POYET: CHOOSE ROBERTO

Brighton and Hove Albion manager Gus Poyet has said that the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich should not look any further than his former teammate Roberto di Matteo when it comes to selecting the permanent manager for Chelsea.

Roberto di Matteo did an incredible job with the team as the interim manager, but it is thought that Roman Abramovich is extremely sceptical about give him the job permanently. This doubt over the Italian has been raised due to the incredibly negative style of football that the team played in the FA Cup and the Champions League, even though Fernando Torres scored to win them the most prestigious competition in Europe. Abramovich is still hoping to persuade former Barcelona manager Guardiola to come to Stamford Bridge.

Gus Poyet is a man who knows Roberto di Matteo more than anyone else after having played with him at Chelsea for many seasons before the 41-year-old Italian retired from the game prematurely after the triple fracture he suffered. It has been recently revealed that Briton and Hove Albion will be taking up on Chelsea in a friendly match prior to the start of next season. It will be a match that will most likely see Gus Poyet pitted against his former teammate in the form of Roberto di Matteo.

‘He’s very relaxed. He’s just trying to get away from the crazy three months that he had. It would be common sense that he will stay. I call him ‘one of us’, one of our generation – with so many managers. Mark Hughes, Gianluca Vialli, Ruud Gullit, Robbie Di Matteo, Dennis Wise, Dan Petrescu, myself, Didier Deschamps – there are so many – ‘Chappy’ (Albert) Ferrer.Why not one of us? Why should it be somebody else all the time?” said Gus Poyet in a recent interview. The former Chelsea midfielder has done an excellent job with the Championship club last season.