Whatever cup he lifts, Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo can never win over ... - Telegraph.co.uk

Drogba went and Di Matteo – to his surprise – stayed. But even as he celebrated winning the trophy that Abramovich had pursued so relentlessly and expensively, he knew that the owner had again been attempting to woo Pep Guardiola despite the Spaniard's determination to take a year's sabbatical. Just as Di Matteo's predecessor, Villas-Boas, knew that Abramovich was still trying to persuade Guardiola to quit Barcelona even as he prepared to pay Porto the €15?million (£12?million) buy-out clause in his contract.

The credit extended to Di Matteo has always been limited and maybe that has something to do with the claim that Abramovich does not have much of a rapport with the manager. It was also, possibly, as if the owner considered the Champions League achievement a fluke – and while he delighted in winning the trophy there were rumblings that the football was too ugly for his liking.

Not that Di Matteo was told this. He was not told very much as he went off on his summer holidays only to be finally informed that he would be staying on while Chelsea set about the task of creating what Abramovich told one adviser would be a "hungry, new team". In, at a price of £80?million, came the likes of Eden Hazard, Oscar, Victor Moses and Marko Marin although how much say Di Matteo had in the signings is unclear.

This was to be a team built to serve Fernando Torres who had not been slow to criticise the style of play and although Di Matteo – like Villas-Boas and Carlo Ancelotti before him – has never been told to play Torres there has always been an implicit pressure around the £45?million striker.

But then the pressure from Abramovich is always implicit — he eventually simply avoided Jose Mourinho by not turning up at the club, Ancelotti despairingly claimed he barely knew him, Villas-Boas had more of a relationship but not a lot of direct contact. Indeed the communication usually goes through Abramovich's trusted PA at Chelsea, Marina Granovskaia, who is arguably the most powerful presence at the club and a constantly questioning one at that.

What Abramovich appears to yearn to replicate is the start of the Mourinho era when he had a young coach with style and chutzpah and who he could talk to and who had the kind of confidence to believe he would dominate not just the Premier League but Europe. And do it with a certain panache.

The defeat last Saturday at West Brom certainly lacked panache was highly damaging to Di Matteo and there were discussions, it is understood, as to whether he should continue beyond that match.

Although Abramovich is the decision-maker it's believed that on this occasion he was persuaded, for now, not to act.

Abramovich still hugely admires Guardiola and that admiration has grown during the 41 year-old's time out of football. He remains a man in demand and the question for a number of clubs is this: will they simply sit and watch him walk into the arms of a rival?

Tuesday's edition of the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport had a cartoon of Guardiola alongside a crossroads sign rating the chances of where he will end up: 20 per cent for Manchester City, 20 per cent for AC Milan, 20 per cent for Bayern Munich, 10 per cent for Manchester United and 30 per cent for Chelsea. It felt about right although the weighting towards Stamford Bridge could be a little higher.

Guardiola will sit down to discuss his options with his agent Jose Maria Orobitg next month. Or so he is planning. That timetable, and the intention to not return to work before next summer, may be tested very soon. November is so often the month that the position of Chelsea manager becomes vacant.

It may not seem right that Abramovich has employed eight managers in nine years spending hundreds of millions of pounds but he will point to three Premier League titles and a Champions League trophy and an unquenched desire to not only win more but win in style.