Rupert

Yawn!

I agree that Oscar has qualities and as I said in my original note I believe he will be better in a year or two. The issues are really whether he is a play maker and whether he should be a starter for Chelsea. You make the point that it his play-making that gives him the edge over Coutinho. Coutinho has been used as a winger but I am always delighted when at LFC or Inter he made such decisive - Barcelona like passes in or near the box - and how defences panic when he moves insider and runs at them. He also has a great shot, including a very short backlift and great control. Inter make a lot of bad decisions and selling him to LFC was one of them, especially at such a relatively low price. He should be at Chelsea. Oscar looks good but is ineffective most of the time. He catches the eye with some good goals, but he is supposed to be a playmaker. As I said, he gives the ball away too much.

I know several of their supporters and I will be at the match. They expect to attack much more strongly than they did at Stamford Bridge. Rafa will probably play Terry - but it will be a risk. Our defence will have to be well-organised and cool-headed . By the 20 minutes mark we should go on the attack and try to even out their away goal average. After that, a tight defence should get us through. The main aim should be to get the result without injuries and without exhausting the players. People should not expect "entertaining football". Winning this round is more important. Torres will be important for us.

You are wrong. Coutinho has "broken through" to the senior national team of Brazil as well as for the Under 20 and Under 17 teams. I suppose you mean why Oscar has had 14 more games than Coutinho for the senior team? I guess the answer is that Oscar got more club games in his home Brazilian league than Coutihno got in the Italian league where he was transferred when he was 18. Or it may be that the NT had a vacancy for somebody playing Oscar's position but not for Coutinho's position on the right wing. It's got nothing to do with the point I made - Coutinho, who was less than half the cost of Oscar in the PL, is doing better since January 2012 than Oscar for all the reasons I gave in my post. I've explained several times how long I have supported Chelsea - and it is much longer than you. Why can't you accept that your twisted attitude to the Chelsea manager is not representative of all Chelsea supporters.

A good comparison is with Coutinho 20 years old and a Brazilian. In January this year Liverpool bought him for 8 + million pounds from InterMilan on Rafa's recommendation. (Oscar was 20 + million). He has only played about 7/8 games has scored 2 goals and has about 5 assists. He is far more incisive than Oscar, some of his passes into the box are out of this world and he is not afraid to shoot. He is fast and direct. He runs with the ball at his feet and usually beats his man. His passes are hard and accurate. He rarely loses the ball. In contrast, Oscar runs badly with the ball at his feet, does not have many ideas about beating a man and very frequently gives the ball away to the opposition allowing them to counteract when Chelsea is stretched. He is not a genuine playmaker his passes are soft and hit and miss. When all is going well and he has plenty of space and is not being pressured by defenders, he can swing in a good kick. He has flashes of promise but altogether is not good enough yet.

I said "if", Rafa might not accept the offer, but I hope he does.

These are the games, at this time of the year, when a team needs a determined, experienced manager who can calm a squad and get them focused on victory. When we went 2-1 we slackened a bit but never lost control. There was some tiredness but also determination to win. David Luiz is Chelsea's dynamo, at the moment, and Cech is the rock. But the defence has to be better organised. If Rafa gets a full pre-season with them i'm sure he will introduce zonal marking and tighten the organization of the defence a lot, with at least one new addition to replace Terry, hopefully. Torres did add more speed, energy and threat to the attack when he came on - his holding and carrying the ball is better than BA's. Oscar continues to disappoint. He is not the playmaker some people think he is and loses the ball too much. Perhaps in one or two years but not now. Ramirez played an important role today as did Mata. So the team ground out a determined win. I think it may be a race between Arsenal and Spurs for 4th spot with Arsenal if Chlesea beat Spurs later. Well done Rafa and the boys.

Agenda? Supporting the manager is an agenda on a Chelsea forum? We have lost the last two games Terry started. His mistake was responsible for the loss at Newcastle. He was responsible for the away goal against Rubin which means we cannot go there with complete confidence. (He was lucky the referre didnt punish his second hand ball in that match). The media I know have reported that Terry is the inside source feeding them anti-Rafa stories falsely claiming that Rafa was losing the players two months ago. Terry has made it known repeatedly that he wants to play every game (despite the single time he conceded that Rafa had the right to rest him - a concession he made when he was criticized in the media for his dog-in-the manger attitude). He courts the media too much, adopting the pose of players or supporters spokesman. His °managers come and go° comment being typical. He has never come out and welcomed Rafa or issued a statement of support or appreciation as several other players have. Yet he finds time to praise DiCanio. Terry has been found guilty of racist remarks. In my opinion he is over the hill as a player and overpaid. Chelsea could find a better replacement at half the cost. The team and the club in general would benefit from his moving on in the summer

A very touching interview from Terry in support of DiCanio - the S underland manager. But nothing in support of his own manager, Rafa, Interesting that Di Canio is a facist (and racism is integral to fascism) and Rafa's family fought the Facists in Spain.

Rafa didn't buy any of the players for the Chelsea squad - he works with what he is given. Hopefully, when he gets a new 5 year contract he will recommend that the club get rid of the deadwood and bring in two more genuine strikers, a genuine winger, a replacement for Terry and a hard tackling dynamic midfielder. Then he will drill the squad in zonal marking and alternative attacking formations that will make better use of the skills of a Torres or Ba.

Chelsea is stronger in management, player skills and momentum and should win. But Sunderland will get a boost from their new manager. One of Chelsea's weaknesses is occasional lack of focus and concentration against teams in the lower end of the table e.g. QPR.

Here is an interesting analysis of Ba's performance. http://blog.squawka.com/2013/04/05/was-demba-ba-better-at-newcastle-than-chelsea/201304056964?

No, I don't know that. I know he is the most expensive manager in the world. At Chelsea, for example, he spent quarter of a billion pounds i.e. 250,000 pounds and he got sacked.

What was that AVB was saying yesterday about being superior to Basel? Even if Basel don't score on the replay, they will still go through if they can restrict Spurs to one goal. AVB's reputation will depend on Bale just as Mourinho's depends on Christiano.

A very solid workmanlike performance highlighted by the skill, determination and power of Torres. Rubin Kazan were no pushover. They had defeated some good teams to get to where they are. But their formation was predictable and gave Rafa the opportunity to drill his team. He wanted at least three goals and a clean sheet to allow him to rest players for the return game in Russia but the careless Terry penalty spoiled that plan. Even so we should score at least one goal there to cancel out their away goal. Torres is one of the top scorers in the PL despite all the shit he gets from some so-called supporters. Rafa has helped him improve his fitness (strength and speed) and reminded him of some of the movements that made him so special at Atletico and LFC. He should finish the season with 20 goals or more. There were weak players - Lampard and Terry - but overall the team played as a unit and there was a determination and focus that was missing earlier in the season. Despite the criticism Rafa has taken, he has been right to restrict Marin to the role of substitute in the final minutes to save legs and also in his rotation policy which has brought him two big victories in three days and sets us up for Sunderland. All the players did well. Congratulations to the lads and Rafa.

Rafa should get rid of Terry next season.

Rafa is up there with Ranieri and Ancelloti among the best managers Chelsea has had in the modern area. Why shouldn't I be delighted about that? I comment about players, tactics and performance as well. But so much false crap was posted on here about Rafa it needs balancing. The fact is the Rafa-haters have still not apologised for their propaganda against him in which they falsely claimed he said he would never manage Chelsea and that he referred to Chelsea "plastic flags. I was the only one on here who said it was not true. I have been proven right. Those who were booing him at Old Trafford and chanting "you don't know what you are doing" have not yet apologised.

Torres is clearly better than BA - just look at the record - there is no comparison. Torres has not only broken scoring records with Atletico and Liverpool he has also scored critical winning goals for Spain (and a few for Chelsea as well). It's not his fault that Chelsea managers have not known how to play him and Chelsea management have loaned out or sold other strikers who would have lightened his load and helped the team. This is not to say that Ba could not prove himself very valuable. He is clearly gifted when he is on form and the team is playing to his strengths - which can also be said of Torres.

This is Rafa's record versus Ferguson for the last six games: P:6 W:4 L:1 D:1 Not bad for someone who doesn't know what he's doing. And that's a fact!

Rafa has a knack of winning in Europe. Remember his only game in the CL with Chelsea was an all-time high score of 6. If he had been hired earlier we would still be in the CL. If the players can keep focus and relaxed they will win this one. Despite some of the ignorant media comments this will be the second time - not the first time - Rafa has won this particular cup. He really knows what he is doing.

Rafa beat Ferguson again. If Ferguson was manager of Chelsea the boards would be ringing now with calls for his sacking. How dare he lose a game!!! Rafa does not need flatter Ferguson and sup his wine after the match, as Mourinho does. Rafa stands up to his mind games, cooly analyses his weaknesses and then deploys his men with a well crafted tactics.

The team was not good enough today. It needs to hire Rafa on a 5 year contract, to clear out the dead wood, to bring in the right kind of players - a strong aggressive defensive midfielder and a genuine winger - and install zonal defending. Southampton have been playing well lately and have a number of impressive scalps, but they scored from a free kick which is unacceptable. If Rafa is given support he will bring on the youth, recruit the best in Europe and get them playing with hunger and aggression. He can do only so much with the left-overs he found on his arrival.

I see you are still repeating the lie. Rafa said yesterday at his press conference that he never said the things attributed to him about not wanting to manage Chelsea. They were made up by someone in Czechoslovakia Sometime ago I posted on here a report from the BBC identifying the 13 year old who made up the quotes and posted them on Twitter. Long before that, shortly after I started posting on here, I told you all that Rafa never said those things. He also never mentioned plastic flags. The truth is that the haters wanted to believe the lies because they are haters and they will grab at any excuse for their prejudice and don't really care if it is true or not. So with their bogus excuse removed how do the haters explain the booing of their own manager in Japan and in two European cities, at Manchester and at Stamford Bridge. In my opinion it stems from the time of Mourinho, his constant attacks on LFC and Rafa and the slavishness of some supporters in allowing themselves to be led by the nose by Mourinho whose main love in life is not Chelsea but himself.

Mourinho is the only manager in world football who has his own personal press-officer/publicity agent. He is a Diva who like to be the center of attention in a never-ending soap opera directed by himself. If the press does not mention him for a few days or - if he being criticized by the fans and media, as he is in Madrid - then he uses the same sly tricks over and over. He talks about his love for Porto, Chelsea, Inter and Manchester United - talks about his record and his ambitions, drops hints that he might be going here and there and has a few pot shots at his arch rival - Rafa. And the media falls for it every time. It called the Big Lie technique. Last week he talked about four other managers and whether he would be taking their jobs - itself a low class thing to do. But the Big Lie was that none of those managers is in danger of being sacked - only Mourinho is being sacked for his boring football, poor results and the divisiveness and low class behavior he has introduced at RM. The fact is that he is looking for a job because he is being sacked by his present employer just as he was quite rightly sacked by Chelsea.