Ask Real Football Man – Issue 4

Ask Real Football Man returns for it’s 4th Edition. There’s a couple of question this week and they both come courtesy of contributors of the esteemed Football Website http://www.thefootballmind.com/

First up Varun Mohite asks “Should Guus Hiddink manage Chelsea for a full season?”

I think first you would have to answer that question with another question which is “Would he want to manage Chelsea for a full season?” and that answer is No. The fact he has stepped in as Interim Manager for a second time is more down to carrying out a favour for owner Roman Abramovich.

After winning the F.A. Cup in 2009 in his first spell as Interim Manager it was hoped that he could at least do that again but this time around it’s going to be a trophyless season and one that is already over by March.

That’s not to say Hiddink hasn’t done a decent job since taking over from Jose Mourinho in December, being unbeaten in the Premier League is testament to that but the season was a right off so anything Hiddink did was going to be viewed in a positive light.

Ultimately Hiddink has stepped in again due to the fact that there was no top level managers at that time so the Dutchman was always going to be holding the fort until a permanent successor was announced. They haven’t got their man yet but all signs would point to Antonio Conte who has already decided to step down as Italy Manager at the end of their EURO 2016 campaign.

So Uncle Guus has done a decent job of turning the ship around, could he perhaps taken some more risks in terms of team selection and blooded more youngsters perhaps, who knows but now it’s a case of just seeing the season through until the next man steps into the Stamford Bridge hotseat.

The next and final question comes from Aniket Srivastava who asks if the big clubs all performed as well as they were expected to at the start of the season then would Leicester, Tottenham and West Ham have made the Top 5?

I guess the easy answer would be to say no but also that statement needs qualifying as then you need to add such caveats as would Leicester have the same form regardless of whether the big clubs were performing better.

I expect by big clubs you mean Chelsea certainly, Manchester United and Manchester City. If they were all on the top of their game then when including Arsenal you would only have one club left over to fill that Top 5 and obviously there wouldn’t be room for all of the top three clubs that you have mentioned in your question.

But I guess that’s the beauty of this Premier League season and that’s exactly why Leicester, Tottenham and West Ham are where they are. You can look at it the other way and say maybe it’s that trio of clubs that are playing exceptionally well then opposed to clubs playing bad.

Yes Chelsea have certainly under performed there is no question of that but with all the TV money that has come into the league it has certainly leveled out the playing field and with even more money to be at hand over the Summer than it’s only going to get tougher.

Leicester if they do go on to win the title will undoubtedly be the greatest title win since Nottingham Forest in the late 1970’s but whose to say this is a one off, are we set to see a new status quo where the “Big 4” is a thing of a past and Champions League qualification isn’t a given?.

That concludes Issue 4 of “Ask Real Football Man” if anyone has any questions for next week then please leave them in the comments below or e-mail me at realfootballmanwordpress@gmail.com