The Ongoing Serie A, La Liga, All English Football, Champions League Thread - - - - - - - - Part 17

[Darthphere]

He scored a goal against West Ham, OMG THE WELSH PELE!

 

[chamber-music]

Adel Taraabt to Liverpool?

It will be funny to see Taraabt and Suarez in the same side. I think they wouldn't get along at all.

 

[Darthphere]

Maybe I'm drinking the haterade but other than those two games against Inter a couple of seasons ago I've never seen Bale perform in the big games. Wow, he scored the winner against West Ham. Whoope-doo. He scored a brace against Lyon in the Europa League, wow! And against Newcastle. YAY?!

 

[chamber-music]

Dennis Bergkamp is going to get a statue outside the Emirates stadium.

Gunnersaurus will be happy

 

[B]

Real Madrid took Barcelona apart tonight in the Copa Del Ray semi-final 2nd leg, a brace from Ronaldo and a nice header from Varane, I've never seen Xavi and Messi so ineffectual and Pique continues to be exposed as overrated.

In truth from what I've seen of Pique he has never struck me as being defensively very strong. What I mean is he doesn't look as much a defender as Puyol does for example.

My understand is that's one of the reasons Manchester United let him go back to Barca with next to no fight, because they didn't feel he was defensively strong enough to be a centre back in the Premiership & for Manchester United.

It's a little different in La Liga, in the Premiership you actually have to be able to defend first, pass the ball second, whereas in La Liga & for Barcelona, they'd probably look at passing first, defensive abilities second.

 

[B]

Benitez cracks & attacks Chelsea fans for abuse

Starting to feel kinda bad for Rafa, he has been put in an impossible situation, even if Chelsea managed to somehow win the Premiership this season, the fans would still want him out I feel.. he should have had the brains to realise before he took the role that he was in a lose/lose situation.

If I was a top manager in the world right now with no particular club preference, the last job I would accept is the Chelsea job.

Roman Abramovich has sent a strong message with his sacking of Di Matteo that even if you turn around what was a failing season & manage to win 2 major trophies.. you can still be sacked if the team hits a rough patch of form. It was a similar'ish story with Ancelotti as well won the Premiership/FA Cup in his first season & then was sacked in his 2nd season after Chelsea finished 2nd in the Premiership.

Truth be told, Mourinho should never have been allowed to leave the club. Despite all the good Abramovich has done to help the club by injecting about a billion pounds into the club for transfers, clearing debts etc.. he is also hurting the club with his poor man management skills & also I suspect his interference in transfer targets.

 

[wobbly]

On Rafa's confirmed departure: Good. Never wanted him in the first place and the 'fact' Rafa won't ever admit to is he currently holds the worst record of any Manager in Roman's time at the club. That's the most pertinent fact Rafa, like or not.

The mistake was to appoint the cretin, not to give him the correct title for his role.

So I do not feel bad bad for him. He was putting his name in the hat for every plum job that was going. He wanted back into the game with a high profile club, and didn't care who it was as he so willingly forgot his 'Would never manage Chelsea' jibe to land the gig.

He knew full well going in his contract was until the end of this season only, and under his watch UTD have gone from a fortunate 4 points ahead to 19, with even AVB's one man team being ahead of us to add insult to injury, so he really should shut that fat mouth of his up.

For me, Rafa, his never ending excuses (coming before matches to boot...), can go ###k himself as far as I'm concerned.

Roman, admit you c#cked up years ago and bring back Mourhino ffs...

 

[kit1982]

Forgive me if I misheard it, but that rant he did at the Liverpool TV guy pretty much went
"It's tough to manage these players as it is, so announcing me as an interim coach made it even harder. The small group of fans who are booing me should get behind the team, they don't want me here? Great, I won't be here next season, so forget about me and lets get together and make sure the next manager's team is playing Champions League and not Europa League next year."

I can't really see what the big deal is, he's got a point hasn't he?

 

[wobbly]

Forgive me if I misheard it, but that rant he did at the Liverpool TV guy pretty much went
"It's tough to manage these players as it is, so announcing me as an interim coach made it even harder. The small group of fans who are booing me should get behind the team, they don't want me here? Great, I won't be here next season, so forget about me and lets get together and make sure the next manager's team is playing Champions League and not Europa League next year."

I can't really see what the big deal is, he's got a point hasn't he?

Nah..He is already making his excuses for not finishing in the top 4, ie, if that happens it won't be his fault, it'll be all down to the club and the fans (nothing to do with his crap tactics and selections then), so any potential future employer shouldn't hold that against him, like they evidently did his 6 month flop with Milan (he wasn't out of work for a couple of years for no good reason).

You should have noted as well how he rattled off all his past glories in this latest crap, already touting for his next job.

Thing is, he has been around the block a few times and knows full well taking a pop at the fans is the surest way to fuel the fire big time. He seriously thinks telling the die hards who cant stand the sight of him they need to shut up will help? Not a chance in hell. It will only get worse for him now, and this time he has directly invited it.

And taking a pop at the club for correctly naming him 'Interim Manager'? Uh...That's what he is FFS. he knew that going in. If he didn't like that title then he should have refused to accept it and inflicted his self proclaimed genius on someone else....Oh wait, no-one else was interested...

And why wait until now to air his concern over this title, eh? Nothing to do with getting overtaken by AVB's one man Tottenham team...

Sooner he is gone the better. I don't care anymore about the FA cup (figure UTD will beat us whether he is there or not, and with only Torres up front in the Europa Cup we have little bloody hope there either).

And though obviously costly, not qualifying for the CL might actually do some good in the long run. Might just get Roman to pull his head out from his @ss, sack the right people, offload the right players, and bring in people who know what they are doing.

 

[TheFuture]

The mistake was to appoint the cretin

Everything he said was true.

 

[wobbly]

Oh **** off with that ****ing ********. Everything he said was true.

No I will not, and I disagree with the man on every level. It's just more excuses. The man is a cretin imo and they should never have appointed him. That was the 'mistake', not giving him the correct job title.

You can disagree and that's fine, that's your opinion, but I'd advise you do so politely in future.

Your rude response above to a fan of the club this cretin has just had a pop at is totally uncalled for.

Seriously pal, I wouldn't go telling Man City or Liverpool fans to #### off if they moan about Mancini or Rogers, or Gooners their complaints about Wenger are ####ing ####### if they aint happy with him, so I expect the same courtesy in return.

Disagree all you like, but choose your words more carefully next time.

 

[TheFuture]

I will apologise and have edited my post, but I think you are utterly out of order calling the man a cretin.

The cretins to me are those idiots who, from his first game, have attempted to hound the man out. The funny thing is that it's like water off a duck's back for Rafa and ironically, the fans have actually unsettled the squad and put team morale at rock bottom with their BS.

Rafa will be gone at the end of the season so it's pointless fostering a poisonous atmosphere at the club. If you want any chance of Top 4 the fans must quit their childish grudge and focus on getting behind the team instead of focusing all their energy on a man who can happily move on at the end of the season.

 

[Dr Lee]

IMHO... I think the more militant fans are wasting their time with all this #RafaOut stuff... Short of him losing 5-0 to QPR or something equally as insane, he's in the job till the summer... Then he's off.

The person you really should be aiming your anger at is Roman... He needs to appoint a manager and get his mitts out for a bit...

 

[wobbly]

I will apologise and have edited my post, but I think you are utterly out of order calling the man a cretin.

The cretins to me are those idiots who, from his first game, have attempted to hound the man out. The funny thing is that it's like water off a duck's back for Rafa and ironically, the fans have actually unsettled the squad and put team morale at rock bottom with their BS.

Until I see the players agree with Benetiz (other than Torres, for obvious reasons), or they themselves state it's the fans who are responsible for any alleged 'rock bottom' morale, I will think it's Rafa that's full of BS.

Rafa will be gone at the end of the season so it's pointless fostering a poisonous atmosphere at the club.

Agreed, but Rafa knows full well his comments will only incite the die hards even further. There is no way is he so naive as to think having a dig at them will not poison the atmosphere all the more.

If you want any chance of Top 4 the fans must quit their childish grudge and focus on getting behind the team instead of focusing all their energy on a man who can happily move on at the end of the season.

The fans are behind the team, they just don't like the manager, who has lets not forget, given them reason for that dislike.

And he can happily move on now. Our finishing top 4 is growing increasingly unlikely week by week whether he is still at Chelsea or not.

Now...having said all this IF he can turn things around I'll be the first to eat a huge humble pie and apologise here for calling him a cretin, but until he does so, and watching our games every week there's been no real sign that he has any idea whatsoever on how to do that, and would rather have a pointless self defeating pop at the fans and the club enduring his soon to done with tenure instead, I will stand by my comments on the man.

 

[Darthphere]

On Rafa's confirmed departure: Good. Never wanted him in the first place and the 'fact' Rafa won't ever admit to is he currently holds the worst record of any Manager in Roman's time at the club. That's the most pertinent fact Rafa, like or not.

The mistake was to appoint the cretin, not to give him the correct title for his role.

So I do not feel bad bad for him. He was putting his name in the hat for every plum job that was going. He wanted back into the game with a high profile club, and didn't care who it was as he so willingly forgot his 'Would never manage Chelsea' jibe to land the gig.

He knew full well going in his contract was until the end of this season only, and under his watch UTD have gone from a fortunate 4 points ahead to 19, with even AVB's one man team being ahead of us to add insult to injury, so he really should shut that fat mouth of his up.

For me, Rafa, his never ending excuses (coming before matches to boot...), can go ###k himself as far as I'm concerned.

Roman, admit you c#cked up years ago and bring back Mourhino ffs...

When he took the Chelsea job, United weren't even top of the league. They were a point behind Man City.

 

[wobbly]

When he took the Chelsea job, United weren't even top of the league. They were a point behind Man City.

I think we were 3 behind UTD after losing to WBA (RDM's last league game) and 4 behind City (will have to look it up to make sure but I think that's right). So under Rafa's watch UTD have added a further 16 points to their lead over us.

 

[spidey-dude]

agree with Future here, all Rafa said was that protesting Rafa out all the time is only harming the teams moral etc... it is having a negative effect on the team, he is asking the fans to get behind the team during games and to put aside their feelings of him as manager as he wont be the manager next year

 

[aNarcHy2day]

^Yeah, I just heard it on Youtube too and i agree with spidey (*What's wrong with me!*). I don't think he said much wrong there. Of course, a Chelsea fan may observe differently.

 

[TheFuture]

I'm not a fan of Oliver Holt but he got it spot on:

"He said the thousands of Chelsea fans, who booed him every game, were not helping the morale of the team.

He said they would have to bear some of the responsibility for poor results if Chelsea didn't qualify for next season's Champion's League.

He said certain figures at the club had helped to damn him by saddling him with the "interim manager" title, so stripping him of authority.

And, er, that's it.

Forgive me, but it's not exactly Malcolm X is it.

It's not Mark Anthony mourning the death of Caesar.

It's not exactly an incitement to insurrection."

 

[Hunter Rider]

I can see both sides, on a base level what Benitez said was not that big of a deal but given how the Chelsea fans already feel about him it was simply poking an angry dog with a sharp stick.

On the point of calling him intern manager I'm not sure he could have expected anything different as the deal he signed was only until the end of the season, so regardless of the title everyone knew he was short term.

He's citing the fans booing him relentlessly as being a reason for low morale and thus the knock-on effect of poor results, he might be right, we really don't know, but if I'm a Chelsea fan it would feel like he's trying to shift the blame ahead of the final standings despite then trying to offset that comment by saying he'd accept some of the blame.

The fact is this was one of the stupidest managerial appointments in history, there was way too much bad history for it to ever work and Benitez had no way of winning the fans over, I don't even think some good results would have helped as this was always personal, never just business.

 

[spidey-dude]

the thing with the interim manager title - ye it does serve to undermine his authority somewhat, is there a need to put the word interim in there? all managers have contracts so why does it being a short term contract necessitate the need for the prefix? he should have just been manager

 

[Hunter Rider]

Maybe I'm drinking the haterade but other than those two games against Inter a couple of seasons ago I've never seen Bale perform in the big games. Wow, he scored the winner against West Ham. Whoope-doo. He scored a brace against Lyon in the Europa League, wow! And against Newcastle. YAY?!

I've been critical of the Bale hype but he's winning matches on his own for Spurs right now and scoring some crackers to do so. He's scored 23 goals this season, 15 of them in the league which places him just 3 behind Suarez and 4 behind RVP. I think his form has merited the hype even if some of it is still over the top, his improvement is very evident even if bigger challenges lie ahead for him.

Dennis Bergkamp is going to get a statue outside the Emirates stadium.

Gunnersaurus will be happy

Well deserved.

In truth from what I've seen of Pique he has never struck me as being defensively very strong. What I mean is he doesn't look as much a defender as Puyol does for example.

My understand is that's one of the reasons Manchester United let him go back to Barca with next to no fight, because they didn't feel he was defensively strong enough to be a centre back in the Premiership & for Manchester United.

It's a little different in La Liga, in the Premiership you actually have to be able to defend first, pass the ball second, whereas in La Liga & for Barcelona, they'd probably look at passing first, defensive abilities second.

I think you are right, his lack of pace and strength is why Fergie didn't really make a big effort to keep him, I mean he is obviously a decent player but the hyperbolic comparisons to greats like Beckenbauer and Baresi have proven laughably wide of the mark.

 

[Hunter Rider]

the thing with the interim manager title - ye it does serve to undermine his authority somewhat, is there a need to put the word interim in there? all managers have contracts so why does it being a short term contract necessitate the need for the prefix? he should have just been manager

When someone takes over a team with a contract that is only to the end of a season they are usually called caretaker manager, if I am not mistaken Di Matteo wasn't actually given the full title of manager until after he won the CL. The fact the contract was only to the end of the season sent the same message as the title IMO.

 

[spidey-dude]

When someone takes over a team with a contract that is only to the end of a season they are usually called caretaker manager, if I am not mistaken Di Matteo wasn't actually given the full title of manager until after he won the CL. The fact the contract was only to the end of the season sent the same message as the title IMO.

hmmmn I guess - I mean I kinda see both sides to this, it is only a title after all

 

[wobbly]

^Yeah, I just heard it on Youtube too and i agree with spidey (*What's wrong with me!*). I don't think he said much wrong there. Of course, a Chelsea fan may observe differently.

Most of us do. Having spoken to a good few Chelsea fans over the last couples of days even those who had been willing to give him a chance think he went too far with this one, basically waving a large red flag at an already pissed off Bull, then insulting it's mother for good measure.

If he honestly thinks some banners and singing from what was a minority was bad enough to cause a deterioration in the teams form (which is obviously now his excuse for that...It's never his fault, no matter where he is...) then God only knows what he thinks aggravating that will do. Seriously, there is no way that he is naive enough to not know what's coming tomorrow.

See, this is why I don't comment on other clubs fans if they moan about what's going on with their club. I certainly won't have a go at them for it. It's all too easy for an outsider who doesn't watch our games week in week out, and were not the butt of Rafa's past digs, to take the 'high ground', bang on about being in at all together, get behind the team etc.

Way I see it if any given clubs fans are not happy they have every right to voice their complaints, be it with banners, chants, etc, and the manager should always take that on the chin and never turn on those fans while they are still at that club, as it does only incite those fans further.

Another thing that isn't being mentioned is that Chelsea won, but not very convincingly, and the interviewer did not provoke Benitez's comments with any leading question in any way. He just launched into it.

Why? What was the purpose of such an obviously self defeating ploy? Will it shut the fans up? Not a chance in hell and he knows that. Will Roman think Rafa b#tching about his job title has any merit? Not a chance in hell.

No, the only purpose of them was to remind anyone listening of his own past glories (that's the first thing he banged on about remember), deliberately trying to pass the buck for his own current failings onto the fans, and of course letting everyone know he will be back in the market soon...

Of course I expect fans of other clubs to view it all differently, especially when one of those clubs still adores the manager in question (and likely adore him even more right now), but they have no stake in what's happenning at the Bridge, other than benefitting from further turmoil there.