Chelsea's managerial carousel carries on...

After what was yet another lifeless and uninspired performance this past weekend, this time against West Brom, it came as absolutely no surprise to anyone when the axe fell on André Villas-Boas' very abbreviated term as Chelsea manager. After all, the results had been slipping for some time now, and such an output just won't do when the owner has such a lust for impeccable performances and the biggest of trophies.

This musing isn't going to be about whether Villas-Boas himself should have been fired. I've already touched on the topic in recent days, and it's written in black and white that I think a talent such as Villas-Boas deserved at least another season to prove his worth and to implement his long term plans for the club. While young, his track record offers proof of his managerial acumen, and one can assume that he will learn from his experiences at Chelsea and move on to another club, perhaps Inter Milan, where he will resume winning trophies as he had done at Porto.

What should be of graver concern to Chelsea fans is the constant turnover at the top that continues to plague Chelsea. Yes, they have somehow still won some trophies in the years following Jose Mourinho's departure, but Roman Abramovich's ultimate crown jewel, that of the Champions League, continues to evade his trophy case. Big names such as Scolari and Ancelotti couldn't bring this goal through to realization, and we see what became of them in the end.

In catching up on the reactions of Chelsea fans to Villas-Boas' dismissal through various online outlets, it seems that the opinions about the sacking are just about evenly split; perhaps that is appropriate given the fractured state of the club at the moment. Many of the fans have spoken of things behind the scenes being much more detrimental than any tactics or team selections rolled out this season, and I have to wholeheartedly agree with this faction of the fanbase.

The harsh reality is that the firing of Villas-Boas probably brings Chelsea no closer to either of the Manchester clubs or Champions League glory, and likewise the hiring of any manager not named Jose Mourinho probably won't either. The culture of the club must change, the squad will still need an overhaul at season's end, and who knows if any manager other than Mourinho would actually be afforded the opportunity to do such. He probably wouldn't.

Many fans will credit Abramovich for coming in and saving the club at a time when they were about to fall victim to a mountain of debt that would certainly swallowed the club; to say that they would have become the next Leeds would be putting kindly. Abramovich has thrown money around, brought in the some of the biggest names of the game and facilitated league championships and cup wins all throughout his reign. However, with Manchester City having now emerged as a financial and sporting rival, maybe it's not so easy for Roman to spend his way to title races with the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal as we've seen in years past. Sure, Chelsea will still have to spend loads of money in order to keep the Premier League title from going to the Northwest year in and year out in the future, but there's one thing that could make this task easier than Abramovich could ever imagine: consistency.