FROM CARETAKER MANAGER TO CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNER; ROBERTO DI-MATTEO

He tried the Tinkerman, the Special One, the director of football, the World Cup winner, the European Cup winner, the Champions League specialist, and the young upstart – but, in the end, it took the caretaker to win Europe’s biggest prize for Roman Abramovich. All of the Chelsea owner’s investment in the club has been with a view to lifting the famous trophy – and it has cost him a great deal – but in Roberto Di Matteo he found almost by accident the man to do it. Around £13 million had been spent on bringing Andre Villas-Boas to Stamford Bridge last summer and Saturday’s scenes were no doubt the ones that Abramovich had in mind when he appointed the Portuguese, but he wasn’t prepared to let things get worse before they got better and the costly manager had to become an even more expensive ex-manager. Di Matteo, former MK Dons boss and sacked by West Brom before becoming Villas-Boas’ assistant, came in to steady the ship, to hold the fort until the summer when a ‘proper’ coach could be found