SinineUltra

Also brought more width to the game.. another thing is that maybe too late but I get the aim of the sub.

Hiring him is a mistake that has already been made, nothing we can do other than damage control. Surely sacking a manager will not help it. He can't affect the transfers, his options to rotate are scarce. We have no leader in the team, very young squad who don't have enough experienced player around them to help them and lift them. We have been missing spine this season, be it in the finals or any other match where we just lack quality. Nothing to do with not having chances, players just don't turn up. Older players are more concerned about cementing their name in Chelsea folklore but that does not mean much to the club at this present moment. Regarding people blaming everything on Rafa is actually very accurate with the exception that another obvious target is Torres, 2 very popular scapegoats to bring up in the heat of the moment. Though I think Torres should be sold and Benitez has no future in this club, I try to be unbiased and realistic. If people really believe that getting rid of them two just like that will fix our problems then that's surreal. Only thing it will achieve is having a team go through a 3rd manager the same season with facing an option of having a 4th appointed during the summer and having one player less in the squad.

Getting someone out of the club is what Chelsea has been doing for some years now. As tough as it is, keeping Benitez till the summer is our only option. Like you mentioned, not spending more during this window can be a good thing - leaving ,hopefully, more funds to our new (more permanent?) manager with FFP and so on kicking in.

This is where you are very wrong. Having a team without a manager is way worse than having Benitez. He doesn't exactly have much to work with and every mistake he makes is noted and even mistakes he doesn't make are noted. It's really difficult to express yourself freely in this forum, unless you agree with the knee jerk posters. Kylehimself made great points and is being shot down, typical. No wonder even admins and mods don't post anymore.

Your reap what you sow

Bertrand is useless.. overhyped because he is English..

Not a single chance to score, they are all over us... we deserve to be behind... players are SHIT and tactics.. well.. what tactics?

The fact is, noone will ever be as good in tika taka as Barca.. what brought Chelsea success in the recent past was being a physical side, ala Stoke but with more technique and creativity. Playing like we play has not only - with a bit of luck- brought us the CL but we are also one of the only teams Barca does not want to meet. I think we miss those more physical players nowadays, it's gone to wanting more and more fragile flare players, who can bring in a lot of creativity etc but will ultimately struggle against a more physical side.

You guys are not having a proper argument. This is an attempt to insult one party to somehow magically make one reconsider their beliefs. Having an opinion that may not be popular in many eyes does not make one less of a fan or mentally retarded. Show some more tolerance towards each other and don't carry on this silly debate. You can expect people to have totally different views on life, football etc but that does not make you nor them wrong, just matter of perspective and the only option to reply to them shouldn't be hitting them unconscious with abuse.

Im just glad we are facing this 'problem' of having 2 world class keepers.

I agree that Chelsea is still a object of desire for any manager who wants to burst into the big scene fast, but timing of this would be wrong. Let the new manager come take charge in the summer with preseason to enforce his style of play. Then again, players and managers aren't comparable in this case, we don't exactly sack players.

3 match ban would have done the trick but instead he is being crucified. Swansea should be punished also. Call me paranoid but these kinds of things make me think the FA has a personal battle with Chelsea.

I think your views on Benitez are a bit too much to the extreme compared to me but this is a good post and very very accurate. Good find mate

Like mentioned before by some, we can use recall options. The thing is, we will have loans returning, people coming back from injuries, players returning from national duties. I think I expressed myself wrongly. Our squad is thin, 100% agree and we need reinforcements, but I'd rather if we bought players that can really help the team not go on a panic buy spree getting anyone for any price. We are in the same boat, just I couldn't really put my thoughts into words.

I prefer if we didn't buy anyone rather than doing panic buys.. will be bad for us in the long run. I think that with the squad we have, be it as thin as it is, we are able to capture 3rd place and do some more rational buys in the summer.

double, sorry

Heartwarming speech. But you missed the point. Football is a team play and as much as it needs a coach, it needs players to show up. It's a effort on both parts and some people choose to accept that and blame Rafa ONLY. That's what some of us are trying to say - not only Rafa is to be blamed. I agree that his tactics are off sometimes, but then again he wins us games we don't expect us to. So his tactics bring us a lot of joy also.. Now if you expect manager to CONSTANTLY motivate players to do their job properly then I'm disgusted by them.. They get payed more than they deserve, they play for one of the elite clubs in the world. Coming out of your text, players are money grabbing egoists, who can't motivate themselves for playing good and respect the shirt and fans. Regarding your military comparison. I served in the army and as much as it was down to the platoon leader to decide what maneuver to execute, it was always dependent on the men who actually HAD to follow the orders. The tactics could have been spot on but if the men were slacking and not giving a damn, you were bound to have casualties. Regardless of what they think of the leader (or Rafa in our context) and his tactics, as a professional you must obey. You can say that our thin squad is not a valid reason for bad performances, but it makes us dependent on a handful of players who - understandably so- can't carry the team week in week out till the end of the season. We lack character in the dressing room. Lampard is a great individual but never a leader, not a captain. So in that sense, we've missed Terry very much. Most of our squad is playing together for the first time and we can't expect it all to click just like that. I get that we are spoilt by the clubs recent years' successes but everything takes time. We are changing managers like socks, sometimes for a reason, mostly not. Regarding RDM and his reign. He brought us the holy grail 19.05 and we love him for it. Though, he did achieve it through a much experienced players, he had Drogba, Terry, Lampard, Malouda, Meireles etc. Bear in mind that with current crop of players we have, he didn't really do any better than Benitez, WHILE having so called backing of the fans and as a 'permanent' manager the respect of the players. I really couldn't see these kind of silly arguments flying around when Guus Hiddink took over for a couple of months. The thing with Rafa is that a majority of his haters (I use this word on purpose) don't like him because of his past, not because he is a failure as a manager. I don't think that the squad does not respect Rafa, there is nothing out there that would indicate that. All in all, if we keep hold on for third place, it would be major improvement on last year's 6th. Achieving this while being in a transition phase with all the new faces etc. Winning the FA cup is also an option still but a long shot as is the EL. Regarding all the other trophies we could of won this year.. as much as Rafa is to be blamed for his game plan etc, players never showed up. What characterizes our season so far is WASTEFULNESS. We might have 5-6 golden opportunities but we somehow manage not to score enough to come out with a result. Not scoring the chances come ONLY down to players. You can't argue about that. 50 50 blame, some choose to make it one-sided and ignore other parties involved. Talking about being hypocrite.

Fair enough, my apologies. Let's agree to disagree..

Alright, didn't know about two of you but having this cocky tone towards Bushman is still not acceptable, not even Bushman, he does not accept anyone with slightly different opinion, but it's his loss i guess. Other than that I'm fine mate, will stop posting on this subject not to stir up unnecessary debates..

You're so full of yourself.. thinking you've got it all to judge a person and not even judge, blatantly insult.. get a grip.

This isn't a kindergarten, where people do what they want. They are all professionals, who -as like their manager-. have same aims. I don't recall any player going public or disrespecting Rafa publicly. Footballers aren't known for their brain capacity but even they can crack the nut here and realise they'd be throwing away a year of their anyway short careers.

Good lineup

I'm all for bringing in talents and boosting our squad, but aren't we getting a bit short on the strength department? Flair, pace and trickery is all good but having a midfielder with a bit of muscle on his bones would be ideal. I'm not targeting this comment directly at Isco, more in a general sense, because we are taking part of one of the more physical leagues in the world.

I agree that some of Rafa's decisions and tactics are weird and seem incorrect, but in the end of the day you can have the best tactics but if players can't be bothered it's not going to happen, is it? Whether a manager is permanent or interim should NOT make a difference. They are all there for the same aim and manager is more important than the players, they should know better. I blame Roman for not seeing this kind of reception towards Rafa, it was obvious that not many can close an eye regarding the past and be open minded about this.

Double morale.. It's OK for players -who earn millions- to play shit and disgrace the shirt ,but somehow it all comes down to people blaming the manager. Are you really so naive? Do you think that hiring Mourinho will fix our problems? Mourinho is a man with big ego and more often than not needs huge investments to implement his way of play, a luxury we can't allow ourselves on regular basis due to FFP. I appreciate what he has done but having him as a manager is a short term fix, when time passes we will be back in the same situation, cursing Mourinho for taking this job again and ruining his legacy at Chelsea. Think about that.. The problem is in the squad, we lack depth on paper and width on the pitch.. long term Chelsea players have way too much power and should be sold or disciplined. They have been good to us, but like-wise the club has been good to them. Regardless, they can't cross the line and disrespect a manager, like they have done many times in the past... Moreover if they can't live up to their glory-days and put in sub par performances. I give credit to Rafa for what he has done to us so far and refuse to show disrespect. Coming from his past, he is a very easy target for people, who can't see beyond their nose tips. This blind hatred towards him is the reason he should not be our manager on permanent basis, nothing to do with his actual managerial abilities. Just hope our next gaffer will last longer in the reign and will be able to 'please' our panel of experts.