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Oh dear oh dear. It really is getting pretty ugly at Chelsea now. A couple  of years ago Chelsea would have strode almost arrogantly into any stadium in Italy, utterly confident of avoiding defeat. But such is the change in status of the club that some are now viewing last night’s drubbing in Naples as a fairly decent result – an away goal and at least the small possibility of progressing to the next round.

With more tabloid talk of dressing room tension and AVB clearly unable to rouse, organise or enthuse his squad, surely surely the rot now has to be stopped? It’s now a question of Roman Abramovich swallowing his pride. It was he, after all, that spent such a fortune prising the young Portuguese from his one season of wonder at Porto. So, by sacking AVB, it is he that must admit that he has made another bad decision.

For such a commercially astute man, you would have thought that it would be clear to Abramovich by now that his footballing decisions are ruining his Stamford Bridge business. Surely this is the last time he gets involved in buying players or managers.

Perhaps though this will be the straw that breaks Abramovich’ back. He’s spent hundreds of millions on the club and Chelsea continue to be amongst The Premier League’s biggest spenders. He can also see the football bubble possibly bursting. Is now the right time to get out? He surely can’t be having much fun with his most expensive toy. In fact it’s all been a bit of a damp squib since the unmentionable successor to Claudio Ranieri left under a cloud. The spectre of Jose Mourinho has become an albatross around the neck of the owner. Abramovich must be at least a little disenchanted by now and, despite talk of new stadiums and long terms plans he must, inwardly, be considering his own future at the club.

As for AVB I think most people who are reading this article could do a better job than him in coaching Chelsea. When you play away from home in Europe against a top team, you simply have to have a solid look about your eleven. So what does AVB do? Well, he puts the erratic right back Jose Bosingwa in the left back position , at the expense of the hugely experienced and ever dependable Ashley Cole. He leaves error prone David Luiz at centre back (having shipped out his best cover, Alex, to PSG) and leaves one of the best defensive midfielders in the world, Micheal Essien, on the bench. If there is one player in the Chelsea squad who is made for a big away game in Europe, it is surely Essien. It’s easy to criticise after the fact but surely most of you would have put Essien in there instead of the massively overrated Meireles? These decisions would have been highly questionable even if Chelsea had won. But they didn’t. They got another hiding.

I have nothing against AVB, but having watched football all of my life, it’s as clear as day that he is doing a bad job at a previously imperious club. He reminds me of Carlos Tevez in as much as he knows he’s making mistakes but his ego won’t let him admit it. Carlos has since repented. So far AVB remains defiant.