CHOULO19 24,332 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I just can't see him going back to Real so soon with much of the players still there. I think those bridges are burned... Starman60, Ossie the King and Peace. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adnane 1,101 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 When will the "Rafa did well for us" myth stop ? Chelsea was 3 points off the top when he came, in the run for winning the Club world cup and in the two english Cups as well. He finished 15 POINTS off the champions, that is a disgrace, even we, in this disastrous situation have only 19 points off Arsenal at the moment, I don't think people here realize how bad he coped with the Premier League... Won the Europa League, struggling against the likes of Rubin Kazan and needing an injury time winner against the likes of Sparta Prague... We really don't care, we had better objectives, which were mainly qualify for next season champion's league, but also challenge for the title, we lost FA Cup semis, Carling cup semis and CWC final while getting -12 points under him on the league... Viper22 and Essien19 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post! LDN Blue 7,903 Posted January 4, 2016 Popular Post! Share Posted January 4, 2016 6 minutes ago, Adnane said: When will the "Rafa did well for us" myth stop ? Chelsea was 3 points off the top when he came, in the run for winning the Club world cup and in the two english Cups as well. He finished 15 POINTS off the champions, that is a disgrace, even we, in this disastrous situation have only 19 points off Arsenal at the moment, I don't think people here realize how bad he coped with the Premier League... Won the Europa League, struggling against the likes of Rubin Kazan and needing an injury time winner against the likes of Sparta Prague... We really don't care, we had better objectives, which were mainly qualify for next season champion's league, but also challenge for the title, we lost FA Cup semis, Carling cup semis and CWC final while getting -12 points under him on the league... Lol let's not be hypocrites mate. That season was a disaster Rafa or no Rafa. At that time he was the only one who made that midfield of Oscar, Mata and Hazard actually work - Thank fuck we got rid of that terrible incorporated nickname they made up on here. Let's face it, under Di Matteo we were a sinking ship. Rafa somewhat stabilised it. You can write off the EL win as much as you want, but we all celebrated it like it was any other trophy - In fact it was our second European Cup in as many years! The fact there's an argument on this forum that we should qualify for the EL and win it goes a long way to prove that. You can belittle the way we won too, but let's not forget how close we came to being battered by Bayern in 2012 I didn't like the bloke as much as anyone, but he did do 'well for us' imo.. Cosmin, Starman60, Henrique and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adnane 1,101 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 The debate for Europa League only stands today because of the opportunity of that winning it gives you, playing the Champions League. That wasn't the case at the time and I celebrated it madly as well, but we were playing really, really bad against teams like Prague and needing injury time winners at home to qualify, doesn't mean it's a "bad win", just means that we were really lucky and that Di Matteo would have probably won it as well. Essien19 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDN Blue 7,903 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 6 minutes ago, Adnane said: The debate for Europa League only stands today because of the opportunity of that winning it gives you, playing the Champions League. That wasn't the case at the time and I celebrated it madly as well, but we were playing really, really bad against teams like Prague and needing injury time winners at home to qualify, doesn't mean it's a "bad win", just means that we were really lucky and that Di Matteo would have probably won it as well. Yeah but if it was so easy why don't English clubs win it more consistently? It's one of the reasons I'm against us qualifying for the EL in the first place; long travels coupled with having to play on the Thursday without a Football Association unwilling to help such clubs is a hindrance. Trying to then balance the issues of qualifying for the CL with a top 4 finish was harder than it looked so credit where it's due. Rafa's instructions were to qualify in top 4 and win a trophy or 2.. Which he did. Let's not forget personnel wise. Signed Demba Ba for £7m in Jan and made the decision to move Luiz from CB to CM & Ivanovic from RB to CB; those 2 moves in particular sparked us actually beginning to win games. Like I said, I don't like the bloke and hope he never comes back to Chelsea. His campaign started awfully as well, loss to QPR iirc. But by the end he'd done what he came to do and really didn't damage us in any way. Muzchap, Beepu and Fernando 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adnane 1,101 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 3 points of United when he took the team. 15 points off the champions in the end of the season. That's just horrible. Tautvix, Essien19 and Viper22 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDN Blue 7,903 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 1 minute ago, Adnane said: 3 points of United when he took the team. 15 points off the champions in the end of the season. That's just horrible. Agreed, but that season was heading in one direction Rafa or no Rafa. As I said before, I think he stabilised a rocking ship - We'll both agree to the fact we're happy he's gone and never coming back Muzchap 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adnane 1,101 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I don't know about that, I think a lot of managers would have done a better job. I can't forgive joking about our fans then losing to QPR at home, no, I just can't... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDN Blue 7,903 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Just now, Adnane said: I don't know about that, I think a lot of managers would have done a better job. I can't forgive joking about our fans then losing to QPR at home, no, I just can't... Tbh I'm not asking you to, neither do I. It was more on the merits of what he actually did with this team.. Just remember, we didn't have Costa, Fabregas, Matic or even Drogba at this time either. Sturridge had left for Liverpool and we were down to Torres & Ba only. Hell our double pivot in the EL final was Lampard-Luiz, that's a big insight into the shape of our team at that time. Muzchap 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xPetrCechx 13,582 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Madrid Calling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adnane 1,101 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Mourinho took the same team within 4 points of the champions ( and a couple of dropped points at home on the road ), and to the semis of the CL. Not comparing Mourinho to Benitez, the comparison doesn't even stand for me, but saying that he had a bad team, maybe, I'd even say for sure since it showed its limitations afterwards, but he had the team to at least challenge for the title till the last 3-4 games. LDN Blue 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDN Blue 7,903 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Just now, Adnane said: Mourinho took the same team within 4 points of the champions ( and a couple of dropped points at home on the road ), and to the semis of the CL. Not comparing Mourinho to Benitez, the comparison doesn't even stand for me, but saying that he had a bad team, maybe, I'd even say for sure since it showed its limitations afterwards, but he had the team to at least challenge for the title till the last 3-4 games. I do agree with that. He should have done better and of course Mourinho is 1,000% the manager Rafa is so it's no surprise what Mourinho did with that team in 2013-14. He could do nothing about the CL though, once Juventus had beaten us in Di Matteo's last game there was no way for us to come back. Rafa actually won the last group game 6-1 remember? Adnane 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adnane 1,101 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Of course, never spoke about the Champions League By the way our CL was exceptional wasn't it ? I think we were standing almong the best third ranked teams throughout the history of the CL Groupe phase or something ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo 21,751 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 1 hour ago, Adnane said: When will the "Rafa did well for us" myth stop ? Chelsea was 3 points off the top when he came, in the run for winning the Club world cup and in the two english Cups as well. He finished 15 POINTS off the champions, that is a disgrace, even we, in this disastrous situation have only 19 points off Arsenal at the moment, I don't think people here realize how bad he coped with the Premier League... Won the Europa League, struggling against the likes of Rubin Kazan and needing an injury time winner against the likes of Sparta Prague... We really don't care, we had better objectives, which were mainly qualify for next season champion's league, but also challenge for the title, we lost FA Cup semis, Carling cup semis and CWC final while getting -12 points under him on the league... Blaming Rafa for falling off United is like blaming Jose for coming in and finishing below Liverpool, United dropped something like ten points during Rafa's whole reign at Chelsea (three of which against us after they won the league), the team we had that season weren't good enough to win the league. He came in and made us a more solid unit, we were a lot more competitive in the big games (won two draw one vs United, beat Arsenal, drew vs Spurs and Liverpool, did lose to.City tho), he got us consistent results in big games which we lacked since the double season, something as well we know Jose built on. He also had not a great firstXl to work with never mind depth and got us 3rd place with the bonus of a trophy, he also did it with a record breaking run of fixtures. Did I like him? Not really, Did I want him full time over Jose's return? God no, would I ever want him back? Defiantly not, but he did a good job under difficult circumstances and deserves credit for that. Fernando, LDN Blue, Henrique and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pizy 18,996 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Fuck. Was still holding out a glimmer of hope that Mou wouldn return to Madrid. Only one possible destination now. Goddamnit. Next season will be a pain watching José at United. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ossie the King 634 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 1 minute ago, Pizy said: Fuck. Was still holding out a glimmer of hope that Mou wouldn return to Madrid. Only one possible destination now. Goddamnit. Next season will be a pain watching José at United. Imagine the scenes if we go to Old Trafford to face Mourinho and we've got Brendan Rodgers as manager. Essien19 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last Sicarius 610 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Jose in United? so they want to join to relegation fight? :v Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pizy 18,996 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 46 minutes ago, Ossie the King said: Imagine the scenes if we go to Old Trafford to face Mourinho and we've got Brendan Rodgers as manager. Or Pellegrino. The worst thing initially will be seeing him sign players he couldn't here. Pretty much no transfer target will be out of reach. Seeing him sign players we've been desperate for here for years will be a gut punch. Think Stones and Pogba will be his two big summer buys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post! Blue Colored Sky 1,807 Posted January 4, 2016 Popular Post! Share Posted January 4, 2016 2 hours ago, Adnane said: 3 points of United when he took the team. 15 points off the champions in the end of the season. That's just horrible. Are you for real mate ? You're losing all credibility in my eyes with such posts. He took team that was on downward spiral, why otherwise there would be change of manager in the first place ? Chelsea feared for top4 finish even though the situation at that time was good in the table but it could quickly continue in the same pattern and go horribly wrong. Rafa task was to get to top 4. He's done that while having super-thin squad while playing 69 games in a season (!!!). I don't know which idea that was but we had the worst squad overall with probably zero to non "options" why also having the most games to play. It was ridiculous bad planning. Our squad in 12/13 ; Cech, Turnbull, Hilario David Luiz, Azpilicueta, Cole, JT, Cahill, Ivanovic, Bertrand, Ferreira Mikel, Ramires, Lampard, Romeu, Benayoun (lol) Hazard, Mata, Oscar, Moses, Marin Torres, Ba + Sturridge (who was sold) and with that squad you have to play 69 games in a season, reach top 4 and try to win a cup. WTF was that from Chelsea I will never know. He had to basically play Hazard, Mata, Oscar in every game plus Moses as a sub. There was Marin who was crap and always injured. For midfield it was Ramires, Mikel, Lampard. Romeu was injured. Oh and I forgot Benayoun. Great options don't you think ? The fact is Rafa did a really good job considering amount of matches to play (69 games, again I say this, while having to travel to Japan and Russia in mid weeks) and super thin squad. He even played 17 year old Nathan Ake and moved David Luiz to midfield to have a bit more options there. Just think about it for a second. We dropped far too many points from winning positions, especially at the end of the games. I think we dropped 15 points from winning position at that season and majority of them in the last stage of the game. Reading A and Liverpool A are the first spring to mind. Plus that QPR loss. Yes, that's frustrating and I was very angry at that time but when you think about it players may fail hold on to lead when they are tired. And there was every reason to be tired with such shit overall squad and amount of matches. The Chels, CHOULO19, Henrique and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzchap 8,966 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 He will end up at Real - Zidane hasn't got the experience, I see Zidane as a temporary appointment and fully expect Jose to be there Blue Colored Sky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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