Respect the fans

[The only place to be 11,313]

It makes no difference. Maybe we'll get a new manager bounce because players become rededicated to tactics (and because our schedule after City is really really easy) but anyone who thinks that managers come in and make an immediate massive difference is just wrong.

Also, it won't take a miracle to qualify. We should win our game easily and all it would take is a Shakhtar win. Playing for a draw is not as easy as you'd think. Juventus can't sit back and hope that Shakhtar don't try to score too hard and Shakhtar don't want to lose and finish second either. They both have to actually play this one.

I completely disagree with what you said about managers coming in and making immediate differences. What can happen is a new guy can come in and they essentially have to start from the beginning. That means players have to go back to basics and focus on the simple things, that sometimes get lost over the course of a season. Especially in defence you'll find that simple things like positions and spacings become the focus of the first few days.

Everyone gets a clean slate - even Malouda apparently. I'll be honest, I was worried about this game. Now I'm excited about what we'll see.

As for the Champions League, we may still qualify. But the point still stands that Roman expects more from Chelsea.

[Rmpr 8,977]

@Ollie, I think you are being super optimistic in your evaluation of RDM.

You cant blame all games on the officials. We were all pointing a lot of mistakes in our team. I mean, some pretty serious ones...

We thought they were Di Matteo`s problems to resolve, not someone else`s. I will repeat, it is different to do a wrong move and to do a disrespectful one. He did not treated RDM bad as far as we are concern. Roberto Di Matteo would most certainly improve and could have been the man to lead our renovation, but it unfortunately wont happen. He did not fight with Roman and still welcome in SB.

I dont want Benitez here, although he was the best option. Abramovich was thinking the same (he is the better option). It was in no way to screw the fans...

The only time he lacked respect with the fans and with a legend was with Wilkins. Anelka and Alex were actually AVB and Malouda chose money over his career. That was the one sad thing that he brought us.

Also, he never wanted us to play like Barcelona. He wants us to have a similar formula and reputation but our own identity!

[Rmpr 8,977]

That's not going to happen. The headlines will always be "Roman bought XYZ" because that's what he does.

I know but what he wants is to see something like this: "A Champion to Remember" or "One of the Best Teams in History". He does not care if it comes with a pricetag on it as well...

[RamiCFC9 258]

Roman sacked RDM because, the later had no idea what to do with this squad.How can you have less possession with this squad against Liverpool, Swansea a teams average at best.It's not just the negative results but the negative play.For example the first game in this season (the Wigan game), I was clearly dissapointed even tho we won because we played like championship side and you can bet Roman was 3x more pissed off.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Roman sacked RDM because, the later had no idea what to do with this squad.How can you have less possession with this squad against Liverpool, Swansea a teams average at best.It's not just the negative results but the negative play.For example the first game in this season (the Wigan game), I was clearly dissapointed even tho we won because we played like championship side and you can bet Roman was 3x more pissed off.

I actually didn't have a problem with the Wigan game. We won the game in the first 5 minutes and then sat back. Then in the next game we played well for about 25 minutes. Then in the next game it was a bit more and so on.

We got to Spurs where we played really well for about 60 minutes, but since then we've really stuttered. The gradual improvement turned into a rather sharp decline and Robbie didn't look like he had any plan to change in around. Now we can point to injuries or even outside distractions, but he always knew that he simply had to given Roman a chance to sack him and he would.

[ChelseaChelsea 37]

Those who are calling RDM a clueless are the real clueless people. The anti-RDM comments are atrocious.

[didierforever 7,349]

Putting Bertrand into the final? I remember how after the game, simply because we won, he was praised because of it. Reality is, he played terribly and almost cost us the game due to his poor play.

:fainthv9: i dont and simply cant care what u think after this comment. the guy was given an ovation after he was subbed if i am correct and the same thing followed even during the victory parade.

[didierforever 7,349]

Really! You thought we were playing well?

And we conceded because of JTs absence?

When the rot starts, best cut it out, before it takes the whole ship down.

The guy had no Plan B, couldn't rotate to save his life...

Go see how that worked out at WBA...

Fact is RDM was a gamble, as soon as the odds looked shit RA cashed out...

Don't forget the humiliation of us likely going out in a group we should have qualified from in CL...

I'm just reporting what RA saw and didn't like...

Don't shoot the messenger

do u really think we deserved to lose to liverpool, it should have been 3-0 at the nd of the first half itself. the united match was another one and then even the wba match we deserved atleast a draw, so i do feel we were playing good but just not taking our chances, even in the juve match if hazard and mata had scored we would not be having this discussion.

as for rotation do u actually think we got a squad for it. for the pivot we got 4 guys out of which lamps is injured and romeu is not some1 who can start alongside mikel as they are of the same mold, that leaves him with one option of changing mikel/romeu with rambo but that would mean making rambo play every match which is not possible due to his style of play.

upfront we got the blonde bitch as sturridge, and danny has been injured (i dont believe it but that is what every1 is saying) for the most part. for the 3 we got mazacar, and any coach in the world would be reluctant to change this. even then moses has got his share of chances, so as i see it, you are just upset with the exclusion of marin from the first team.

as for defense, i totally feel JT's absence is the because (or LUIZ's inclusion). how can it be?

as for the humiliation of going out in the group stage, we are still not out. juve need the same result that we needed in turin when they go to shakhtar.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Roman's policy of hiring and firing has made us the most successful club in English football over the last decade, having won one more major honour than Manchester United have in that space of time.

We may be unhappy with di Matteo's dismissal, but if Rafa brings us the CWC, the League Cup and a top-three finish, we can consider this a decent season.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Roman's policy of hiring and firing has made us the most successful club in English football over the last decade, having won one more major honour than Manchester United have in that space of time.

We may be unhappy with di Matteo's dismissal, but if Rafa brings us the CWC, the League Cup and a top-three finish, we can consider this a decent season.

Agree with the second part, not with the first. You are taking so much variables out of the equation. It's not a simple cause-effect relation between the managers and winning trophies. I'd attribute the success more to the fact that we spent more than anybody else rather than we sacked managers more than anybody else.

[ChelseaChelsea 37]

Exactly CHOULO19 , I thank Roman for the money he has spent on players, but not on sacking managers especially, Mourinho, Carlo, RDM.

[ChelseaChelsea 37]

We may be unhappy with di Matteo's dismissal, but if Rafa brings us the CWC, the League Cup and a top-three finish, we can consider this a decent season.

CWC, and the League Cup can not be Rafa's alone. RDM has his contribution. And We could have done better with RDM had there been a good striker.

[diskoviolente 425]

The lack of a strategy is shocking though despite of what happened to RDM.

I am not buying into this whole saga with Pep coming in the summer. Why would he come and be even more stressed out as he was with Barca because of our trigger happy owner who never ever would bite a nescessary bullet in order to get something like a long term plan going. I thought we have had that with Ancelotti after Mourinho. I am not convinced that "long term managers aren´t for us". I really don´t. Why do people think we have so many big egos in the dressing room who can make a decision on a managers fate ? Because they had to carry the team, they had to in order to achieve anything and consequently could have but would never work for someone who they don´t like. I don´t think that this is a good vibe to have around a club. Long term stability is something that we have to get at some point, because it will cost Chelsea in the end.

[Badboy 1,526]

I have developed a hatred for football I've hardly watched a game this season and YES THIS IS BADBOY. I don't even get sad anymore when teams score against us, I hate football and it's over commericalization. Football can go to hell the same way boxing did when people like Don King raped it commercially until it took 6 months to promote a boxing match. Football was amazing before the avalanche of money came in and that is the honest truth !

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Roman's policy of hiring and firing has made us the most successful club in English football over the last decade, having won one more major honour than Manchester United have in that space of time.

We may be unhappy with di Matteo's dismissal, but if Rafa brings us the CWC, the League Cup and a top-three finish, we can consider this a decent season.

Roman's spending is what won us trophies. We've spent way way way more money than all but Man City in the last decade. We've won 10 tournaments in the last 10 years (not including Community Shields). We spent 52.7 million pounds per trophy. ManU spent 14,22M pounds per trophy. (That's not including what we've spent on managers) They've been much more successful based on how much money they've spent. We've actually been much less successful than we should have been based on all the money we've poured in. If you keep spending crazy amounts of money, you're going to win trophies, but the lack of managerial stability and the idiocy of the board has definitely hurt.

Also, who's to say RDM wouldn't have won the CWC, the League Cup and finished top-3? We've played 12 games in the league and have already played some really tough games (Arsenal and Spurs away, ManU, Newcastle, etc...) Just because we're on a bad streak, doesn't mean that streak was going to continue forever.

[Liquidator 5,176]

If you want Robbie to stay and we play shit almost every game and at the end win 0 trophies, while we can sack him and with Benitez win trophies, then you are not Chelsea fan but Robbie fan and can fuck off.

You seem to think that we played shit because of Di Matteo. Are you genuinely stupid enough to think this? We were winless in 3 games. We had won 2 of our last 8 games. It is known as a blip and we seem to have one every year during Autumn/Winter. Why would we end up with zero trophies because we had been on a blip? We were still 3rd in the Premier League, in the Quarter Finals of the Capital One Cup and if our players had not thrown away a 2 goal lead against Juventus we would be in a good position to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League.

You are in absolutely no position to criticise other people as fans. As zolayes has said, you posts make it so obvious that you are a gloryhunter, I will give RDM more support than other managers that we have sacked because of the poor treatment the board gave him when they sacked a Chelsea legend. You probably wouldn't care for him as a player because you probably didn't give 2 fucks when we were a midtable team.

[The only place to be 11,313]

but the lack of managerial stability and the idiocy of the board has definitely hurt.

Again, you're criticising the board without taking a broad overview of what they've done to establish the academy and also attract outside investment.

Managerial stability is great but it has to be with the right guy and we've not had that since Jose. United have had that, but the game has changed and Fergie's successor won't get that. They also won't get one of the greatest crop of youngsters ever to come up at one time (Giggs, Beckham, Nevilles, Scholes, Butt).

[The only place to be 11,313]

Long term stability is something that we have to get at some point, because it will cost Chelsea in the end.

I agree with this, but it HAS to be with the right man.

That's why we went for AVB. He didn't pan out so the next target was Pep, but he wasn't available so we have stop-gaps. And Roman obviously thinks Benitez is a better stop-gap that Robbie.