Villas Boas (EX) Chelsea manager

[Shaggy]

If Rafa replaced AVB in the very near future it would do huge damage in our bid to beat them to 4th place.

Hopefully they'll sack him at the end of the season and not give him the chance to properly rebuild them.

I think if he was given time and was empowered to kick out the troublemakers like Lampard, Terry, Cole etc then I think he'd do a great job.

Having said all I've said in here today, I don't think he's a good fit. Apparently AVB is very tactical, obsessed with small details etc - just like Rafa! Also I'm sure there'd be ill-will from the likes of Terry & Lampard who'd make life difficult for him, and of course the fans loathe him and many have pledged to tear up their season tickets etc.

I just don't think he's a good fit for a 3 month job.

[Ben_Itez]

He wont win it though, but yes, I could move on. You can't obviously (referring to your username)

Almost as lame as bringing up someone's post count in a discussion

So is it the same for anyone who has Shankly, Paisley. Dalglish etc in their username. Are they living in the past and failing to let go?

As it happens my name is Ben and as Rafa was our manager when i joined this site my username seemed obvious. I've thought about changing it a few times as people seem incapable of looking past it when discussing certain issues. However, why the **** should I?

I'd just like to add my bewilderment to how many of our own can treat Rafa with such disdain after what he did for us. I don't need to repeat the reasons as most of them have been listed in the discussion above.

Classy way for site owner/mod to behave anyway.

[Ben_Itez]

Dont think he'd take the job on a short term basis anyway, IMO.

He'd only be interested if he had ultimate power and could get rid of the old guard who seem to think they run the club.

[Fernandinho]

Even im my current intoxicated state I think that Anfield Forever is being a little sensationalist. Maybe he left at the right time, but football is a results driven industry and he won the cup that only 1 team in the WHOLE OF EUROPE can win. You can't argue that its pure "fact" as the great man himself would say. And he manged to regularly qualify us for that very competition which he struggle to reach now.

Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinions but surely as an LFC fan he has earnt your respect... and even admiration for him.

[Phoenix07]

So, Mr Andre Villas Boas anyone?

[Suarez]

Even im my current intoxicated state I think that Anfield Forever is being a little sensationalist. Maybe he left at the right time, but football is a results driven industry and he won the cup that only 1 team in the WHOLE OF EUROPE can win. You can't argue that its pure "fact" as the great man himself would say. And he manged to regularly qualify us for that very competition which he struggle to reach now.

Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinions but surely as an LFC fan he has earnt your respect... and even admiration for him.

I'm fed up with arguing about Rafa with other mates, they all believe in everything that the lazy sensationalist media has to say.

Here is a man that took a squad of players costing the best part of £100m less than both Man Utd and Chelsea (average starting 11 and bench) yet was expected to challenge for the league every season.

Here's a man that with a squad costing far less than the top 2 clubs in England turned us into the most feared team in the Champions League, took us to 2nd in the Premiership with an accumulated points total that would've won the league anytime before.

The media for some god knows why reason, expected Rafa to have us challenging on all fronts EVERY season with a starting 11 and bench that costs £100m less than Utd and Chelsea. Who the **** expects that? Its absolutely incredible.

Yes he made a few mistakes, who doesn't?

He should've been here for a decade or two in my opinion. He would've built something very special longterm.

[Dan]

he's calling you a sheep shagger

[Shaggy]

There was always a danger it could've been (mis)construed that way

[Chazza]

Crikey this is all a bit lively for a Friday afternoon, normally we are posting Hue and Cry songs and talking about getting smashed at the weekend

[Fivex]

Chuffing weasels talk about the blue touchpaper

[Mattshark]

I'm fed up with arguing about Rafa with other mates, they all believe in everything that the lazy sensationalist media has to say.

Here is a man that took a squad of players costing the best part of £100m less than both Man Utd and Chelsea (average starting 11 and bench) yet was expected to challenge for the league every season.

Here's a man that with a squad costing far less than the top 2 clubs in England turned us into the most feared team in the Champions League, took us to 2nd in the Premiership with an accumulated points total that would've won the league anytime before.

The media for some god knows why reason, expected Rafa to have us challenging on all fronts EVERY season with a starting 11 and bench that costs £100m less than Utd and Chelsea. Who the **** expects that? Its absolutely incredible.

Yes he made a few mistakes, who doesn't?

He should've been here for a decade or two in my opinion. He would've built something very special longterm.

[Pablo]

WTF happened here! FWIW I agree with just about every word Shaggy said there



Anyway let's get back to talking about AVB: No sane man grows a full-on ginger beard. I worry about his mental state.

[RedReet]

I get this so often, even with a couple of mates who are huge Reds.

I had a debate this week with an Arsenal fan when he laughed at my suggestion about Rafa replacing Wenger. I said to him that he's gone off the opinions of Sky, Sunday Supplement and the red tops and after listing off Rafa's achievements, signings and the ****storm that he had to put up with I was still looked at as if I was off my rocker.

It genuinely ****ing baffles me. But it's because people are too ****ing thick - or lazy - to watch the games and form their own opinions of the man.

If you compare the amount of points won by both managers, Rafa is only 15 behind Wenger during his time here (Houllier finished 30 points behind them in his last season alone). When you consider that this was Arsenals greatest ever side (the Invincibles)and think about the obstacles Rafa had to overcome (new club, new country, G&H, Sky cunts etc.), surely even the thickest Arsenal supporter would have to accept that Rafa is at least his equal. Oh, and let’s not forget how Rafa sacrificed PL points too as he was only interested in the CL.

If you were to exclude his last year and put that season down to the influence of G&H, the 2 point difference is negligible and then you can throw in A CL win, an FA cup win, a Super Cup win and a charity shield, not to mention getting us to number 1 spot in Europe.

Yes, I can see why Arsenal fans wouldn’t want him.

[Chazza]

André Villas-Boas admits to fears that Chelsea will sack him

• 'Let's see if Roman Abramovich wants a change at the club'
• Manager concedes he has failed to revive Torres's career

André Villas-Boas has publicly expressed fears for the first time that he could endure the same fate as his predecessors and be dismissed by the Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, before he is given the chance to implement his long-term plans.

Villas-Boas was prised from Porto last summer, at a cost of £13.5m in compensation, and charged with initiating a radical overhaul of an ageing squad which had been overseen by four permanent managers in as many years. That process appeared to require time with Villas-Boas confident, until recently, that the club's hierarchy appreciated the scale of the task in hand, only for a slump that saw four wins in 14 matches prior to Saturday's victory over Bolton Wanderers eroding the owner's faith.

The 34-year-old has previously stressed a belief that he would be granted the time – denied the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Luiz Felipe Scolari, whose tenures were ruthlessly cut short by Abramovich – to implement his three-year "project". Yet, in an interview conducted by the Lisbon-based radio station TSF last Thursday but broadcast on Monday night, that stance appeared to shift. "We are now in the exact same moment as last year," said Villas-Boas, referring back to the last few months of Ancelotti's spell which were played out with the manager effectively reduced to the role of dead man walking. "It is an exact copy but with a less experienced coach [in charge].

"I know that, in the Abramovich era, we have the worst results but I think I have felt the confidence from the owner. Let's see if he wants a change in the club or not. The pattern of behaviour of the owner has led to a downfall [of managers] in similar situations, or even 'better' situations. What will be his reaction? It will be one of two: either a continuation of the project and full support from above; or a continuation of the cultural pattern that has happened before. We don't know. We don't know if it'll be tomorrow or in two years from now. It'll depend on what is the understanding of what is happening at the moment."

There has been interest on some level in the short-term appointment of either Rafael Benítez or Fabio Capello, experienced managers who are readily available, as a replacement for Villas-Boas should he be sacked with Chelsea's season threatening to unravel. The club are out of the Premier League's top four on goals scored and the threat of failing to make the Champions League for the first time in the Abramovich era is very real – they are 3-1 down from the first leg against Napoli.

There has been grumbling discontent, too, among senior members who have spent time out of the team amid fears they are being steadily phased out of the club. Frank Lampard admitted at the weekend that his own relationship with Villas-Boas had "not been ideal" and the England midfielder joined Michael Essien and Ashley Cole in being omitted from the starting lineup for the Champions League defeat in Naples last week.

Villas-Boas, who praised the achievements of Abramovich's ownership as "unbelievable" and suggested there is an interest in Porto's Brazil forward Hulk as he considered the team's further development, has conceded his approach has not gained universal approval within the dressing room, but claimed in the interview that "there is no lack of support from the players here".

Villas-Boas, who stressed he remained committed to Chelsea and would not be seeking a summer return to Porto, pointed to his plans to reshape his squad by hinting at summer departures for Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou, who have been fringe players this term, and admitted he had failed in his attempts to revive Fernando Torres' career. The £50m striker has not scored in the Premier League since the visit of Swansea in September and the manager concedes he had been "lost" in the months since.

"We have been through the Torres situation before with [Andriy] Shevchenko and [Mateja] Kezman," he said, referring to other expensive forwards who have failed to flourish at Stamford Bridge. "But Torres's problems may have also come from a change of philosophy at the club."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...ack?CMP=twt_gu

[Chris]

Very, very harsh on Kezman and Shevchenko putting Torres in with them.