T

o those who say soccer is only a sport, I merely ask you to read up on the brief history of Andre Villas Boas’ reign at Chelsea and watch the two big games over the weekend — soccer is truly a cruel game.

After just 27 games into the English Premier League (EPL) season, the man for whom Chelsea FC paid Porto FC ¤15 million to be their manager was sacked — even though they were still in contention in the FA Cup, even though they still had a winnable home leg clash in the Champions League against Napoli, and even though they still had a realistic chance of finishing 4th in the EPL.

 I suppose you could call this the unkindest cut for such a promising young manager.

Andre Villas Boas just needed more time, unfortunately in his first really big job, he had to deal with one of the toughest owners in soccer.

Sad as it may be, it was still a long time coming at a club like Chelsea, with an owner like Roman Abramovich.

You have a situation unlike any other where the owner really gets what he wants. He is the all-
powerful and everything he says is law at Stamford Bridge. And after going through yet another manager, this time a young and promising one, you really start to wonder, should the Russian owner actually be the one to leave instead?

He has sacked managers merely for not delivering a trophy for a season and this time he dismissed AVB for fear of missing out on Champions League soccer next season, something he has done previously.

Unfortunately, there is no single rule that can be put into place to prevent owners from sacking managers. Roman Abramovich is the boss, so it really is up to him to hire and fire and as a result I do not think enough thought is given to developing the soccer club.

I would say this is really a case of a “short-term fix”; everything is in the short term and has to happen immediately, there is no regard to long-term planning at Chelsea soccer club.

So, you may wonder, who will be the next manager of Chelsea? Well I feel that there really is no good or bad manager for Chelsea. It is really all up to Chelsea to decide who is best for them in terms of their needs and weaknesses.

They need to rebuild and need to assure the next manager that they will be there for the long term. Everyone is talking about Jose Mourinho, but I think it would be a big mistake if he came back to Stamford Bridge. He did not leave under very good circumstances with the owner so why would he want to return to an owner like that?

So after sacking Mourinho, Scolari, Ancelotti and Villas Boas, Abramovich is making himself look very naïve.

Over the weekend, we also saw two wickedly cruel matches that saw both Tottenham and Liverpool dominating their games against Manchester United and Arsenal but still losing.

I have always believed that one of the worst things in soccer is to play extremely well and lose. That can be extremely disconcerting and can really affect the players’ confidence and belief in themselves.

If you play badly and lose, and know the reason why you lost, then fine, but to play so well and lose, it can be very damaging spiritually. Though I believe there is enough quality in both teams to bounce back immediately, it still will have been a big disappointment to the players.

As a player, once you have gone through a situation like that, you can hardly wait for the next match to come around and always hope for a similar reaction from your teammates. The next game simply cannot come soon enough.

I really hope that these losses do not affect the players in these clubs as they have a lot on the line. Liverpool is still chasing that fourth place and Tottenham, especially, is still fighting up there.

I am worried that Tottenham might have hit a slump at the wrong time of the season because there have just been too many things happening in and around the club, it is not conducive and it looks like it might just come off the worse of the two clubs, such is the cruel game of soccer where one crushing result just ruins your season.

Catch Shebby Singh on ESPN’s live match presentation of the English Premier League, and visit facebook.com/espnstarsports ‘If I Were’ page for a chance to win exclusive prize