The only place to be
Everything posted by The only place to be
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You're a bit late to the party. Maybe you could have a pop at Spurs for listing themselves on the stock market in the 80s or Liverpool for plastering Hitachi over their shirts in the 70s, but there's way too much money involved in football to not treat it like a business. Your name isn't Peter Risdale is it? He didn't like the idea of treating football clubs like businesses either.
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Because what successful businessmen often do is hold fire on making decisions out of sentimentality.
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I've read your contribution to this thread as well as you telling our new manager to fuck off. Personally, I'm trying to be positive about the team I love.
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Because that's why Fergie is saying it.
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The one thing I don't think Roman is, is stupid. He's made a brave decision (and it is brave because he knows how the fans feel about Benitez) to do what he thinks is best for the club until the end of the season. Answer this one question - did you feel more hopeful for this game against Man City knowing Benitez was in charge, or knowing Di Matteo was in charge?
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It's not biased - it's just a recognition of Jose's importance at the club then and now. I personally think Di Matteo went back to what the key players knew and that was the pragmatic approach of Mourinho. I also don'r recall Lamps getting that recognition until after Mourinho arrived but I'd have to check. Also Cech's distribution serves a purpose - if you look at what he's done recently it's incorporated a lot more short kicks to one of the two defenders or Mikel much like they do at Barca.
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Actually Mourinho's influence on Cech changed the way he used the ball. It became a case of getting it up to either Didier to hold the ball up for support from midfield to take advantage of broken formations, or to the wings to isolate full-backs and wingers 1-on-1. Cole was already a great player, but Mourinho had a pretty big impact on Mikel's personal life and the way he approached the game. Drogba wasn't a rough diamond, but he did kick on under Mourinho and then again under Ancelotti. You're also forgetting Lampard who became world-class under Jose. My original point though is that Robbie didn't build last season's team. He essentially just let them be themselves with a bit of tinkering here and there.
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The key players that night were Cech, Cole, Mikel, Lamps and Drogba. They were all either signed by Mourinho or greatly influenced by him. For all of Robbie's great work in galvanising that squad, that night was very much the culmination of Mourinho's project and a couple of players' seasons of hard work. And don't confuse width with wide players - we didn't have a Robben or Duff but if you actually look at the team, especially in Europe, the wide players (Ramires more than any other) were the most frequent out ball or focus of the attack. Even in the FA Cup semi-final and final we either used Drogba as a target man or used Ramires's pace on the right wing to break out of defence.
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I imagine the first time David Luiz picked the ball up in defence and started running forward with it, alarm bells were ringing. Look, the one thing he has is experience. He's going to see flaws in almost any team because they're always there. The trick is fixing them.
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Sorry, but you can clearly see the difference in the way the team was structured before Mourinho, and after Mourinho. You can see it at every level of the club in fact from the first team right through the academy. I'm not saying Robbie didn't do a tremendous job because he did. But his greatest move was abandoning some of the ridiculous tactics AVB employed and took Chelsea back to what they were under Mourinho - first and foremost, tough to beat. You stop the other team and then you focus on beating them, on the counter if you need to. That first game against Barca was classic Mourinho Chelsea, right down to Drogba's gamesmanship. That doesn't mean Robbie doesn't deserve credit - I thought the use of Bertrand in the final was a great move, under pressure. But the foundations, the attitude, the arrogance of that team was still Mourinho. It's part of the reason we've struggled to move on from him.
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He said that because it was in his club's interests at the time to do so. I'm just waiting for someone to voice anger that Benitez tried to beat us when he was at Liverpool.....I mean, the nerve of the guy.
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Di Matteo didn't build that side - he certainly galvanised it though. Let's not defend Fergie's bullshit mindgames just to have a pop at Benitez. Rafa is our new manager, and he's held in high enough esteem by Fergie that he deems it necessary to have a go at winding him up in his first interview. We can all argue about what Roman does and doesn't know about football, but I can't imagine Fergie viewed Robbie in the same way. Is Rafa lucky? Perhaps but every manager we've had since Jose has built on the foundations he built. That spine of Cech, Terry, Lampard and Drogba is primarily what got us through last season (obviously JT missed the final). Each manager has obviously tinkered with it but they were ALL lucky to come to a club with the resources we have. But the weird thing is that I don't know many people who give a fuck about the CWC. Most fans see it as something of an inconvenience and not something that's all that important on a manager's CV. Let's ignore what Fergie said and focus on WHY he said it. We're 4 points behind them after a dodgy run of form. We've got no Champions League to worry about (in all likelihood) and we've hired a manager who has a pretty 'interesting' track record in this country. Ask yourselves this - who do you think Fergie would rather manage a Chelsea team against him? Benitez or Di Matteo?
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The weird thing is that we might hate Benitez, but we fucking despise Fergie. If he's going to attack our coach then it's only going to make our fans get defensive about him.
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Interesting that he's already talking about Benitez. Considering his history of 'mind games', this is something of a seal of approval for Roman's choice isn't it?
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He was talking about two different things. His attitude was good when he was talking with him today and yesterday, his attitude had been poor in the games. Nice to see someone at the club being honest about Torres rather than pampering him and treating him with kid gloves.
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Chelsea lodge complaint about Clattenberg
The only place to be replied to bababoom's topic in Matthew Harding Stand
That is a disgusting thing to say and I want everybody to know that you don't represent a single thing about Chelsea Football Club. In fact you're exactly what people think of when they slag our fans off. The guy was found to not have a case to answer. He should be allowed to continue his career. Absolutely sickening attitude. -
Let's not rewrite history when it comes to Ancelotti. We were dire at times in his second season and the writing was on the wall for a fair amount of time before he left. You could tell from the crowd's reaction that we simply weren't performing at a high enough level and we certainly weren't entertaining. The fact is Roman was painted into a corner. He didn't want to hire Di Matteo, but he had no other options. Then Robbie went and won the biggest prize in world football and he couldn't really get rid of him, so he had to wait until there was cause to sack him and replace him with a guy he saw as a more appropriate stop-gap. Let's also not pretend that Robbie didn't give him the perfect reason to sack him - first holders to be eliminated at the group stages and dropped points against West Brom, Liverpool, Swansea and United. Now we can put those games in context and point to refereeing decisions of West Brom's form or even injuries to key players, but it provided Roman with the chance to get rid of a guy he never wanted in charge. Does it hurt that it happened to a Chelsea legend? Absolutely. But Robbie knew exactly what he was getting into. He knew he had to be better than those who came before, but unfortunately it didn't work out.
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I've already posted this twice but this thread seems the best place. Three things about Zenden. 1. Played at Chelsea. Knows the club, the senior players and some of the staff. 2. Played under Benitez. Knows what's expected from our new manager. A good conduit. 3. Played at Barca with Guardiola. Can't hurt. He's also an intelligent guy who has played at top clubs under top managers. I think the board see him as checking a number of useful points.
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Before Rijkaard, Barca had 6 managers between May 2000 and June 2003. Before Klopp, Dortmund had 4 managers between June 2004 and May 2008. Arsenal have stuck with Wenger for 7 years and won fuck all. Their fans have seen them sell their best players in each of the last two seasons whilst paying more each year for the privilege Six months ago our owner gave us one of the greatest nights of our lives. Managerial stability exists, but you have to find the right manager first. Roman has tried to replace Mourinho but hasn't found the right guy, yet he's won Leagues, Cups and The Big One in the meantime. It's easy to forget how hard it is to find the right manager for your club, and you can't simply give someone time if you think they're the wrong guy. Each managerial change makes sense in it's own way, including this one. What we need to understand is that Roman has the best interests of the club at heart (don't forget that he's a fan) and he wants Pep Guardiola to come in and build something special. HE will be the one who gets the time to build something because he's earned a level of trust. And Roman and the board understand how the fans feel about Rafa Benitez. They aren't in a bunker or an ivory tower. But they recognise that of the available managers, he offered the most. That may well include a relationship with Torres, but he is still a £50 million investment that the club feels it has to maximise the value of, be it in contribution to the club or in a transfer fee in the summer.
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I absolutely agree, but the manager has to show the owner that he is the guy to be given that chance. AVB messed up horrendously, so he was let go and Robbie was never seen as the long-term guy. Roman really only sees one guy as being 'the man' and that's Guardiola. He will be given the chances that these other guys weren't.
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Because we're changing the way we play football going forward. We're not going to find carbon copies of the players we once had, but then again they might not fit the style of football we're looking to try and play in the future. Right now, I'd say Lampard doesn't fit this team as well as the one 6 years ago because he's being asked to do different things, so we're having to look for different types of players.
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Other fans don't like us??? And here's me having forgotten to give a fuck. How embarrassing.
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They got Noel Gallagher as a supporter. We got you.
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The replacement for Drogba is hopefully going to be Lukaku. The replacement for Lampard and Ballack is hopefully going to be Oscar and Mata. The replacement for Essien is Ramires. The replacement for Cole is going to be no-one because he's irreplaceable. Not sure you can replace the best left-back of the last decade, but Bertrand might be able to do a job. Terry and Carvalho haven't been replaced in terms of quality but the club made some positive moves going for Luiz and Cahill. But we aren't going to be doing what we did in 2004 anymore. We're looking to build our own stars and pick up young talent and in that regard I think the club are doing a pretty good job. The key ingredient is finding a coach who can bring them through and Roman never saw Robbie as being that guy.
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I take it back. She can be the face (and body) of Chelsea. :yay:
