FEB 21 — The weekend’s FA Cup action has thrown up two replays, one warranted and the other a total shambles. The talk is all about Andre Villas-Boas’ (AVB) future at Chelsea but I would rather worry about the future of the club.

Despite millions spent on the club, Chelsea look like a club without any strong foundations. The lack of youth development and, more importantly, the squandering of youth now leave them in a vacuum.

Will the roubles of Roman Abramovich come to the rescue again as Chelsea flounder after living in denial for many a year. They signed short-term managers and they did remarkably well – with Carlo Ancellotti winning the double – but delayed the inevitable.

The future of the club should be the priority and less time should be spent on AVB as he desperately tries to cobble a team together. A team where older players can’t live with the truth that they are all past it as it happens with all footballers.

Perhaps Frank Lampard eyes the player-manager role?

There are a few things in life that don’t go together and Harry Redknapp and tactics is one of these.

He is never ever going to be a master tactician and in the autumn of his managerial career, he finds the gods smiling down at him. So, I really think he should make the most of the situation rather than try to be too clever.

A career that is winding down on a high, as he really has no track record of trophies, should mean no tinkering with the team. For long periods it was difficult to imagine that Stevenage were in white and not Spurs.

At the Stadium of Light, the Black Cats played some breathtaking stuff, something you wish all teams could do consistently. However, what came out of the match, at the end of the 90 minutes, was the fact that it could be Arsene Wenger who will be taking on the England job.

He has been in England long enough to qualify and would do a better job managing England than he is at managing Arsenal at this point of time.

All good things must come to an end but knowing when the end is near is also very important.

The Gunners lost their backbone of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri and have now lost their entire youth policy after what was put on the bench against Sunderland.

Only Theo Walcott, Marouane Chamakh and Wojciech Szczesny were below 30 years of age but Chamakh has aged beyond his years after sitting on his backside on the bench for so long. He must be wishing he had never left Bordeaux.

Meanwhile, over at another ailing Red team, the axis of Andy Carroll, Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard came into their element against a bumbling Brighton side and will quite possibly be good enough for Cardiff next Sunday.

But to think this trio is going to take English football by storm is farfetched.

They combined well against a bunch of stumps but need to turn it on enough times to qualify for a European Champions League spot or maybe the Europa League could become England’s domestic tournament.

Still, two exciting replays to come!

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.