Hey, guys! This is going to be the biggest intrigue over the Summer, for us neutrals.
Whilst it is currently all cosy-cosy in the Chav camp, what with them having finally fluked the CL trophy, a real dilemma now faces the mad Russian owner.
It was patently evident that, with the appointment last Summer of AVB he showed a blatant intention of clearing out the "Dad's Army" element in the Chelsea dressing room (John "lynch him, he's black!" Terry, Fat Frank, Drogba, etc). But that went all tits-up due to a mixture of (a) the Chelsea old-guard cottoning on pretty quickly what was happening and closing ranks (as they have done before), (b) the mad Russian's failure to back his man openly (in fact, he ended up turning on him like a Kremlin mole), and (c) AVB's utter incompetence. Rather than bravely stand toe-to-toe with JT and Fat Frank and remind them who runs his club, he chose, instead, to blame it all on AVB. He was sacked, and having no real time to appoint a new manager, the Russian lazily appointed AVB's No.2 in his place, as a holding measure. After all, there was unfinished business to attend to (ie. the removal of John "where's my hood" Terry and the Frank "mmm! this pizza looks tasty" Lampo).
What the mad Ruski obviously failed to foresee was the fact that the No.2 would do so well, handing the Russian what (according to the press) he had always craved - the CL trophy. RDM achieved his success because he reversed AVB's tactics (ones that had been formulated for him by the mad Russian) of getting rid of the Dad's Army element in the camp, and brought the old-guard back into the picture, using their loyalty and desperation to stay on for as long as possible as his weapons to ride the luck that then followed. And we can be in no doubt that, despite the win, even the mad Russian will have seen that Chelsea achieved what they did, not through any great skill or tactical genius on the part of RDM, but as a result of sheer and utter outrageous luck. Napoleon famously said that "it is better to be lucky than it is to be good," but everyone seems to forget that his luck ran out spectacularly at Waterloo. A good general is always good, a lucky one not so. Be under no illusion that this fact will not be lost on the mad Russian. He did not make his billions by being stupid. He will know that, at some point, RDM's luck will run out, and then what will he be left with?
I will tell you what he will be left with: a manager whose great achievement before the Chelsea job was to get sacked by West Brom, a manager who isn't really the Chelsea boss but in reality the "best mate" of those really running CFC (and we all know how John "roaster" Terry treats his best mates), and a dressing room full of Dad's Army extras. The mad dog Russian will be just about as far removed from running his club, and as far removed from the glory as he could possibly be, and we all know what happens to even the best managers when that happens. The Special One is a prime example of that; when he became bigger than the club, the mad Russian air-brushed him from CFC history, like a Polit Bureau agitator.
And that is the dilemma the oligarch faces. Confirm RDM as manager, and hand over control of the club to Frank "more chips with that, please!" Lampard and John "vote BNP" Terry; or get rid of RDM as he rides the crest of the greatest day in CFC's history, and announce to the world, "Yes, I want rid of the two players that the fans love more than me!"
It's going to be very interesting to see how the Beast of Moscow resolves this one.