I see parallels in both the McLeish and Di Matteo appointments.
They both follow a painting by numbers approach to recruitment.
In McLeish's case:
*Experience of managing a big club (Rangers, not the tramps down the road) - check
*Previous success/ silverware - check, at Rangers and B-lose
*Able to operate on a budget our 2011 reality - check
With the added bonus that he had international management experience as well. Lerner, attempting to be pragmatic about the whole thing and divorcing the B-lose aspect, thought how can we possibly not go for this guy. Particularly as he WANTS the job and had always spoken in glowing terms about the club.
All that ignores the god-awful football he has inflicted on the world since at least 2007, the fact that he somehow managed to finish third in a two-horse race in Scotland and that the B-lose owners were sharpening the axe after another dismal relegation. Yet we saved a club close to administration having to fork out compo to him. By paying them £2 million instead. Barking.
In Di Matteo's case:
*Previous Championship experience - check
*Previous promotion experience - check
*Top flight experience - check
And as an added bonus, he was also caretaker manager when Chelsea won the biggest one of them all. Throw in a bit of Bundesliga experience too, and it is easy to see why he would have more appeal in Asian markets than Bruce, Pearson and the other names being touted last summer.
Not as barking as the McLeish appointment, but it dos ignore that Olbiyun -who are not known for being impulsive when it comes to the tin tack- ditched him not long after going up. At both MK Dons and Olbiyun he very definitely had the reputation as a hands off manager. Higher up the food chain at Chelsea, you might just about get away with that for a few months, as you are dealing with better professionals (JT apart). That was a squad consistently used to getting to the latter stages of the Champions League. After following a more abrasive figure like Benitez, the short-term Sherwood approach (but with a happy ending in their case) was probably ideal.
We didn't need hands-off. We needed a manager prepared to don the hazmat suit after our Chernobyl-style meltdown last year.
