SinineUltra

Who picks the players, who picks the formation,who picks the tactics, who picks the positions for the players, who gives side-line tactics? This year we have lost many points not only due to being inferior in tactics department but also your praised players becoming complacent and dozing off in the dying minutes. Before you say it is manager's job to babysit their every move then I've got a question why do we pay them 200,000 pounds/week? It's just too easy to blame everything on the manager. Just as we had haters here during Ancelotti days etc.

So when something goes wrong it is automatically Rafa's fault, but when things go well it is just random luck or 'common sense'? Give me a fucking break. I'd really like to see some people's comments if it was anyone but Benitez in charge. It's a big trend on this forum to make yourself look more of a fan, more important to google random facts regarding Chelsea, slate unpopular figures when you've got nothing personal against them and remind the 'good old days', when we weren't able to win Premier League, let alone Champions League/Europa League.

As were Villa lucky to play 15min with a man more due to Ramires.. whats your points again?

I don't think anyone is giving him credit for something we haven't done. If we do finish top4, though, then well done players, well done coaching staff and off with Benitez, who will be hopefully replaced by a more supported manager. TOP 4 used to consist of Manu, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Now there is the addition of Tottenham and ManCity, Liverpool have been playing the second fiddle for some years now. Blaming it all on one man who hasn't even been here for the whole season is just a way to look excuses. Blamed share from the staff, players and fans for booing the manager (and the team) for half season, creating this lovely atmosphere to work in. It is not a big surprise we were better away rather than at home when Benitez took over. We will be unstable, up and down team as long as we keep changing managers. Next season will tell, but I think the reason why ManU are so successful in the league in particular is because they had Ferguson. They have had a weak squad on the paper for some years now and still they produce something every year. There was not even the slightest of doubts by the fans, club, players regarding his work. Only TOP4 games RDM managed this season was a home loss against ManU,an away win against Arsenal and a win against Tottenham. We can't really go in statistics and in hindsight say how someone else could have done this job so or so much better in such a hostile environment. On that basis Ray Wilkins is the best head-coach in the world, having managed us on 2 different occasions, total of 2 games and has 100% win record. Before anyone starts to blame me for being anti-RDM and how I don't appreciate his work - I did not support the fact that he got sacked, it wouldn't have made any difference anyway. There were only bad and worse managers on the market to replace him till the end of the season, but that's the route the club took and we can't change that. I didn't support the sacking of Mourinho and Ancelotti also, but that doesn't mean I would have hated on Scolari or Villas Boas comparing every stat imaginable to show how dire they were.

That's how politicians and lawyers try to wriggle out of trouble and back track their words when things go sour. Like I said, you can sugar-coat it as much as you want but you provoked it. Just questioning your arguments and offering another way of looking at things. Let's drop this. Anyway, I agree with @Ryan Gooding. As long as he is manager of Chelsea, I will support him. I'm dying to see, who will be the first people to call the head of the next manager. I bet it won't take long. Usually the same faces are very eager to pull the trigger when things aren't going exactly perfect.

We are not the only team behind them by a huge margin, but other than that I'm in the same boat as you are, but as @Martina mentioned, we can't take this competition for self-granted, regardless if we are Chelsea and striving to be the best. In the end of the day, isn't that what all the top teams are doing? If you were so civilised and angel-like, you wouldn't have questioned other people's intentions towards this club and compared them with rival club fans. Don't be a hypocrit - you know you were provocative and knew what kind of an impression you would make on anyone reading such rubbish, no matter what the adjective.

Is it success? No, never said it. It is compulsory for a club like Chelsea, but it doesn't mean we should go looking for a rope and a tall tree when we do not finish top4 - there are more quality teams than there are place for CL. Your Arsenal support nonsense sums up your long term vision and shows you as a proper cunt, well done! I think we have different reasons why we support this club. RdM didn't win us the CL single-handedly, you seem to forget that. It was a team effort, as much is this season's abysmal display both under Robbie and Rafa, we are not overachieving nor underachieving, like above poster said - we are filling the minimum requirements. Several fuck ups by RdM and we were playing in the Europa League, have you already forgotten that also? Selective memory. A quick edit: Thin squad is a thin squad, especially if we rely on couple of players to produce the goods. Fatigue affects everyone the same, no matter how fantastic or quality of a player you are.

Why not? You think Champions league is guaranteed to a club like Chelsea? We are playing in one of the most competitive leagues in the world with 5-6 teams challenging for the 3 automatic group stage spots + 1 pre-group place. This isn't La Liga where it is unthinkable for Real or Barca not to qualify. If we get TOP4, even better 3rd, then it has as much got to do with Rafa as it does with the players on the pitch. Personal hate or bias might shape your opinion, but it doesn't distort the reality.

You have to give it to Mourinho that he is very clever with his words. If he does come back, hopefully he will be successful and not depart with negative feelings. That's what I'm afraid the most, all these nostalgic feelings around him and Chelsea, but what if it doesn't work out once again? Egos do clash. He is a bigger name now than he was before he left, but the old guard are slowly retiring - will the new faces have the same tolerance, respect for his methods?

I think posting GIFs doesn't make anyone less of a fan of such a talent as is Falcao, just making fun of the rumors. Would I like to have Falcao over Cavani? Perhaps not, but we need real options besides Torres (and Ba). Though, I get your point.

Didn't skim through all of the previous pages, but were there really people like that? I mean it's not a given fact that Mourinho is only Chelsea bound, we don't OWN him. Wherever he goes I'll wish him good luck, but signs are that he might end up back here. I haven't seen any news about Mancini getting axed, though some people are very sure that they will get a new manger also at the end of the season. Have I been living under a rock or is there truth to this?

You're taking away xPetrCechx's work, hopefully he will forgive you.

Adds up nicely, a long term manager and a Scottish one. Ferguson's retirement announcement is planned beforehand, nothing is done in the heat of the moment. Mourinho's only real options are Chelsea and ManCity, hopefully we will get him.

He might not, but I'm sure your friend YouNameIt is the man you're looking for.

Sorry about that, can't read emotions through a screen though.

I'm actually wondering the same thing. Will they find a long-term manager right away or will they turn into something like us? Stability and fixed hierarchy in the club is what made them successful. No player, no matter how good, could off-set Ferguson's status.

8 minutes is 8 minutes, no matter where you live.

Hopefully Cardozo will have a quiet game. He is one of those old-school strikers like Klose and Inzaghi who only need a chance to score, proper poachers.

Beating smaller teams shouldn't be something we should take self explanatory because it will lead to complacency and losses. Maybe it is in FIFA or any other game but in real life even the unknown players are capable of magic. Why not be happy that we are in the final regardless if we didn't beat the likes of Porto? I mean all the teams we faced along the way had to beat other teams in order to reach as far as they did. Talking about your Liverpool example, they havefailed miserably to reach as far as we have in Europa League so credit where credit's due. (Had to google but they lost to Braga at the round of 16 in 2011 and lost to Zenith in the round of 32)

Fair enough, but the main thing is we won them. Your original post structured in a way you could read out that the competition was meaningless, no word about the opposition being weak.

Don't think he ever said out Mourinho. Blatantly ripped form context with no actual facts so I wouldn't read much into it.

Meaningless Europa League games that have gotten us to the final against Benfica. We are eager to win it so I can't really see much sense in your post.

What has happened to Braga and Sporting particularly? I thought Benfica, Porto, Braga & Sporting Lisbon formed this quartet to rule the league. Cheers for the sportsmanship attitude. Let the best team win!

You're being disrespectful towards Arsenal. They would have Gervinho -Giroud - youngster as Wenger would be selling Podolski to make room for the next promising French superstar.