The Next Manager?

[bushman 2,043]

No, I didn't boo. I saw one guy who I've know for about 15 years boo though. He was there in the shitty 80s and he helped save this club when it was in trouble.

I think I'm going to say that this bloke has earned the right to voice his disgust at a disgusting performance.

Go for it. You've criticised pretty much every aspect of the club from what appears to be an unrealistically uninformed position.

You might not be on the wind-up but surely if you read some of the dribble you post, you'd be suspicious wouldn't you?

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, even you. Whether valid or not. To boo your favorite team ? It´s very stupid, in my view.

Your view of the team is outdated. Most likely, you are one of those old fans who fell asleep along the way.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, even you. Whether valid or not. To boo your favorite team ? It´s very stupid, in my view.

Your view of the team is outdated. Most likely, you are one of those old fans who fell asleep along the way.

My view of the team is based on me actually following them and trying to educate myself about what they're trying to do. I don't boo my own team but I'm not going to call the people who support this club around the country, even when it wasn't popular to do so, stupid.

Most likely you're one of those 'new fans' who doesn't have a fucking clue what this club is.

[bushman 2,043]

My view of the team is based on me actually following them and trying to educate myself about what they're trying to do. I don't boo my own team but I'm not going to call the people who support this club around the country, even when it wasn't popular to do so, stupid.

Most likely you're one of those 'new fans' who doesn't have a fucking clue what this club is.

Since you are being obnoxious & I am not prepare to derail this thread, I must tell you off. Have a nice day.

[Styles 9,790]

There is absolutely no chance that Klopp will come here. Why leave one of the emerging powers of European football for Chelsea? The only guarantee here is that you will be sacked sooner rather than later. Guardiola knew that and went for a team where he will be given every chance to succeed. You have to deal with so much nonsense at this club that it's no longer worth the money when other clubs can offer the same if not more. When you have your pick of clubs like Guardiola did you would be mad to take the one with the least job security and the most pressure.

It is being reported that Guardiola had been looking at the squads of the teams wanted him and he decided against ours. Of course he would. It's just a mish-mash of players with holes everywhere. We can no longer just spend massive amount with FFP looming so it wouldn't have been possible for him to come here and sign 7, 8 or 9 players. Bayern has a strong squad already and are one of the most profitable clubs in the world. They don't have to watch every penny spent like we have to from now on.

Guardiola was the last roll of the dice for Roman and his yes men. I really think they will lose the plot (if they haven't done so already) now that Guardiola is no longer available. My only fear that with no where to go they will just stick with Benitez and things will really go from bad to worse.

[bushman 2,043]

Whether Chelsea hires someone or not it remains to be seen.

Not many choices out there, I feel.

[diskoviolente 425]

Klopp is a bit like Pep in the respect of a clubs culture and structure. And to be honest, we can´t offer that as just yet for new managers the way Barca, Bayern or Dortmund can offer that.

[Blue Gino 377]

I doubt Klopp will join, he says Bundesliga is on the rise and will love the challenge of Pep joining Bayern, so for me my next favorite would be Michael Laudrup.

[bushman 2,043]

Personally, I do not feel Chelsea needs a new manager now. Perhaps, in the summer they may find someone who is willing to come in ?

Currently, the team needs players & plenty of them. I´d say, 3 players are needed. The midfield is a must.

[diskoviolente 425]

The rot started years ago. I remember after Carlos first season we had this mass exodus of experienced players who left the club and never have been replaced properly. Not that we should have hold on to the likes of Deco and Belletti (who I loved) but simply not replacing them with a blend of younger players and some good and more established players brought in left the team in ropes ever since. It was always for Drogba, Terry, Lamps, Cole and Cech (the infamous Spine, the old guard, the heroes) to carry the team. Bringing in Torres and Luiz for that kind of money was simpley a half a year to late. Especially Torres. Of course no one can tell "what if" but if he left Liverpool on a high he could´ve carried that with us. I think of all the big mistakes that have been done the worst was to sack Carlo. He just started to build something and made us look "nice". Of course we had a bad spell, but it totally disrupted everything that he was just starting to build.

I´ve always been of the "Consistency is key" - rollers and I will remain that way, even if the sacking of AVB made way for the last hurray of the aforementioned old guard to carry the team towards the Champions League. The reason why RDM was sacked was because he had to oversee the changes that should have been done more carefully and not just apruptly after the biggest season for us and then still expect to just go on. You don´t let Drogba and to a lesser importance Mereiles and Bosingwa go and bring in a couple of young players and expect them to be as experienced to carry us through one of the toughest groups in the CL this season and carry the team to the crunch time in the league when the "keep calm and carry on" brigade of players like Terry is likely to pick up injuries.

I could carry on for ages here blaming the missing structure and philosophy (or at least some sort of 3-year plan) for what is happening now. All I am saying is that what we experience now as fans again ( to quote Gorillaz': November has come (and hasn´t left) is not down to Rafa. That would be the easiest and the post pleasing analysis of the problems. He was brought in to make the 50 million quid passenger score some goals and pick up the pieces left by smashing up every year the latest idea how to run the club. You can argue and justify for every sacking of the managers in the past but there exactly lies the key. We all face to eat the rotten grapes now of the "thinking for the next CL qualification" policy now. I don´t even care if it is Rafa who stays on, because it doesn´t matter who is in charge if the board doesn´t support the manager and stand by him through difficult times. AND don´t start about Wengers consistency of being not succesfull. That is down to Arsenals financial policies. We could have both: shatloads of money and consistency. My word, that would be something.

[Fulham Broadway 16,835]

Whoever it is, it will not be an appointment that is good for the club long term..

They will know that it is only a short term assignment and they will be kidding themselves if they believe otherwise. Therefore it will only attract a certain type of manager. A mercenary or a 'big' name whose profile has sunk a bit. The club is rapidly running out of options and because of this the reputation is suffering. It's become a Temp Agency.

Until we have a board who know football and want the best interests of Chelsea Football Club rather than their bank account, and who just doff their cap to the owner, we have to expect more of the same.

We want someone with Chelsea in their heart -eg Pat Nevin on the board, Intelligent and knows the club inside out with the marketing people, Samsung or whoever wants to plug their products , We also need susbstantial influential input from a fans commitee -the lifeblood of any club.

Until clubs recover some of the football aspect instead of solely being businesses with football attached as an after thought, and until custodians of clubs realise they need to be more democratic in decision making clubs will continue to alienate the supporters.

[Superblue 6,370]

I echo many of you - I'm worried we are fast running out of options available.

The board have to accept a shift to a more long term viewpoint and provide a project to anybody who comes in.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Until we have a board who know football and want the best interests of Chelsea Football Club rather than their bank account, and who just doff their cap to the owner, we have to expect more of the same.

We want someone with Chelsea in their heart -eg Pat Nevin on the board, Intelligent and knows the club inside out with the marketing people, Samsung or whoever wants to plug their products , We also need susbstantial influential input from a fans commitee -the lifeblood of any club.

FInally, a suggestion for who should be on the board. It's not a very good one, but still it's progress.

The criticism of the board is once again baseless in my opinion though. Bruce Buck is a Chelsea fan. Eugene Tenenbaum isn't going anywhere but that doesn't bother me in the slightest. Ron Gourlay is doing a decent job, especially on the commercial side of things. I will say that both Buck and Gourlay took a lot of stick from the 'football world' when they stuck by Terry after he was found (probably) guilty of racist abuse. Ultimately all three answer to the big man.

I do think this is a watershed moment in the tenure of Abramovich though. He's clearly learnt lessons in his time here, but I think he underestimated the difficulty of finding the right coach. I think the appointment of AVB showed that he does want a long-term guy in, but AVB fucked up and other matters conspired against him (player power is something Roman knows he has to address and he's doing that). The next guy on the list was Pep and the pursuit of him fucked us up.

Now we have to completely change the way we do things.

Fortunately (in a perverse way) I think Benitez is doing so badly that he will put himself out of the running, and hopefully Madrid come calling. I'll get plenty of stick on here but if getting knocked out of all three cups and scraping a top four finish sees that cunt go, I'd happily take it.

[Milan 17,853]

[The only place to be 11,313]

I'm starting to come round to the idea of Mourinho as new coach. Partly it's because we're running out of options, partly it's because he felt like a proper Chelsea manager when he was in charge and no-one has since, but it's mostly because I'm not sure he's the same Mourinho anymore.

People have suggested that this whole Guardiola-chase might be a humbling experience for Roman, or at least a reality-check. I'm not sure that the experience in Madrid (which could be a rather big failure this season) won't be a humbling experience for a man who probably needs it. Unabashed success for the best part of a decade isn't the best thing for those who are susceptible to inflated opinions of self-worth.

Where the first marriage of Roman and Jose was the perfect combination of limitless ambition and seemingly limitless coaching ability, the second one might be two people, older, wiser and more weary together finding something even better and more importantly, more sustainable.

Guardiola's three year contract at Bayern seems to fit well with Fergie's retirement plans. Whisky-nose is building another team there so one could easily plot a career path of Barcelona-Bayern-Man United for Pep. That leaves Mourinho with maybe 2 options in English football.

There are plenty of stumbling blocks that make this risky and unlikely to happen, but for the romantic there's enough there to give them hope and that's something that is lacking at Chelsea Football Club at the moment. There are also plenty of posts where I've questioned this on the grounds that they're human beings with a fractious relationship. But I think I forgot that they are human beings, capable of growth and self-reflection in periods of quite desperation. And I'll be honest - I miss the swagger. I miss the arrogance. I miss the bravado although I don't miss some of the more unsavoury aspects of Jose.

My main point of criticism is that I assumed some people thought we'd just get the old Jose back. I think the main attraction in his appointment is that he won't be the old Jose - he'll be better.

[MHL 47 378]

PG wasn't coming here, there were probably two English Clubs with a similar structure to Barcelona, Man Utd & Arsenal - neither of them had a vacancy and neither of them would 'dispense' of their current Managers to offer him the 'gig'. Bayern will let him have autonomy over footballing issues, he'll get the odd comment in the Press from the President, Chairman & Vice Chairman (all ex-Bayern Players, take note Roman), but that will probably be all he'll have to contend with by means of 'interference'.

The best solution for us right now and as a short and medium-term fix is Jose. He 'gets' Chelsea and will change the 'poisonous' atmosphere with the fans that we currently have, in an instant. He'll get the team and tactics sorted quickly, and given support will get us the players we need to strengthen the squad. Next problem is the Board, Gourlay for my mind has been over-promoted - a Financial/Commercial Director at best, a Chief Exec/MD - no chance. The structure is wrong and the people advising Roman on football matters need to removed and the Manager left to identify targets and a Board Member appointed (ex-Player, Nevin's not a bad shout, Ray Wilkins would be my choice, he's calm, level-headed, non-confrontational and could work well with Jose, but as long as Gourlay is about that won't happen) to advise the CE/MD of those targets, cost of acquisition etc for approval.

The 'Clown' we currently have needs removing ASAP, don't want him anywhere near the Real Madrid or any other top club, the sneaky b*****d will only come back and prise our best players from us, especially as he's been able to have an 'up close and personal look' now. If he's removed mid-season that may well be viewed as abject failure and other top clubs will be even more reluctant to take him on than they've been for the last two and a bit years.

It'll be down to the main man as usual and I hope that time has healed whatever the rifts were that lost us Jose, also that Roman has now learned that pride and identity are almost as important qualities as managerial ability.

[bushman 2,043]

Today´s Skysport conducted a poll. Over 44 % of readers think Jose is coming back.

I see, the horde of fans are riding the bandwagon. Stay tuned, Jose is coming they say.

[Beirut_Blues 306]

The difference of how Jose left us and left Inter speaks for itself...the dude's got unfinished business here, he has to come back.

[laura90 556]

This managerial situation, together with Torres one, is the main reason why I'm unhappy with the way this club is run, regardless of how many talented players we have signed lately. It has come to the stage when I want long term manager more than I want any trophy or any player respectively.

Within 9 years we've had Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Philipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelloti, Andre Villas Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and currently Rafael Benitez. This is a total of 9 managers.

The longest serving of those 9 managers happens to be Jose Mourinho (2004-2007),who won 50% of our 10 trophies. 2 Premier league titles 1 FA Cup , 2 league cups , 5 trophies out of 10 won.

Our longest serving manager , Mourinho, won basically 50% of our trophies in 3 years and 8 other managers cumulatively won 5 trophies from 2007-2012.

And this is supposed to be just fine, we won ten trophys and we are buying real talents at the moment. Managerial longlivity is overrated. We couldn't afford it anyway, we had incapable managers at the helm. True, but we had few capable: Mourinho, Ancelloti maybe even AVB with THIS team .

There is no long term success without consistency and long term manager who has authority in assembling the team in my opinion. I can mention at lest two benefits of consistency over quick fix approach:

- Long term manager and his scouts would know how to put their team together. They wouldn't assemble the team which lacks balance and has so many holes as ours right now. No knowable football man would have so many attacking midfielders/wingers without quality central midfielder. He would have known how wasteful, limited and restrictive that could be. I won't even mention a striker.

- With long term manager there is stable coach who can remain in contact with players on loan to assure them that they are not forgotten orphans and that their parent club actually has a future plan for them and actually cares for their long term career development. I reckon our interim manager has had little or no contact with likes of KDB, Lukaku, Chalobah, Courtois etc. There is a systemic problem with our youth and loan policy due to our managerial situation. This has to be fixed, given the talents we are dealing with these days.

- He knows his players and players want to play for him. That too.

- It will be damn hard to find the right, knowable, quality manager even more to give him time and to have faith in him, but it is still possible. It's a risk we simply have to take for the sake of the future. Well, one can only hope.