Does Roman Abramovich know what he is doing?

Betting is suspended. Rumours are rife. It’s official. Roman Abramovich is contemplating spending £13,000,000 to re-employ a new manager.

33-year old Andres Villas-Boas worked for the club under Jose Mourinho and was heralded for his thorough game preparation, which has clearly been carried over to Porto where he won the league and UEFA cup during his first season in charge.

But if the young Porto manager's impending appointment as the new Chelsea boss raises few questions on a footballing level more serious questions do need to be asked about the Russian billionaire’s business acumen.

He has a history of iffy managerial appointments on a financial level. He managed to fall out with Jose Mourinho, the best manager in Chelsea history, because of his refusal to fund further transfers, and replaced him with Avram Grant. Genius.  He then used his millions to employ Luis Felipe Scolari on a bumper salary, the highest in the world at the time, only to sack him after six months. He then failed to convince Guus Hiddink to stay and let him take over the Turkish national side after he won Chelsea the FA Cup. Carlo Ancelotti came, won the league and cup in his first season and was duly sacked this summer for failing to do the same again.

And it is not just in the managerial department where Abramovich has shown a lack of patience and often ludicrous abuse of his wealth.

He paid £50million for Fernando Torres, £30.8million for Andriy Shevchenko, a whopping £21million for Shaun Wright-Phillips, as well as stumping up £18 million for Yuri Zhirkov. Shevchenko then left the club on a free, Wright-Phillips at a loss of £13 million and Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho gave the club five seasons service for a loss of £13 million pounds, not including wages. The losses of the other two are yet to be felt.

Abramovich now wants to spend a figure around £13million to employ a manager who would probably still be working at the club had he managed to stay on side with Jose Mourinho.

In his reign in power, Abramovich’s millions have so far provided the club with three league wins, three FA Cup wins and two league cups.

But wiith the prospect of financial fair play rules being introduced by UEFA as of next season, the way he goes about sustaining that success needs to change. The squad currently contains a lot of senior players who at times last season showed their age, note the struggles over the christmas period. Abramovich will need to learn to kerb his excessive and ridiculous spending to ensure Chelsea are not the first club to be expelled from European competition. UEFA would love to make an example of an English club and if Abramovich carries on he could be the first victim.

Questions must be asked of the Russian if he continues with his recent lunacy. Initial plans to make the club self-sufficient are nowhere near fruition, and if the deal for Villas-Boas goes through Abramovich will again prove himself to have a distinct lack of understanding of football financing.

Deluded Villa fans need a reality check

“There’s a circus in the town, in the town” is a traditional match day anti-Birmingham City song at Villa Park.

But the current managerial situation and todays events at the club are threatening to make Villa fans and not Birmingham the punch line.

Reports of 500 strong protests and anti-Birmingham City chanting outside Villa Park are surfacing on Twitter as a section of the Aston Villa support succeed in demonstrating their complete lack of understanding of the game of football.

Protesting against the apparently imminent appointment of FORMER Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish as Villa manager, the fans are merely showing a complete misunderstanding of Villa’s status in English football and also shows medieval attitudes are still rife in football.

This protest is less about Alex McLeish ability as manager and is purely about the superiority complex that Aston Villa fans have over other clubs in the West Midlands and stems from pure disdain for Birmingham City. It also illustrates massive short sightedness on the part of the Villa Park faithful.

Fan reaction has already supposedly forced Randy Lerner’s hand in not interviewing
Steve McLaren, whose services Nottingham Forest are now lucky enough to have, and if Lerner crumbles to the fans again and doesn’t appoint McLeish they will have succeeded in depriving the club of another top quality young(ish) manager.

Lerner needs to remain strong and trust his instincts to take the opportunity to appoint the fiery Scot following his shock resignation from Birmingham City.

Yes, McLeish was manager of Birmingham City and yes, he got them twice. On paper, neither of those are typically glowing endorsements when Aston Villa are searching for a new manager and fan concern would be justified if this was all McLeish’s managerial career had amounted to so far.

But the Scot also took Birmingham to their highest ever league finish in 2009/10 before guiding them to Carling Cup final victory and their first trophy in nearly 50 years last season; unfortunately for him, a disastrous run of injuries and loss of form which saw his side relegated in the last moments of the final day of the season.

However, perspective needs to be bought here. McLeish took over a sinking ship mid-way through the season with at Birmingham and relegation was inevitable, but he was able to rebuild and bring them back to the Premiership at the first time of asking. There are many people to blame for their failures last season, McLeish included, but for Villa fans to kick up such a stink about his impending arrival at the club is ridiculous when it is purely based on him managing a club from three miles down the road.

McLeish’s name is not synonymous with Birmingham City. This is not like Manchester United pursuing Kenny Dalglish. This is not Sol Campbell signing for Arsenal. Villa fans need to get over themselves and not force a manager who could stabilise the clubs for years to come away from the club before he gets his foot in the door.

It is time for decisive leadership from Lerner. Appoint the man you want and McLeish is the best available candidate. He wants the job and Villa are clearly interested.

It is time for Randy to end the circus and get back to trying to make Aston Villa a force with McLeish at the helm.

No Young, No Martinez. No hope?

If Aston Villa fans genuinely believed that they support a big club then today's events must have left them seriously questioning their judgement.

Whether or not Villa ever got the chance to speak to him remains up for debate, with both clubs offering different tales as ever, but the fact the Roberto Martinez was unwilling to even discuss taking over from Gerard Houllier as Villa manager says very little for the club's status in English football.

While Villa fans may have been typically unenthusiastic about the prospect of the Spaniard taking over, my personal feeling is he would have been a breath of fresh air and would have rejuvinated a club which for so many years has been working so hard but getting so little. A bit of Spanish flair would have done wonders for the playing staff and fans.

And where do Villa go from here? We are back where we started with Mark Hughes at the top of the betting for the job. The Villa board are either biding their time in waiting until July 1st when he is officially free to join another club, he doesn't want the job or Villa simply are not interested. Who knows. Hughes would be a big name, but whether he would breathe life into a tired club remains to be seen.

Steve McLaren's name continues to be muted, but a simple look at Aston Villa message boards suggests he would not be a popular appointment. But then again, as previously mentioned, Villa fans tend to be pessimistic on any appointment and even Martin O'Neill was criticised during his reign which now seems so long ago. McLaren is determined to restore his reputation in English football and Villa too need a lot of work to justify their fans lofty expectations; McLaren's determination could be a perfect appointment. However, Lerner appears downbeat on that possibility, or with McLaren being a free agend he would surely have already made an offer.

And with all this uncertainty, it is unsurprising that Ashley Young appears to have finally made his decision to join Manchester United. Good luck to him. He has given four years to the club, which has been its most successful in recent years and like Martinez could have been, Young was a breath of fresh air in his time at the club. He will go on to justify the price tag at United after finally being given a chance to shine in an England shirt. It is a shame for Villa that he will not continue to build his partnership with Darren Bent, but with all the aforementioned managerial uncertainty and dismal season last year, who can blame him for joining the second best side in Europe.

But Villa fans should keep the faith. There are two months before pre-season friendlies begin and Lerner will rightly take his time in getting the next appointment right. Young's exit will signal a more prominent role in the team for Marc Albrighton, who was outstanding in flashes last season, and whoever the new manager is will undoubtedly bring in fresh talent.

Just who that man is, remains to be seen.

Work experience article - "European success would be proudest moment in Leicester's history."

Leicester's Katie Long believes European success would be the proudest moment in the club's history.

The English champions take on domestic rivals Slough today in the semi-final of the European Cup in Holland.

The domestic season finished in April so the team have been training hard since in preparation for today's game.

Long said: "It's been difficult because not everyone can always be at training because of international commitments in London.

"With the quality of players here, international commitments come with that. But we have dealt with it all season, so it is nothing new.

"We played a practice game against Wales Under-21s and won 2-0, but there is still room for improvement.

"We've had some really good training sessions and everyone was able to attend, which has put us in good shape.

"We also played against England Under-21s, which was our final game before heading out to Holland."

On board the plane to Holland yesterday were the likes of Long, Crista Cullen, Lauren Turner, Hannah MacLeod and Chloe Rogers.

Long, a long-term injury absentee, should be available for the clash against Slough, while Leicester coach Chris Mayer is hoping Crista Cullen recovers from an ankle injury.

Long believes if their hard work pays off and they are successful in Holland, it will dramatically raise the profile of the sport in Leicester.

She said: "In Leicester, football and rugby get the headlines so it would be good for people to recognise we are up there with them.

"We are trying to raise the profile of a woman's sport, especially ahead of the Olympics next year. It would be great if we got some recognition.

"It would be fantastic and a proud moment for the club if we can do it because it's the pinnacle of club hockey.

"In 2007 we got so close to winning, but now we have got perhaps our best squad ever.

"A number us have been lucky enough to win medals with England, but to replicate that with the club would be brilliant because there are a number of us who have been here years and years without doing so."

It is not just the players who Long wants success for.

She said: "About 30 of our parents and family who were there in the last round have paid to come out and support us again, and it's great for them to experience it too.

"We just hope to get the win."

Leicester won 3-0 at Slough and drew 0-0 at home during the domestic season, so they go into the match as slight favourites.

If they get through to Sunday's final, Leicester will meet either Den Bosch or Larensche, who play in an all-Dutch semi-final.