Bates - the ruthless businessman

The Chelsea twosome in happier times

By BBC Sport Online's Phil McNulty

Ken Bates prepared to sack Gianluca Vialli by watching "Brief Encounter" in London's Theatreland - but it was nothing compared to the drama played out at Chelsea less than 24 hours later.

Bates was a guest of Everton owner Bill Kenwright, sitting just feet away from Walter Smith, the man he labelled his own personal manager of the year last season.

Chelsea's outspoken chairman did not join the after-show party, probably preferring to sleep on the decision to dismiss the manager who lifted the FA Cup at Wembley only four months ago.

Bates: Aiming high

The removal of Gianluca Vialli is a drastic move, even by the standards of a singular man who, according to Sir Alex Ferguson, is the most self-opinionated chairman since Mao.

And perhaps he proved Ferguson's point by sacking a manager he happily handed £25m to spend on squad re-inforcements last summer.

Bates has invested too much time and money pushing Chelsea to the brink of Europe's elite group to allow sentiment to stand in the way of a ruthless business decision.

And he proved he had no more time to waste when Vialli's services were dispensed with.

High price to pay

Vialli was regarded as one of football's most dignified figures, but a start to the season that did little to make the doubters believe Chelsea were championship challengers ended with that 5pm meeting that told Vialli his day was done at Stamford Bridge.

When you buy into the Ken Bates dream, you know the price on the ticket and Vialli paid in full on Tuesday evening.

A CV that included the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup provided little protection when placed against the prizes Bates really wants, namely the title - and at the very least a place in the Champions League.

And it may well have been the Champions League quarter-final defeat by Barcelona last season that signalled the beginning of Vialli's end.

Sir Alex Ferguson: Critic of Bates

The suspicion that Vialli was failing to mould Chelsea's cosmopolitan band into a cohesive unit has been confirmed by only one win from five games this season, including a comprehensive defeat by the journeyman of Bradford City.

Frank Leboeuf hinted at unrest in the camp, and in the end Vialli's much-heralded squad rotation policy was seen by some as akin to shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Vialli was falling short - but even the normally fireproof Bates must have had his fingers burned in the afterglow of this latest episode in the Chelsea soap opera.

It is hardly the stuff of a long-term plan to give your manager massive sums of transfer cash, and then sack him at the first hint of adversity.

Searching questions

If Vialli was the man to spend this sort of cash in the summer, then surely he was still the man for the job just five games into the new season.

Bates will have the answer, as he always does, but this time the chairman himself cannot escape his share of responsibility for a decision that will have surprised even the shock-proof world of football.

Yes Vialli had his faults, but this time Bates must also ask himself some searching questions.

Vialli wasted £10m on Chris Sutton - branded a "disaster" by Bates - but he also attracted big name stars to Stamford Bridge.

Chris Sutton: hero at Celtic, "disaster" at Chelsea

Bates has given Chelsea a status they barely merited a few short years ago, but Vialli has added to it with the calibre and character of his signings.

And this is maybe the sort of knee-jerk sacking that Bates himself might normally lacerate in his own unique style.

The pressure is now on Bates to come up with the right man to replace Vialli, and already a so-called "dream ticket" of Gianfranco Zola and Dennis Wise is being touted.

This would surely be going down the same road that led to Vialli's sacking, the graduation from the dressing room to the manager's office that Vialli ultimately found such an uncomfortable journey.

Challenge ahead

It may need an experienced hand to unite a dressing room of complex and outspoken characters that has added the loose-lipped Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to the talkative Leboeuf.

Bates must now make his actions speak louder than words if he is to defy the label of "pretenders" thrown at Chelsea by his latest nemesis John Gregory, a man we can assume is out of the running to succeed Vialli.

Vialli may have met an inevitable end on Tuesday - but this time Bates should also be quizzed in the inquest into the demise of another Chelsea manager.