Di Matteo Sacked; Benitez to takeover?

In a bizarre twist of events, Chelsea have sacked manager Roberto Di Matteo following the Blues' Champions League defeat to Juventus with former Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, reported to be keen to fill up the vacancy at Stamford Bridge.

Di Matteo was fired by the Blues several hours after the club fell 3-0 to Juventus at Turin which left the Champions League defending champions third in Group E with an early exit from the competition a genuine possibility.

Yesterday's defeat follows a 2-1 shock loss to West Bromvich Albion in the Premier League over the weekend.

In a statement on its official website, Chelsea said: "The team's recent performances and results have not been good enough and the owner and the Board felt that a change was necessary now to keep the club moving in the right direction as we head into a vitally important part of the season.

"The club faces a difficult task ahead in qualifying for the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League as well as maintaining a strong challenge for the top of the Premier League while competing in three other cup competitions. Our aim is to remain as competitive as possible and challenge strongly on all fronts."

 So, it appears as though winning Roman Abramovich' holy grail - the Champions League - and the FA Cup last season wasn't enough to convince the Blues' owner and his board to stick it out with Di Matteo.

The Italian must surely realise the bitter irony over the fact that managers who achieved far less than he did managed to hold to their job at Chelsea much longer than he did. And while the Blues have performed poorly in Europe, the same can't be said about their domestic performance.

With only two defeats - one of which was against Man Utd following some highly dubious refereeing - in the league, the Blues are in third place and four points behind league leaders, Man City.  You could have forgiven Di Matteo for thinking his job was safe. (Mark Hughes, if you're reading this, consider yourself the luckiest man alive).

But what Roman wants, Roman gets. I only wonder if Roman really knows what he wants.

Reports suggest that Chelsea intend to name a replacement soon and the first few names to be brandied about have been - you guessed it- former Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola and Benitez, both of whom are currently unemployed.

According to tribalnews.com, Benitez flew back to London from Abu Dhabi for a meeting with the Blues and that a deal to make him manager until the end of the season is in the works.

Benitez was previously rumoured to be interested in the job in the summer before Di Matteo was given a two-year contract after winning Chelsea's first-ever Champions League. Di Matteo was earlier appointed as the club's interim manager in March this year following Andre Villas Boas' dismissal from the job.

Guardiola, on the other hand, has long been on Abramovich' wishlist and some reports suggesting the Spanish manager was lined-up as Di Matteo's replacement before the Juventus defeat.

That's not too hard to believe when you consider the fact that Di Matteo was never the preferred choice for the job. The Italian was merely picked as an interim manager at a time when the club's preferred choices weren't available or in Benitez' case, unwilling to take up an interim job.

Few believed Di Matteo would have succeeded and many believed the club's FA Cup victory wasn't enough to warrant a contract extension. But then the Italian did what so many before him failed. He won the Champions League and Blues' had to offer him a new contract.

But would Guardiola be crazy enough to take this job? Would a manager like Guardiola who's won everything actually risk his legacy by taking this job? Considering that, Benitez seems to be the most plausible replacement.