The only place to be

This is essentially my take on it. Basically we have to respect the 'office', not the person occupying it. If the person in the office is doing a decent job then the club benefits and I see no reason to want us to do badly. It's not going to turn the clock back and undo what's happened. Some people need to accept one thing. RAFA BENITEZ IS THE INTERIM CHELSEA COACH. Now we could shout and scream and burn effigies and it might get rid of him, but he will still have been our coach. It'll be in the records, on Wikipedia and in pub quizzes for eternity. So now we can only affect how we react to that. Booing him won't help the team. I don't want young players like Oscar and Hazard to be in that type of atmosphere. It's unfair on them and it won't make them play better. That doesn't mean we all of a sudden love Rafa or even like him. Robbie will get a hell of a lot of love from the fans and he deserves it because by every measure he's a Chelsea legend and he'll be welcomed back for decades to come when this is all just a bad memory.

It all comes down to Roman's mentality. He never wanted Robbie but he really didn't have much choice after he won big ears. So it really didn't take much for him to pull the trigger. With Benitez it's different. He's only a short-term appointment. What I think we all have to understand is that Roman has a plan and it never involved Di Matteo. Ultimately, he's the guy who makes the decisions and to be quite honest, his decisions over the last decade (almost) have given me some of the greatest moments of my life. That isn't to say we should follow him blindly, but there is a certain logic to his decisions.

I agree with the Azpi point. He's looked good in his few starts and I'd like to see us go with Cahill and Bane in the middle. But I think Romeu is never going to be Alonso. If anything he could become the Lucas of our team - a midfield destroyer who can find a pass to one of the creative guys, and occasionally chip in with an assist or a goal. Having said that, he's a Barcelona grad so we all know who the best guy to help him kick on is. No. He could win the League, Champions League (unlikely), FA Cup and CWC and all that will change is what he can stick on his CV when he leaves at the end of the season. My only expectations are for him to not F*** up in any major way and get us to third in the table. Then next season we start anew with a few more players out the door (Malouda, Ferreira etc.) and a host of youngsters with a season of experience under their belt ready to build something special at this club. This is a pretty rotten day for Chelsea, but we are still Chelsea and the future is unbelievably promising.

Talking about 'faces of Chelsea', I don't think there are many better than Mata at the moment. The man is class personified. He was the first to speak out after Di Matteo left and he's doing the same here. The fact that he's articulate is simply a bonus. THIS is the person I'll be supporting on Sunday, not some temporary manager. I know when I think about Chelsea, he's who I think about and no tosser in the editing department at Sky is going to change that.

Trust me, I know exactly where you're coming from. I would've taken Steve Kean over the fat waiter but I can't be bothered to spend the next 7 months hating the guy who will run the team. I basically want this season over. I don't particularly want to win any trophies or pull up any trees. If we could not win another game all season and finish third, I'd take it. I don't want Rafa Benitez's name in Chelsea's history books anymore than it has to be. But I do want us to look pretty for the next guy. I do want Hazard, Mata and Oscar to be around. I do want Josh, De bruyne and Chalobah to come back and learn from a great manager. I do want Islam Feruz and Nathan Ake to make their debuts against some shithouse European team in the group stages of the Champions League. And if that means I've got to hope that a guy I despised 24 hours ago succeeds in his job, then I'm going to do that.

I wouldn't for a moment pretend he is a fan favourite. Personally, I liked him as a player but I think the most memorable thing about him was his missus. But looking at him purely as a CV, he knows our club (a little bit), he knows Rafa and he knows the guy that our owner wants to bring in next year. Purely as a facilitator for transition (or some other management bs), he makes a bit of sense. Personally I'd have gone for Marcel Desailly, but I think I'd be hoping he'd play in defence at some point.

If he's sacked before Summer, that means something drastically wrong has happened. I don't want that to happen to Chelsea because I quite like the club. Right now, he is Chelsea manager and I want the Chelsea manager to do a good job. I'm not going to sing his name and I've got a bottle of bubbly on ice for the moment his contract expires. Then I will thank him for the job he has done and bid him farewell. But what I don't want is the next decade of Chelsea's existence to be ****** up (don't know if I can swear on here or not) because that is what will happen if we fail to qualify for next year's Champions League. I want Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Josh, De Bruyne and Chalobah to come back after summer, one year older to work under a new manager who can take this club to the next stage. If I have to put up with Martin Tyler calling us 'Rafa Benitez's Chelsea' then I will do.

He isn't the face of our club. He's a manager bought in on a short-term contract with everyone in football aware that the chairman and the fans want someone different. Sure Sky TV might stick him in a few packages to hype up a game but he is not the face of this club. If you ever forget who the faces of this club are, watch the Champions League Final....glance to the Shed End on a Match Day and look at the King.....look at the young talent playing for OUR club. He is not the face of the club, he will never be the face of the club and in 7 months time he won't even be at the club.

By all accounts, he's an intelligent guy. He worked under Benitez at Liverpool, played a few seasons at the Bridge and will know a couple of the senior players and backroom guys..... and he also played will Guardiola at Barcelona. I have no idea if this was Benitez's idea or the board trying to get a guy who ticked a few boxes, but I'm interested to see how he does. Sad if Eddie does go. One of the original Blues Brothers with Frank and a real Chelsea lad.

And I wanted to add one more thing. The appointment of Zenden is a bit weird (felt sorry for Mario Stanic missing out on that one - must've had his phone on silent). He's an intelligent guy with a good footballing pedigree, but I'm going to post one picture that probably comes under the heading 'conspiracy theories'

Hi guys. I've always put off posting because, well there wasn't a reason. But the last couple of days have been eventful and I need to vent. I was devastated and I hated the idea of Rafa being manager. It was a weird night's sleep, but I've come to the conclusion that I'll survive. This club is still the club I grew up going to see with my dad. The guys supporting the team on Sunday will still be (largely speaking) the same guys I was hugging and crying with six months ago. The manager has changed, but the King of Stamford Bridge is still Ossie and I will still get stupidly excited and giddy like a school girl when I bump into Chopper Harris or Franco Zola on the street. I hated Rafa as much as anyone. Two days ago he was the fat Spanish waiter (and that was being polite). Now he's Chelsea manager. I'm not going to boo him but I'm not going to sing his name. I will be singing Robbie's name though. But let's be honest. Roman never wanted Robbie and he's targeted Guardiola for about a year now. That's who he wants and that is who the club is set up for. Just look at our transfer strategy from the first-team right down to the academy. Benitez is a serviceable manager who should get us Champions League football. I don't expect anymore, and quite frankly I don't want anymore from him. Let's just get through this year and look forward to the future because it is a bright future.