sturridge to Didier Drogba on more than one occasion.
- Allowing Fernando Torres to get shit-faced on gameday to ease the pain of watching John Terry outscore him (the first part may not be true but in all honesty it might help).
This gets us to the point. Who is this guy, is he some crazy whirlwind of a manager who we'll all forget existed in 5 years? Possibly. Is he a lunatic? Definitely. Could his outlandish behavior and sweeping new policies actually succeed in getting Chelsea that coveted spot in next years Champions League? I think so, but the line between success and failure here is razor thin.
