A few quick thoughts on AVB and a potential change

Chelsea fans are frustrated. I think it's pretty obvious. There are many in the media and around the internet that are seemingly hoping to see AVB sacked, and I can't say that would be totally without cause at this point. I'd personally be against the move though, and I'm going to go to bullet point form to point out the reasons why.

• The obvious question first...who replaces him? There isn't much available in the way of quality managers at the moment, and frankly anyone that is available now will likely still be available in the summer along with ridiculous amounts of other options. I don't want Fabio Capello anywhere near this squad as he'd almost certainly trot Frank, FloMo, and company out there every single match. Rafa Benitez is, well, Rafa Benitez. Other than that we really don't have much to choose from at this point. If Guus hadn't signed on at Anzhi it may be a bit different, but he did and it's not.
• He clearly sees that this team has issues so far as it's makeup goes. The full blown attempts to add Modric and Pastore this past summer should tell us that he saw this midfield issue very early in his tenure here. While we questioned his judgement in looking at Perreira and Coentrao, the need for someone of that type seems fairly obvious now. He's also pretty clearly been looking for a more natural winger. It seems to me like he's correctly identified our three biggest areas of need regardless of out failure to actually add to those positions.
• Regardless of what you feel about AVB, it's pretty clear that a clearout of quite a few of our players does need to occur. AVB is here. He's already unpopular with the media and reportedly unpopular with the older players. If there was ever a guy to allow to stay on simply to expedite that process, AVB is that guy.
• I like the fact that he's shown no hesitation putting our 50 million pound turd sandwich on the bench. I don't think too many managers would have had the gumption to do that in the fall, especially with Drogba being a shell of his former self.
• He's worked very well with Romeu, Ramires, Luiz, and Mata. He's seemingly worked fairly well with Danny Sturridge, although with the general douchebaggery of the elder Sturridge it's a bit hard to tell what to make of Danny's mood. Frankly, those 5 players are the only senior guys we have that should be viewing as future regulars.
• Warren Barton doesn't like him. Warren Barton is a moron. That doesn't necessarily mean that AVB is doing everything right, but it certainly doesn't hurt him in my eyes.

I'm not all that thrilled by what has transpired this season, but I think I may have had lower expectations than most when the season got underway. That said, firing a young manager for struggling with the transition of the roster and traditional expectation midway through his first season just makes very little sense to me. I feel that a managerial change at this moment will only slow down the rate at which this roster gets turned over, and that should be avoided at all costs. It's not really going to be fair to bring in any manager with the roster in it's current state, if AVB is not the future let's allow him to help push out the dead wood at the very least.