laura90

The romantic notion that the love affair can be rekindled, after breaking up relatively long relationship (whether one sided or mutual) is always tricky . There's always a reason why parties broke up in the first place, and that reason often comes back to haunt people. Returning to a previous partner can only ever work if both parties have matured, and recognise their contributions to the failed partnership from before. My heart and mind want Jose to return, my common sense tells me that it could get fractious once again. Would either of Roman and Mourinho concede their mistakes of the past affair? Ultimately, both possess huge egos, both felt the other took away from their respective achievements. Jose got Valdano sacked in order to have more control at Real. Roman refuses to give control to any manager, even when it comes to squad needs. What would we need in situation like that, is Hiddink type as DOF to act as ''marriage counsellor'' between these parties. However, counselling only works if both parties commit. I know, Hiddink has retirement issues, but we would still need football knowledgeable DOF with diplomatic skills. Even though Mourinhos successors failed to show world class manager skills, it wasn't only poor managment that got us in this mess, to think that we only need Mourinho to get us back on track. Mourinho or not Mourinho, the healing has to start from the top. Jose would be immense to provide us space and time for real transition in the board, for hiring people who understand football on this level, some of them who had connection with Chelsea before, so have an extra motivation and to entitle them to make decisions related to football ( in cooperation with Jose). Even if Jose chooses to leave in three years time , we would still have an option to hire promising, younger but experienced manager on these grounds. Honestly, the only thing that will convince me that Roman may have seen the light is if he reconsititutes our board . Jose is a fantastic coach, yes, but aint miracle worker. With Jose we would have great time, however, as long as Roman surrounds himself with his business amigos and calls that a football governing board for Chelsea FC , I feel this twilight zone we are in would just hide in a corner for a while waiting to meet us again.

Coach partnership in Carlo and Wilkins came closest to Jose tenure in coaching department. The breaking up of that - for absolutely no reason whatsoever - was the turning point in the Premier League. Champions league aside, this club as been going downhill ever since Wilkins sacking . That and putting more faith in one useless player than any manager who did good for us put us where we are now. We are a club that is not set up or run well from an administrative perspective. This is a long running problem and we have glossed over it for years because the trophies have kept coming. Some even went as far as feeling that our maladaptive structure was the reason for our success rather than our success happening inspite of it..we may finally now have to face the harsh realities and the bitter truth. Owner that controls everything with a bunch of number crunchers and Yes men on the board. A technical director in way over his head No organizational strategy or long term plan A manager that knows that he will be out this summer that doesn't care if the team looses because he will just say the board didn't listen to him Players that lacks urgency, passion, fight, determination, Fans that can't stop booing The arrogance and fickleness of our board and how our club is run has crept into our team. Roman and his advisors are learning the hard way. Whilst skill and ability helps win matches, its passion that is often more decisive. The passion has been drained out our club and dressing room . Believing that sometime in summer a right man will come and most problems will be solved is quite romantic, but so far from the truth. The solution is far more complicated.

Can finish, wins headers, has pace, gets into the box, does the dirty work, is back for the opponenet counter, goes forward for the counter himself - Moussa Sissoko is precisely the sort of player we miss in midfield. How much did he cost again? Sorry I forgot. Our double pivot is just bloody perfect. We have the brilliance of 5 years more of Mikel, he is awesome so we offered him a twelfth of Sissoko's transfer fee as weekly wages. Diame, Vidal, Fernandinho and now Sissoko, all all-action midfielders who have absolutely owned our midfield. What to say about result...Both teams had major issues going into the January window. Newastle wisely made several quality signings, we decided to stay as it is and actually loan out one more player for good measure when it was obvious we needed reinforcements..the difference is clear to see.

Why Eden didn't just elbow him while he was still standing? Kick him not just the ball. Maybe punishment would be more appropriate in that case. The English FA is a dirty and filthy bunch. They sure enjoy the huge amount collected from Chelsea players as fines for every little incident. Feck! Hazard can only be subjected to further blame and punishment by a very biased opinion. I didnt rule out the FA sticking out their ugly heads on Hazard , but its kinda surprising given that the there is naked for all to see. Its so annoying that those who are suppose to look into pricks tweet have decided to turn their blind eyes because its Chelsea. They were busy keeping an eye on Ashleys tweets I suppose. The ball boy got thumbs up for his actions. There is no reson to be suprised, the English Fa is run by the Manures. What a joke!

I can't belive I am still not hearing any apologies coming from that idiotic club over the terrible unsporting behavior. They directed their ballboys to behave like that and to commit such act as laying on the ball and pretend being beaten to provoke punishment for player who refused to accept time wasting. It is quite obvious that Swansea own director instructed his son to do what he did . Their behavior is what instigated this whole mess ,they are the one's at fault here . Ok Hazard should not have gotten involved with that little prat and should have just left the ref to deal with it but it is quite clear that the ref's weren't bothered with the ballboy's time wasting and weren't going to do anything about it for quite time. He was supposed to be more careful because he's the adult and the high-profile person with a responsibility to himself and the club. I don't condone what Eden did at all, but this isn't the same situation as one where there's a clear victim and a clear perpetrator. So if Eden is punished further, the boy should be as well, though I'm sure not. To treat Hazard as the villain in all this without even considering some kind of fine for that club or it's ball boy is ridiculous .Hazard is the one who is likely to face a ban and the abuse from opposing fans and media outlets for some time and ball boy prank and his club will get nothing but enormous amount of fake compassion. All mighty FA, righteous as it is.

Arsenal fans discussing transfers : If it's inappropriate, feel free to delete it.

Great win today. Fantastic three points. However it shows that Rafa is a lousy tactical coach. Harry, Southampton's manager, Allardyce and Wenger have simply made simple changes and adjustments to lineups an this clueless man playing our manager doesn't have the brains to deal with. Harry just sat back for QPR and countered. Adkins just brought another striker. Allardyce brought in just Diame. Benitez proved he couldn't deal with the changes. The team always goes missing at the second half. Today, Wenger simply instructed Coquelin and Diaby to push forward to push our CMs back and Benitez couldn't deal with that. A more clinical team woul have made us much more problems. FSW doesn't like taking risks nor he does know how to take risks at the right time. Being outwitted by Allardyce, Harry, Adkins and almost Wenger. That's a terrible manager. He makes the team work extra hard in a game we dominate, that and his stubborness to proof himself a wonder worker on Torres will cost us this season. I can't wait the day to see them both gone.

Talk about self – sabotaging mode . Expectation of immediate results. Blind obsession with certain players. Playing football manager, while having all the money to hire the best experts in that field. Relyng on ego and yes men when it comes to running this club. Having the board of business men instead of football people and advisors. Overpaying players and reducing squad to cut costs at the same time. Not asking coaches when it comes to signing players, erm, not allowing them to earn their salaries. Inexplainable and meaningless sacking of proven managers and assistant coaches. It's all managers fault . Who needs time? Time is for losers. No stability, no loyalty, no patience. He is now seeing the effects of it. But that's the key. He didn't have to see it before. We played CL every season ( often semis), we won trophys on regular bases, we had great squad, all that has provided successful avoidance of any consequences for long period of time. Yes, we won nothing 2008. But we played CL final and signed manager with great pedigree ( oh the irony). Yes we won nothing 2011. But AVB was such a great prospect. In the end of that season, we won CL. The plain truth is, all that time little suggested Roman that we are in deep trouble. On the contrary, his way could have been described as recipe for success. And precisely for that, nothing guaranties he will continue to do the same now when he realizes that his actions caused big problems. Dropping out of CL, three lost trophys in a row, constant uncertain fight for CL , lately managerial situation, Pep, FSW, are not something that can be overlooked or thrown under the rug. Who can assure that he doesn't have the ability to recognize his mistakes at some point and to act differently? Believing it can/ will go on like this indefinitely is pure misconception. It's not sustainable. From financial and managerial point of view.

Dear Chelsea FC I still can't understand why are you treating me like this. After everything I did for you, after all the goals I scored and all the goals I almost scored you relegated me to play with the youth team. To be honest, after Yossi came back from the loan, I expected Wenger to make a bid for me. I mean, in order to be in the Arsenal squad, you had to be average and French. And they also looked for experience too. I fit perfectly for that criteria. But it turned out that these days Arsenal are looking for average, unambitious and English. When I think to myself, I'm doing all right. I mean, how much money I'm getting for quite negligible effort. If I didn't enjoy being in the spotlight that much, this would be quite nice compensation. Things are not that bad here either, I'm having a wonderful time playing with the kids. My dribbling skills are back, I can take two, three even four players with ease. They call me french whizkid. When I see how you are struggling these days, I can't help but thinking how much you miss me. I still miss you. I miss the pitch. I miss all the cameras. And I miss the fans. I miss them the most. I even miss the noise they were making when I shot from dead angles. Or calling me Slo Mo when I had the ball. But you know what bothers me the most? The thing that Torres is earning so much money, more than me when he's doing the same thing as me and thats on the pitch. I would like him here, both of us would score lots of goals here. Who am I kidding. I would never pass the ball to him. But seriously, what difference does it make? Your Flo Mo

Could it be...Things have got so bad under Benitez that Southampton sacked their manager because they've only picked up a point at the Bridge.

Top managers are ambitious. They like challenges and are not afraid of them. They want talented players to work with. They want to win. But they also want control. They want respect. They want to have a say in players coming in . They want nobody to interfere in their business, unless they ask to. People tend to overlook that. Don't know why... Anyway, we want top manager, long term candidate. The right guy to lead us in the right direction. But it has a price. Changing the club's policy must come first. If we continue like this, we won't stand a chance to hire somebody like Klopp or Mourinho . We are much more likely to hire someone less established, like Lambert or Simeone or Moyes and get lucky. But even in that case, policy will have to be changed. At some point. Hopefully before they realize that wasting money is not much different from not spending it at all. Let me elaborate: No permanent manager = lots of talented players, no squad.

This managerial situation, together with Torres one, is the main reason why I'm unhappy with the way this club is run, regardless of how many talented players we have signed lately. It has come to the stage when I want long term manager more than I want any trophy or any player respectively. Within 9 years we've had Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Philipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelloti, Andre Villas Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and currently Rafael Benitez. This is a total of 9 managers. The longest serving of those 9 managers happens to be Jose Mourinho (2004-2007),who won 50% of our 10 trophies. 2 Premier league titles 1 FA Cup , 2 league cups , 5 trophies out of 10 won. Our longest serving manager , Mourinho, won basically 50% of our trophies in 3 years and 8 other managers cumulatively won 5 trophies from 2007-2012. And this is supposed to be just fine, we won ten trophys and we are buying real talents at the moment. Managerial longlivity is overrated. We couldn't afford it anyway, we had incapable managers at the helm. True, but we had few capable: Mourinho, Ancelloti maybe even AVB with THIS team . There is no long term success without consistency and long term manager who has authority in assembling the team in my opinion. I can mention at lest two benefits of consistency over quick fix approach: - Long term manager and his scouts would know how to put their team together. They wouldn't assemble the team which lacks balance and has so many holes as ours right now. No knowable football man would have so many attacking midfielders/wingers without quality central midfielder. He would have known how wasteful, limited and restrictive that could be. I won't even mention a striker. - With long term manager there is stable coach who can remain in contact with players on loan to assure them that they are not forgotten orphans and that their parent club actually has a future plan for them and actually cares for their long term career development. I reckon our interim manager has had little or no contact with likes of KDB, Lukaku, Chalobah, Courtois etc. There is a systemic problem with our youth and loan policy due to our managerial situation. This has to be fixed, given the talents we are dealing with these days. - He knows his players and players want to play for him. That too. - It will be damn hard to find the right, knowable, quality manager even more to give him time and to have faith in him, but it is still possible. It's a risk we simply have to take for the sake of the future. Well, one can only hope.

Jose - wins things and installs mentall strenght and winner's mentality , especially if Barcelona is not around. We can call him arrogant as much as we want but if he ends up in Manchester we wouldn't be happy about it. Only for long term of course, but if he comes back to England settling down would make sense. Klopp - would need time, but has eye for a talent and can make team to play pretty nice football. There is nothing wrong with german discipline and sense for organisation too. He seems happy at Dortmund but question remains will he be able to meet his potential there if he keeps losing best players season after season. Pep - His trophies speak for himself. He would be a gamble though. In an ideal world it would be someone from three mentioned. They would be given enough time and wouldn't be faced with sacking after two lousy months. Or someone less established, but good scout, great man manager and even better tactician able to meet our high standards and not have two defeats in a row. Well that was ideal world, but in reality of Chelsea FC...Anyone who wants to take a chance, grab some quick money, is into sadomasochism , or is eager to get new chance in coaching, doesn't care about his reputation too much, which makes him eligible to come her and leave his bags packed...ready to fly as soon as things go sour. To be fair, things change, and there is still time for us to stop this managerial countdown. There is slim chance that we are determined to treat the next manager right ,and in that case, the most likely option is Guardiola.

Wow!!! I'm quite impressed. We can't expect them to be perfect all 90 minutes, they still need time to gel and they have listened instructions of two managers in short period of time. Playing nice and flow isn't imperative. Fighting, showing spirit and giving their best is. That shall do it this season and they did it tonight. We have lacked a striker so bad. Just does the simple things, with our plethora of creative options he will get chances if he just makes the obvious runs. Ba kept doing everything that Torres hasn't been doing and reaped the rewards. I bet his scoring rate improves playing with better players, Hazard and Mata among others. I still believe that our players can make world class striker with goal scoring record similar to Falcao's , and Ba , if remains healty, has everything that takes. It's such refreshing to have a proper striker again. Very impressed by Moses too. Nice to know we are still able to buy quality for little money, like he, Ba and Azpi show. I just hope Benitez will find a way to nurture Oscar better. A special prayer, Lord please keep Demba Ba's knees intact, so we can enjoy his goals when he trains more with the 3 amigos, so we can salvage a crumbling season orchestrated by the number 9. Amen

Well if you have Benitez as a coach, if he has any say in transfers, you can expect at least one Spaniard during transfer windows. And who better than Benitez knows importance of a playmaker, decent central midfielder, who are like engines in this formation we play. He suffered major blow at Liverpool after Alonso's departure. Anyway, he could be eager to bring that kind of a player to the team he coaches,. So this move makes perfect sense. Of course this guy isn't Alonso but we have much talent in attacking mids. I really don't know a thing about this guy, Benat, but After Ba all I want is decent central midfielder and having in mind the time I have been waiting, I'm not picky at all. Anybody able to provide quick, precise, forward, long range passes to our trio upfront now and than, will mean major improvement and could help together with Ba, likes of Hazard and Mata massively. His height could be an issue, however. Unless we are in for very tall, strong and aggressive DM too...

No I'm not.Yes, we have some great players.However, continued success isn't coming from talented players, it comes from having stability at a football club and implementing certain principle and sticking to it.That further helps in developing an identity, a system, necessary for long term success.Needless to say without having a coach that can last at least 2 seasons trying to develop an identity is essentially mission impossible. Finding the right one should be their priority . As I said before, they have bought a whole bunch of toys and are spending millions and months looking for master puppet to make their toys work. When they should have sat down with someone credible to discuss first and then put their players together. That won't helpthem in finding the right guy. We went from team by Ranieri and Mourinho, football brains who made almost every pound spent well spent, to team made by Bruce Buck, Ron Gourlay, Emanelo and Roman.Business men, not football people. Under new manager every year we will continue to evolve, devolve, mutate and metamorph in the years to come. One minute the players are adopting a new, attacking style of play then out of nowhere the manager gets sacked and we bring in a manager whose philosophy is to be compact and disciplined. We depend on the individual creativity of players which can be easily suffocated by a credible opposition coach. That can't continue much longer.Otherwise, we might often witness players disinterested and disoriented when things don't go our way. We will continue to struggle on a regular basis for as long as we lack stability. And that's exactly why I believe our club's structure and organization is bound to change as well as our manager. And I'm patiently waiting.

I wish I can share your anger towards Benitez. I wish I see him as our biggest problem. I don't really. How could I? Managers don't last long enough to become major problem, well at least for me. Our board bought a whole bunch of toys and are spending millions and months looking for puppet master to make their toys work. That's bigger problem imo. The fact that we have two - three terrific players but half of the squad simply can't follow , especially.. well you know who. I just want to know who the hell came to conclusion that Mata, Hazard and Oscar would shine in the team without proper CM and striker. I consider that guy our biggest problem. And Rafa. It seems to me that he will get the new record of the shortest managerial reign in english topflight, a dent in his career that will forever remind him never to mess with the fans again.

And I remember how angry and dissapointed I was for having to read all those things about about Lampard, Terry and Drogba after AVB era. Yes they had some kind of player power but they had to in the club with so much pressure and expectations and without anything like long term stability. They kept this team together under all kinds of pressure ( well, they were responsible for some), bad managment from above, some managers inadequate and unable to meet the requirements from the above.AVB for example, was coach with potential, but was wrong match with the team we had back than on so many levels. He just couldn't cope with it and made many mistakes. He would be much better match with our current team.Lampard is leader and motivator of this team, and when was in form, he played his part damn well. Doesn't matter how many talented players we have, to win trophies you need leaders. And we will struggle to find another ones while having fans singing anti-coach songs and new manager every 6 months. Yes I was dissapointed, but I knew back than that every fan who wrote those stuff about them , will look for players exactly the same as them, after their departure.It's not even about skills, it's about much needed stability, the only one we had with our trigger happy owner.Yes we had great players before, but they didn't have to win 10 trophies in 8 years, under 8 different managers , with too many of them mistakenly strayed in the workplace.

It's been more than 7 months, and still when I close my eyes, I get flashbacks to that wonderful night in the Allianz Arena, memories of that stunning header from Didier Drogba, the wonderful penalty save from Petr Cech that broke Arjen Robben`s heart and the drama of the penalty shoot-out culminating in Drogba's run with expression of disbelief, hapiness and joy I will never forget. We entered very next season with new team that didn't have time to gel, and on top of that missing good players in two important positions. Yes we lost three finals afterwards, even fell out of CL group stage, but these failures will quite easily be over-shadowed by a majestic triumph that few believed was possible. We had some tough times, but who knows what future brings. If anything this team is unpredictable. When they had considered us too old to compete, we responded by winning domestic double with League included. When they dismissed us as favourites, we won Champions League. They used to say how we will inevitably fall apart, we responded with yet another trophy, further irritating Arsenal and Liverpool fans , among others. Yes, one can never know what to expect from Chelsea FC, ven when they are in free fall... Cause when you least expected it, they somehow found a way to recover and rise.

I understand everyone who claims we need prolific top scorer to finish in the top four and save our season. That is the only reason I can cope with spending 50 millions on Falcao instead on central midfielder capable to retain the freaking ball. But just because it looks like necessarity doesn't mean it's the best choice. If we spend 50 million on Falcao and another 50 million on central midfielder I will be happy. If we spend 50 million on Falcao and nothing on central midfielder I will be sad. Why? Because we fall out from CL group stages missing the Modric type more than Falcao type. We scored two against Juventus and couldn't win because of the midfield. We scored 3 against Shatjor and conceded two because of the midfield. Had we scored two and conceded one we would be in the top 16. No, we can't buy another Drogba. But we can buy all around striker able to defend worse and keep the ball little worse and have better goal scoring ratio than Drogba in non-finals. The quality of all around strikers is that their confidence lies on their capabilities not only goals, and they are better leaders because of that, which gives them confidence to shine even when team plays shit or they are in goal drought. Besides, our trio is not known for their ability to keep possesion, we need all the help in that department. People constantly speak we need top top scorer. What makes you think that Hazard, Oscar, Mata, Moses wouldn't be able to make one from some less established striker with potential? Why we have that trio if we need specialist, the greatest one to score on regular bases? I know it sounds perfect, unplayable on paper, but how often it certificate in reality? Trio were brought to revive Torres, and against mediocre teams they did, but Torres has issues. What makes you think they wouldn't do much more for less established striker who could become prolific striker with us? Have you heard for Jackson Martinez or El Shaarawy last season? Don't you think there will be someone new next season? Well with quality central midfielder who would provide us more possesion therefore enable our attacking trio to play their best game, without running after ball all the time, I firmly believe we could make our own prolific goal scorer whose task is only to score. But I get it, we are running out of time. But I won't congratulate our board for being able to afford another 50 millions to save our season once again. I'm not against Falcao, I just want more money spent on superb central midfielder and less or evenly on striker.

Didier Drogba. That is 50 mil striker. - you don't buy pure goal scorer for that money unless you really have no other option. Because they are not worth that much. Top all around strikers are, however, worth that much. Drogba scored bunch of goals, especially in the finals. But he was also excellent all around player, able to defend, assist, motivate, make the right moves, keep defenders busy, carry whole team on his back when things got tough. Even when he didn't score, he was often very usefull and contributed massively. And that makes striker worth 50 mil - even though we have perfect attacking midfielders able to supply any striker (especially Falcao), they are still talented players who will improve at some point. When they do, they will try to score as well, not only to assist. Meaning, despite our creators, we are not going to play around striker, like they did in Porto and Atletico for Falcao. He will have to adapt his game in the team that doesn't play to his strenghts and completely around him. We have too much quality in the attack for any striker to enjoy that kind of luxury. - I know it sounds strange, but being striker in Chelsea is hard. Partly because of price tag, and partly because of press who just wait opportunity to crucify you. That is why I have an impression we need striker with strong mentality, whose self - confidence comes from his capabilities rather than his past achievments (ok. preferably both). I really fear those strikers who are called greatest for long time, because in tough times ( potential crisis) that doesn't make them stronger, rather more vulnerable. - I'm sure there is a striker who complements and fits our game perfectly that doesn't cost that much, but it would be too much for our board to find him. In that case, Falcao makes sense, even though i prefer Cavani. I would also splash much cash on a central/defensive midfielder able to retain ball properly, because it's central midfield where we have been outplayed against strong teams, especially in CL.

Mancester is not as good as out. Mourinho is a great tactician and that is Real's major advantage. Yes, Madrid has more world class players, but it's not about quality of individual players, it's about team as an unit. Manchester is better in that aspect. If Vidic gained his form back, Manchester would have an advantage. Real relies on CR as much as Manchester on RVP. But CR is more likely to have a bad game, most of the players against their former clubs do. If CR plays badly Manchester will be favourites . Besides, Man United plays way better in the latter stage of the season. Other thing, why people want Milan to beat Barcelona? If Man Utd beats Real, Barcelona out would make them favourites to win that competition. I would want Barca out only if both, Manchester and Arsenal are.

The most frustrating thing about Sturridge is that we all know he is among most talented players here, but his development is heading in the wrong direction. And it is, apart from injuries, mostly his fault, imo. And let's not forget he's been injured almost entire season so far. His attitude has shown rejection to play on the wing and willingness to play as central forward only. But was that really smart with his talent? It was obvious to everyone that he was talented playing on the wings and that he was developing in that role nicely. I do think a striker learning his trade on the wings can benefit his game and make him a more versatile all round striker. For example Tierry Henry, player he looks up to, started his attacking career on the wings, not scoring bags of goals but learning a trade and adapting this game. The best strikers in the game should be able to play anywhere along the front line. Wenger seems to have a habit of nurturing young strikers on the wings. It won't work all the time but when it does you end up with a striker that can cause damage anywhere in the attacking third. Sturridge should have stopped crying and looked at the positives of how this could develop his game. Other example, RVP learnt his trade as a winger, then was moved to a role behind the main striker, now he is the main striker. RVP has nowhere near the pace he had when he was on the wings but his positional play scares the life out of defenders, at times unplayable because he can drift deep, wide or high up the field, as Henry did in his days. RVP is striker who is confident at causing damage anywhere in the attacking third and that makes him most dangerous. What I'm trying to say, every player with talent and abilities should try to develop himself further and try to be 'multi -dimensional' , able to play well in and from more positions, especially a striker. Not every striker can play on the wings and have Sturridge's abilities. Before given the CF role, Sturridge should develop other skills such as holding up ball, awareness of players around him, running into the right channels, his finishing and other attributes such as humility and team work. He wouldn't be next RVP or Henry, but he has shown potential and had he gave his best, he could be great all around striker. Instead he insists to be one - dimensional central forward because he sees himself as just that, a striker with pace, able to take players now and then. It will probably pay off in his peak, but in later stages of his career, he might regret it.

We needed world class manager in 2004 - we got him. We didn't need world class manager in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. We could use one, of course, but the core of the team in Terry, Lampard, Cole, Essien, Ballack, Drogba, and their leadership, commitment, experience was good enough to bail us, and every interim manager, out. It was not all about their qualities, it was about their mental strength to overcome everything bad in or around club together with managers mery-go-round. But we are losing this core , and it is quite obvious we won't be able to afford the same behavior with new generation of players. Especially taking in consideration how we got them. That is maybe why Roman wanted long term manager in AVB 2011. But the problem was, we needed world class to deal with our transition and last years of core players while remaining successfull. Something needed to be sacrificed, mainly CL spot, in order to give AVB time. AVB put core players in sidelines putting in dangeur both, PL and CL. Had he stayed, we would probably be in Europa League without CL trophy, but would have had some kind of stability and more experienced AVB for manager. Then RDM , fan's long term manager, came, started by changing system to more defensive and giving main roles to core players who made the best of it, mainly in CL. PL remained sacrificed, but who cared, we won CL and FA cup. Summer of 2012 , exodus of experienced players. New, unexperienced, talented, under 21 were coming. Without a striker. How to make the best out of Mata, Oscar, Hazard's talent? How to rotate without exhausting them? How to play attacking football and remain solid defensively? How to score without a striker? How to survive untill next transfer window? Chelsea job became the hardest in the world of football . World class manager was needed more than ever, even more than in 2004. RDM is not that kind, he has his flaws, mainly lack of balance between attack and defense, relyng on individual brilliance, casual lack of system and organisation against strong teams, but that isn't strange having in mind his experience. We could stick with RDM but that would probably mean no CL for next year. He needs time. Now we are left with yet another interim manager we hate, whose task is to keep CL spot. It's quite ironic how pursuit for long term manager in AVB ( Roman ) brought one of the biggest managers mary go round here. We will get striker and CM in January. We still have changed core of the team too late and we will face consequences. To remain successfull as price tag of our new team suggests, we need maestro in coaching department, who submits pressure well, can pull all strings together and make the best out of players and this difficult situation. Mourinho like. Or we need to leave ambition aside, be patient and give a coach with potential time even if that means risk of losing trophies or CL spot for year or two. RDM like.There is no other way. It has to be long term manager regardless. Without core, he is the only source of stability. This club is in downfall and that's awful. Why can't we settle for quiet year and build some foundations? Impatience is killing this club and after CL trophy it's sad and inexcusable. I know that money spent is not meant to be wasted, but sometimes money is just not all it takes. My last rant. Sorry.

Same old story. AVBesque Winning trophies makes manager perfect and world class regardless of experience and consistency whatsoever. When they are going trough bad patch in this club: Leave them, they have huge potential, they are for the future. When they are fired, If you say, well maybe they didn't have enough skill or experience,: You are evil, I hope their future success will make you shut up. You are not supporter, or even better, you are plastic. When somebody take over after AVB and succeed: Well AVB was clueless, look him at Tottenham, he is a clown. I can't see if Benitez will be better, but I have a feelng not so much. So it will take RDM to have another job in order to see if he was perfect or not. The best scenario would be if he could get Mancini's job. Unlike Mancini, he knows how to win Champions League and I would like to see him winning another one. Not to mention, with those players, we would see how good manager he really is, without, well he has worse players than he would have with us.. Everybody is cheering when we get Mata, Hazard, Oscar and expects Falcao and so, but that comes with a price. They don't consider that maybe, for long term success, great players need even better manager to get the best out of everybody. As long as we don't have 'perfect' manager who has it all, they will search for one. Deal with it. Being club legend and winning trophies demands respectfull treatment, but doesn't make 'perfect' long term manager for the club. Fact. Wait for his next job, and than have your say. He won't have problems with getting one.