The Benitez Thread

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Why not? You think Champions league is guaranteed to a club like Chelsea? We are playing in one of the most competitive leagues in the world with 5-6 teams challenging for the 3 automatic group stage spots + 1 pre-group place. This isn't La Liga where it is unthinkable for Real or Barca not to qualify. If we get TOP4, even better 3rd, then it has as much got to do with Rafa as it does with the players on the pitch. Personal hate or bias might shape your opinion, but it doesn't distort the reality.

This is the problem.

TOP 4 is not a success, it's a must. Roman spent so much money on AVB only to sack him because there was a justified fear he wouldn't take us to the CL next season. Robbie pulled out a miracle. If TOP 4 is good enough, then go and support Arsenal.

Yes we've got a thin squad, but we've got so many quality players, fantastic players. It would be an absolute disgrace to finish below 4th. It is a transitional season, I'll give you that, but it should never ever affect our chances of playing Champions League football.

One fuck up and we're in the Europa again.

[SinineUltra 1,169]

This is the problem.

TOP 4 is not a success, it's a must. Roman spent so much money on AVB only to sack him because there was a justified fear he wouldn't take us to the CL next season. Robbie pulled out a miracle. If TOP 4 is good enough, then go and support Arsenal.

Yes we've got a thin squad, but we've got so many quality players, fantastic players. It would be an absolute disgrace to finish below 4th. It is a transitional season, I'll give you that, but it should never ever affect our chances of playing Champions League football.

One fuck up and we're in the Europa again.

Is it success? No, never said it. It is compulsory for a club like Chelsea, but it doesn't mean we should go looking for a rope and a tall tree when we do not finish top4 - there are more quality teams than there are place for CL. Your Arsenal support nonsense sums up your long term vision and shows you as a proper cunt, well done! I think we have different reasons why we support this club.

RdM didn't win us the CL single-handedly, you seem to forget that. It was a team effort, as much is this season's abysmal display both under Robbie and Rafa, we are not overachieving nor underachieving, like above poster said - we are filling the minimum requirements. Several fuck ups by RdM and we were playing in the Europa League, have you already forgotten that also? Selective memory.

A quick edit: Thin squad is a thin squad, especially if we rely on couple of players to produce the goods. Fatigue affects everyone the same, no matter how fantastic or quality of a player you are.

[bushman 2,043]

Some of the posts on here, and you pull me for "vulgarity"?! Just for the record, where I come from, we think "vulgarity" is Spock's 2nd Cousin.

How about a trade?, you stop talking complete and utter pish................................and I will try really, really hard not to use any language of the classes.

Fucking "vulgarity", sounds like the bleedin' God Squad if you ask me.

No trade, refrain from posting to me !

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Is it success? No, never said it. It is compulsory for a club like Chelsea, but it doesn't mean we should go looking for a rope and a tall tree when we do not finish top4 - there are more quality teams than there are place for CL. Your Arsenal support nonsense sums up your long term vision and shows you as a proper cunt, well done! I think we have different reasons why we support this club.

RdM didn't win us the CL single-handedly, you seem to forget that. It was a team effort, as much is this season's abysmal display both under Robbie and Rafa, we are not overachieving nor underachieving, like above poster said - we are filling the minimum requirements. Several fuck ups by RdM and we were playing in the Europa League, have you already forgot that also? Selective memory.

If we don't finish top 4 I'll be furious. We as a club have an ambition to be the best, not among the best, but the best. We're not like Arsenal who are satisfied with the 'minimum requirements'. Considering how much we've spent in the summer, we are a laughing stock and rightly so. This Chelsea team shouldn't be 16 points behind United unlike last year's team. No, winning the Europa League and finishing 3rd is nowhere near good enough.

RDM is the manager who won the Champions League for Chelsea, you or anyone else cannot deny it, as much as you want to. He has earned more than enough credit to fuck something up, even if I personally think Roman made things very difficult for him.

Yes, I hate the interim, but take a look at the table Peace. posted and tell me his appointment was spot on. If you do, then I'm wasting my time here.

PS. don't ever call me a cunt again, I'm civilised enough not to react with another insult

[bushman 2,043]

No one is saying that Rafa´s appointment was spot on. Those who feel that way are not watching Chelsea much.

Having said that, was there any better at the time ? I think not.

Was there any need to boo him constantly ? No, there was no need for it. We all knew he was hired for the remainder of this season.

Has he done so bad under the circumstances ? No, he has not.

Should we expect better than EL, 3rd place in PL ? Of course, we should.

Personally, I want Chelsea winning CL, PL & the rest is secondary to me.

[Martina 210]

1. It seems those who give Benitez credit for this season take us finishing top 4 for granted - the EPL hasn't finished yet as far as I know (and we haven't won any trophy yet).

2. Thin squad, too many matches and tired players - Rafa's favourite excuse. (Benitez is well known for making excuses and never taking responsibility for anything. That's why he feels at home in Liverpool).

These players are top athletes. Besides he doesn't play certain players regularly, even though they publicly say they're fit enough (Terry) or capable of decent contribution (Lampard, Ba). Why did he play Torres in Liverpool - he could have rested him and it meant Torres played three matches in a row. There were 7 matches in which both Terry and Lampard started this season - and we haven't lost any of them.

3. Myth about Torres "being back" and giving Rafa credit for that. The last time Torres scored in the EPL was in December 2012.

4. RDM had different issues to deal with - we didn't have Ba at that time and our new signings needed more time to settle down. When Benitez took over they already had some understanding of other Chelsea players and the EPL as such.

[Strike 6,982]

[SinineUltra 1,169]

PS. don't ever call me a cunt again, I'm civilised enough not to react with another insult

We are not the only team behind them by a huge margin, but other than that I'm in the same boat as you are, but as @Martina mentioned, we can't take this competition for self-granted, regardless if we are Chelsea and striving to be the best. In the end of the day, isn't that what all the top teams are doing?

If you were so civilised and angel-like, you wouldn't have questioned other people's intentions towards this club and compared them with rival club fans. Don't be a hypocrit - you know you were provocative and knew what kind of an impression you would make on anyone reading such rubbish, no matter what the adjective.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

We are not the only team behind them by a huge margin, but other than that I'm in the same boat as you are, but as @Martina mentioned, we can't take this competition for self-granted, regardless if we are Chelsea and striving to be the best. In the end of the day, isn't that what all the top teams are doing?

If you were so civilised and angel-like, you wouldn't have questioned other people's intentions towards this club and compared them with rival club fans. Don't be a hypocrit - you know you were provocative and knew what kind of an impression you would make on anyone reading such rubbish, no matter what the adjective.

I've questioned your arguments and made an example of how Arsenal supporters think the same way, and merely suggested that your thinking is completely wrong about this issue. Did I call you a cunt ? I could have.

Of course the goal was to offer another way of looking at things, provoke yours. There is a nicer answer than 'you're a cunt' one though. Anyway, I'm not dragging this any further.

[Ryan Gooding 4]

He's not doing to bad, wouldn't be a bad appointment if we don't get Mou but we need to support him a bit more.

[Martina 210]

but as @Martina mentioned, we can't take this competition for self-granted, regardless if we are Chelsea and striving to be the best.

I can see one can easily misunderstand what I meant :-)

I didn't mean one should take Chelsea finishing top 4 for granted - I meant people are giving Benitez credit for something that hasn't happened yet.

I used to take us finishing top 4 for granted as well - those were the times…

We are just too "up and down" under Benitez, his decisions/subs don't make sense to me and we lost to weaker teams too often.

[SinineUltra 1,169]

I've questioned your arguments and made an example of how Arsenal supporters think the same way, and merely suggested that your thinking is completely wrong about this issue. Did I call you a cunt ? I could have.

Of course the goal was to offer another way of looking at things, provoke yours. There is a nicer answer than 'you're a cunt' one though. Anyway, I'm not dragging this any further.

That's how politicians and lawyers try to wriggle out of trouble and back track their words when things go sour. Like I said, you can sugar-coat it as much as you want but you provoked it. Just questioning your arguments and offering another way of looking at things. Let's drop this.

Anyway, I agree with @Ryan Gooding. As long as he is manager of Chelsea, I will support him. I'm dying to see, who will be the first people to call the head of the next manager. I bet it won't take long. Usually the same faces are very eager to pull the trigger when things aren't going exactly perfect.

[bushman 2,043]

I can see one can easily misunderstand what I meant :-)

I didn't mean one should take Chelsea finishing top 4 for granted - I meant people are giving Benitez credit for something that hasn't happened yet.

I used to take us finishing top 4 for granted as well - those were the times…

We are just too "up and down" under Benitez, his decisions/subs don't make sense to me and we lost to weaker teams too often.

The only reason Chelsea is up & down is THE TEAM IS TOO THIN.

[Martina 210]

The only reason Chelsea is up & down is THE TEAM IS TOO THIN.

Or Rafa too thick :-)

[SinineUltra 1,169]

I can see one can easily misunderstand what I meant :-)

I didn't mean one should take Chelsea finishing top 4 for granted - I meant people are giving Benitez credit for something that hasn't happened yet.

I used to take us finishing top 4 for granted as well - those were the times…

We are just too "up and down" under Benitez, his decisions/subs don't make sense to me and we lost to weaker teams too often.

I don't think anyone is giving him credit for something we haven't done. If we do finish top4, though, then well done players, well done coaching staff and off with Benitez, who will be hopefully replaced by a more supported manager. TOP 4 used to consist of Manu, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Now there is the addition of Tottenham and ManCity, Liverpool have been playing the second fiddle for some years now. Blaming it all on one man who hasn't even been here for the whole season is just a way to look excuses. Blamed share from the staff, players and fans for booing the manager (and the team) for half season, creating this lovely atmosphere to work in. It is not a big surprise we were better away rather than at home when Benitez took over.

We will be unstable, up and down team as long as we keep changing managers. Next season will tell, but I think the reason why ManU are so successful in the league in particular is because they had Ferguson. They have had a weak squad on the paper for some years now and still they produce something every year. There was not even the slightest of doubts by the fans, club, players regarding his work.

Only TOP4 games RDM managed this season was a home loss against ManU,an away win against Arsenal and a win against Tottenham. We can't really go in statistics and in hindsight say how someone else could have done this job so or so much better in such a hostile environment. On that basis Ray Wilkins is the best head-coach in the world, having managed us on 2 different occasions, total of 2 games and has 100% win record.

Before anyone starts to blame me for being anti-RDM and how I don't appreciate his work - I did not support the fact that he got sacked, it wouldn't have made any difference anyway. There were only bad and worse managers on the market to replace him till the end of the season, but that's the route the club took and we can't change that. I didn't support the sacking of Mourinho and Ancelotti also, but that doesn't mean I would have hated on Scolari or Villas Boas comparing every stat imaginable to show how dire they were.

[MetsajCFC 1,255]

Or Rafa too thick :-)

Would love to see the excuses from people like you when the new manager hits a rough patch. So, so many E-managers here, you don't know what's behind his decisions not to sub someone in, it might be a minor injury, it might be bad form/attitude shown in training and so on. Think outside the box, behind a LCD screen we all think we could do better, reality is oh so much different.

[Kojo 4,676]

Some people will never see the importance of Benitez's work at Chelsea.

I agree that he's a complete cunt & has been clueless about substitutions since his Liverpool days...but he's steadied the ship.

He hasn't overachieved (by winning trophies) or underachieved (by finishing 5th or 6th). He's satisfied the minimum requirements of an interim manager.

Now, both parties can move on without too much of a fuss.

This Benitez praise is going way too far.

It just goes to show how much impact the media has, Benitez has had two europa wins then finally managed to win some premier league games. Also interesting how some forgot about the Liverpool draw, thanks to Rafas great subs again. And then once the media start praising Rafa everyones actually convinced that he's doing a good job.

No! Untill he secures top 4 and wins the Europa then we can say he's done something, as for now nothing has changed. So he should of won those games, what about all the other games where he drew due to his stupid subs again, 2-0 up then drawing 2-2 that happened twice in 2 weeks.

[robdog 2,084]

1. It seems those who give Benitez credit for this season take us finishing top 4 for granted - the EPL hasn't finished yet as far as I know (and we haven't won any trophy yet).

2. Thin squad, too many matches and tired players - Rafa's favourite excuse. (Benitez is well known for making excuses and never taking responsibility for anything. That's why he feels at home in Liverpool).

These players are top athletes. Besides he doesn't play certain players regularly, even though they publicly say they're fit enough (Terry) or capable of decent contribution (Lampard, Ba). Why did he play Torres in Liverpool - he could have rested him and it meant Torres played three matches in a row. There were 7 matches in which both Terry and Lampard started this season - and we haven't lost any of them.

3. Myth about Torres "being back" and giving Rafa credit for that. The last time Torres scored in the EPL was in December 2012.

4. RDM had different issues to deal with - we didn't have Ba at that time and our new signings needed more time to settle down. When Benitez took over they already had some understanding of other Chelsea players and the EPL as such.

after reading that post, Martina I think I am love w/ you . You are like a fresh cup of Virtual Coffee. Bringing Mental Sobriety to the mind. Cheers!!!