manpe

True. Hands down the best management team we've ever had (in Roman times at least). Letting that team go was just a shot in his own foot.. what did Roman expect, Grant and ten Cate to be better than that? Even then it was ten Cate and Clarke running the show, then they let both of them go and along came Scolari with his ponies. It's like having a perfectly solved rubic's cube and messing it up again.

overreacting

what's afc?

Roberto knows he won't be the manager for long, maximum until summer... so he has no harm in trying different things, but I doubt he will.

Jose would be a safe bet, he's the only one we know the players would respect 100% and who they know they can't undermine, because he's a bigger star than any of them. If the club do decide to move in on him, it will show that they admit they made a mistake firing him in first place and that all the things in the middle was a rough learning road.

lol... not worth dreaming so much. It will be the same old shit, RDM was part of the AVB team, so I wouldn't expect any big changes.

You're overrating Mata.

deserved victory for franco

I would love to own a shirt like that, but I'm afraid I couldn't afford it I would have to pay shipping fees from England etc. I like the template though.

Pardew comments are the best in a long time.

Yep, like the Chelsea-Inter tie with Mourinho. Except now it might be AVB knocking us out.

How many worthless threads with 2 sentences can you open? God's sake... We have a topic already about it, it's called "Who now?"

I'm afraid that we might get a manager that won't be able to put together a proper sentence now. AVB's language and talking was the best of all the managers I've seen here. Of course it's not that important in terms of football, but it was one of the things I liked about him - his fluent english and ability to vividly speak his mind.

Talking about players. There is even smaller chance now that top talents would want to join us. Bye bye Hazard!

It's not only about minutes. There may be other things involved too. I have a feeling that the Alex/Anelka treatment left a massive impression on the others and no matter whether they played or not, they didn't want to get the same treatment in the future hence the only way was to get AVB sacked.

I see no evidence that the transition will happen now. We've been saying the same thing for 5 years now. We wanted the club to start rebuilding the moment Jose got sacked, but it's yet to happen... instead we got players like Deco and Belletti who lasted what, one season? Under AVB it was pretty clear that he wanted to change things, he used the word "extreme" when describing his plans. AVB: "If, in the next seven years, we have that may trophies again, we can reflect on these two years of change (more positively). They would have been two years where we rebuilt for a better future. I'm concentrating on building something extreme for next year, when there will be a higher expectancy of Chelsea because of what might have been a two-year gap being trophy-less." The next manager, who comes in summer, might start "assessing" those turds once again. Hopefully Di Matteo will be here to brief him about their uselessness and spare him from the agony of "assessment".

AVB was a breath of fresh air. The first one to publicly mention the "project", which was clearly rebuilding the squad, thinking of the future and being brutally honest in the media. Just yesterday I read this bit in the Guardian: "I know that, in the Abramovich era, we have the worst results but I think I have felt the confidence from the owner. Let's see if he wants a change in the club or not. The pattern of behaviour of the owner has led to a downfall [of managers] in similar situations, or even 'better' situations. What will be his reaction? It will be one of two: either a continuation of the project and full support from above; or a continuation of the cultural pattern that has happened before. We don't know. We don't know if it'll be tomorrow or in two years from now. It'll depend on what is the understanding of what is happening at the moment." http://www.guardian....ack?INTCMP=SRCH The thing is that in a few years I'll have a hard time remembering him, once we will have had 3 more managers after him. Even now I sometimes forget to name Scolari or Hiddink, then I think to myself "oh yeah, I think I saw them for a moment, went by quick as a flash".

The English mob minus Cahill then too. Who does it leave? Only Lampard, Cole, Bertrand and Sturridge. AVB is the first one to give Danny his big breakthrough and I doubt he was in it, he is one of the young uns who doesn't have any power (so is Bertrand). AVB stuck through with Terry in this race row, so I have a feeling AVB had the backing of JT, although I'm not entirely sure - he's been quiet in the press for obvious reasons, but who knows what happened behind closed doors. That's too few players in the "English mob", Malouda was definitely in there as well... and probably Mikel. Although that's all just speculation. There's no way of knowing.

I became a fan mostly because of Terry and Lamps, true, but I've grown past that and have become full supporter of the club, not individuals.

Nobody is turning their backs. But when your wife is terminally ill, then you will try to help and criticize doctors, instead of just saying "fuck that I still love her no matter what".

We don't deserve the 4th place and CL football. Get 5-6th and maybe it will open some eyes.

He could have tried, but he recently stated that the club is far away from City's ability to catch top players. He hinted that we don't have the financial muscle anymore. The summer was dealt with all wrong, January is the wrong time to start making big changes. The summer, whoever fault it was, was a suicide for this club's season.

How do you know it was AVB who instructed the club not to sign anyone? I can imagine him already "please Mr. Roman don't sign any new hungry players, I like those old rebelling pieces of shits and I believe we will win all the trophies with their tired legs." I can't repeat this enough - we had good and correct targets, it's just that our tie-wearing dinosaur-resembling geniuses couldn't pull any of them off (except for Mata and the revolutionary deals of Meireles and Cahill). The reality is that it's ALL a consequence of stupid club policy. The things AVB had to deal with and his sacking was a symptom, and he needed more time to cure it... and most importantly - the fucking board need to get their heads checked first.

Damn.. now that the inevitable sacking has happened, I am hoping for Mourinho, Guardiola or Bielsa. I just hope whoever comes will review the tapes of Carlo's last season and AVB's half a season and realize that 90% of that team has to go. I feel that Mourinho relishes it the most, because he has unfinished business here, but it will be hard to see how can that happen with the menopausing Roman.