Tomo

Makes me grateful Roman is not obsessed with managerial stability.

The one thing that for me sums up how good Mourinho is. Benitez is widely regarded as Jose's Achilles heel yet he has a superior record against the Spaniard.

Roberto Di Matteo's stint at Chelsea has set him up for a succesful career. He had the chance to pick up a CL medal, a chance he almost certainly would never have got elsewhere. He has increased his legend status with the fans i doubt he is that far behind Zola and Ossie now if he is atall. He got a massive pay off. He will be aloud back at Stamford Bridge any time he likes, and will probably get the best seat in the house along with complimentary wine to go with it. Napoli and Valencia want him as their manager, just over a year ago he was getting turned down by Birmingham City. While the timing of his sacking was extremely harsh yes, to say the club treated him like shit is untrue, he would have given anything for a day in the Chelsea hotseat let alone 9 months the club gave him that chance and the chance to win the CL (which he took) not only that but because of this job there will be very good clubs around Europe willing to take a punt on him. RDM is and always will be a Chelsea legend, we love him, the feeling's mutual, but to say he got treated like shit by the club is untrue, he got a chance he never thought he would get and has been given the platform for the hugely successful career i have no doubt he is now going to go on to have.

Agreed some of the knee jerk reaction's for cringeworthy, why did Robbie get the job in the first place after AVB sacking? i bet the fact he was a club legend already in the first place had something to do with Roman's thought process and it was probably his legend status that got him a stay of execution after Munich. We see it all the time the kneejerk reactions after manager sacking's. Carlo Ancelotti sacked fans were slagging off Roman/the club only to backtrack a month later and treat them like the second coming off christ when they bring the (at the time) brightest young managerial property in Europe. Then AVB himself get's sacked, fans have a go at the board again, blame Lampard some even resorting to calling him scum for the perceived part he had to play, only for the same fans to backtrack 2 months later when Lampard himself plays a huge part in winning us our first ever CL. Now RDM gets sacked it's similar bolax again, with the backtracking that will start if we win the CWC and if Rafa pulls any form of success, the same fans who wanted Roman out will be back kissing his arse, only to disown him again next time a manger leaves, some just never ever learn.

Then those people are idiots for falling into a media trap. Many clubs have changed manager's as many times as us since 2003, some more, Real Madrid and Inter Milan for example. The sooner Ferguson retires and Wenger fucks off the better then the media and this country in general can move with the times and get in touch with the rest of Europe. They make out Roman is a bad guy for changing manager's and having a say in transfer's, not it's not bad or undermiming the manager it's modern football and it's the way most European clubs operate infact Spurs operate in the exact same way, Harry publicly admitted the arrival of Van Der Vaart has absolutely nothing to do with him.

Fergie is a great manager and his motivation skills are second to none, but in an intense tactical battle with a fellow WC manager he has been found out on more than one occasion. Fergie is one of the best managers ever, but his tactics at times can be incredibly naive for someone so experienced. Case in point the CL 2011 final.

Yes, was just adding my own two example's in But tbh, despite his decent last 2 displays, it is getting to the point i would accept Akinfenwa if it meant Torres in the stands.

If im being perfectly honest i accepted this since the day after Munich.

Liverpool in 2005 were worse. While they finished 5th that season and us 6th, Liverpool (2005) ammased 55 points while in our CL winning season we got 64.

I don't care what anyone says, Giroud or Benteke would have been a perfect squad/ borderline first team forward's for us. Infact i would like us to put in an offer for the latter in the summer, if not January.

TBH with the form and lack of options of our forwards, its something i would have not minded us considering if his allegiance to Arsenal didn't make the move impossible. Just watched MOTD again and i LOL at the Spurs fans who think Lloris is better than Cech, Petr is on another level to him completely.

@Strike, Their is no chance in hell Leti will take a cash loss for Falcao, no matter what or who we throw into the deal. The only small chance they might is if we stick a permanent deal for Courtois in there, something that the club have no intention of doing. I wonder if the rumours that Anzhi are prepared to offer huge cash for Torres is true, god how amazing would that be.

Congrats to @Rmpr, but one thing please don't disappear after winning it, a few members have done that in the past and your be a huge loss.

I remember when Gerard Houllier made his first return to Anfield with Aston Villa and paid homage to the Kop while touching the "this is Anfield" sign on the way out from the tunnel. I think it's safe to say if Rafa does that on April 20th, then even most of his backers from Stamford Bridge will turn against him.

Like with Mata he is becoming a victim of his early great performances, like when you have a night out with mates that's one of the best of your life, you do the same again next week with the same people you think that night is crap, it wasn't but the bar was set high by the night out the previous week, strange comparison but you get my drift, Hazard's performances in August meant that because of the bar he raised even good performances will mean it looks like he is playing rubbish. In truth for his first season he is doing fine, the comparison to Torres's situation is crazy, Hazard is raw, Torres is crap.

To think, he had a mere £24m release clause summer before last. Word is we didn't want to hurt Torres feelings.

I didn't i said they were a shadow (under Rijkaard) compared to what Pep has turned them into.

Do you seriously think they were as good then as they are now? Iniesta was 24, Xavi was 28, neither were called world class before Pep came in infact Pirlo, Kaka you could even argue Lampard and Gerrard too were all more highly rated than them back then, now comparison's between those four and the two Spaniard's with the possible exception of Pirlo, would get laughed at. Paul Scholes also didn't start playing better when he got older, it just seemed that way because of how long it took for people to finally give him the credit he deserved and now it's gone too far the other way.

Messi, Iniesta and Xavi were a shadow of what they are now back in 2008, Pep is the reason they are what they are, not the other way round.

Jack Butland is the same, he has apparently cost Birmingham about 10 points this season already.

Atleast that's our record breaking home run safe for another 4 years.

Service works both ways and to say Torres doesn't do his bit is an understatement. Good forwards adapt to the team, not the other way round.

Ashley Cole grew up an Arsenal fan then played for them before us, Frank Lampard grew up a West Ham fan then played for them before us. If Rafa delivers any past hostilities will be forgotten, or was Ashley Cole loved by Chelsea fans in his Arsenal days?

I don't like admitting this, but the more i think about it, the more i think he can actually be a success with us if we get behind him.