Rafa - I'm here to stay

[wiw]

Ok, so if the current squad is much better, then the fact that it's struggling to finish 4th (when the squad he inherited finished 4th with 4 points to spare) seems to therefore suggest that rafa is getting it wrong.

Thank you.

It's the players underperforming, Rafa, and the **** thats gone on this season all in one.

[Vermilion]

Why is it 'start again' ? Why couldnt a new manager take what rafa's built and actually get the best out of them?

Can you HONESTLY see Ho...Hos...Jose keeping Rafa's signings, so that it could be said that it was his team that won whatever & NOT Moans'his'faces. I can't.

In a spiteful sort of way Jose might wanto, but in a 'Special One'
egotistical way, his ego would'nt let him. IMO.
It's looking like he's off to Barca anyhow. It's been in the papers so it must be so.

[Skillz]

Why is it 'start again' ? Why couldnt a new manager take what rafa's built and actually get the best out of them?

It's not impossible, but I am not ready to give up on Rafa yet. He is the best CL manager in the world IMO and I believe he is more than capable of ironing out the problems he has in the league. He attracts top talent to the club and has a long term view of sustained success through youth.

TBH DJ I think its just that I am more patient than you and do not see changing manager as an automatic fix for all our problems.

[Rashid]

It's not impossible, but I am not ready to give up on Rafa yet. He is the best CL manager in the world IMO and I believe he is more than capable of ironing out the problems he has in the league. He attracts top talent to the club and has a long term view of sustained success through youth.

TBH DJ I think its just that I am more patient than you and do not see changing manager as an automatic fix for all our problems.

1. Ancelotti is qually as good to be fair, Mourinho is not far behind.

It is not to do with patience but more to do with the style of football and the total lack of any strategy in going for the league. He just isn't suited to the PL simple as that.

[Skillz]

Ok, so if the current squad is much better, then the fact that it's struggling to finish 4th (when the squad he inherited finished 4th with 4 points to spare) seems to therefore suggest that rafa is getting it wrong.

Thank you.

How many points did the squad he inherited get? I am not trying to argue that Rafa is the be all and end all in the league, just that he is 2/3 the way through a project that I feel is worth persavering with. The bonus is we get good CL runs every year as well, nothing to be laughed at.

[Vermilion]

Ok, so if the current squad is much better, then the fact that it's struggling to finish 4th (when the squad he inherited finished 4th with 4 points to spare) seems to therefore suggest that rafa is getting it wrong.

Thank you.

Your argument seems to imply that Top managers GET IT RIGHT every single season.

[Vermilion]

If it were 'easy', we'd all be earning £4m salaries via football. Course it's not 'easy'. But it's his fecking job to get it right - or he goes.

Obviously, But the job is HUGE, because WHEN we win the Premiership Title we don't want it to be a fluke, a one season wonder, we want it to have been planned & funded so that the challenge can be sustained thereafter, That imo takes longer.

Also unfortunately, as we stand, It takes i believe, A change of Ownership.

[Skillz]

Changing the manager at the end of the season will give us a better chance of challenging than keeping him, IMO.

Jose Mourinho would win us the title within 2-3 years, IMO.

Assuming Jose would be selected and that he would accept.

[Craig_H]

Can you HONESTLY see Ho...Hos...Jose keeping Rafa's signings, so that it could be said that it was his team that won whatever & NOT Moans'his'faces. I can't.

In a spiteful sort of way Jose might wanto, but in a 'Special One'
egotistical way, his ego would'nt let him. IMO.
It's looking like he's off to Barca anyhow. It's been in the papers so it must be so.

Similar to how most of Chelsea's players were all gonna follow Mourinho, but didnt...

[Craig_H]

Your argument seems to imply that Top managers GET IT RIGHT every single season.

One in four would be a start.

[nbryan1764]

Ok, so if the current squad is much better, then the fact that it's struggling to finish 4th (when the squad he inherited finished 4th with 4 points to spare) seems to therefore suggest that rafa is getting it wrong.

Thank you.

you seem hellbent on not taking any circumstances into consideration when comparing. Therefore I will join your game. In 2003/04 we averaged 1.58 points per game whereas as it stands today we have averaged 1.85 per game. Therefore I would suggest that yes we do have a better squad today. If that continued over the course of the season then that would give us a 10 points favourable position. Oh, and of course added to that we have a very good chance of reaching the European Cup Q/F as opposed to getting knocked out by a fairly average French side in the UEFA Cup.

[MrMichael]

This "thread" is a great example of what is wrong with this forum at the moment.

Do you have any idea how off-putting this is to read.

Can we try and post more than one line responses, and learn to use multiquote please, this isn't a chatbox, and some of us might like to hear a variety of opinions once in a while.

[nbryan1764]

Similar to how most of Chelsea's players were all gonna follow Mourinho, but didnt...

err, where could they have gone to follow Mourihno then? His Portugese boudoir? Can't say that he has managed any more than keeping his wife happy since he left these shores so unless its Portugese orgy time nobody could have followed him

[Darth Marty]

@ this thread.

[MrMichael]

you seem hellbent on not taking any circumstances into consideration when comparing. Therefore I will join your game. In 2003/04 we averaged 1.58 points per game whereas as it stands today we have averaged 1.85 per game. Therefore I would suggest that yes we do have a better squad today. If that continued over the course of the season then that would give us a 10 points favourable position. Oh, and of course added to that we have a very good chance of reaching the European Cup Q/F as opposed to getting knocked out by a fairly average French side in the UEFA Cup.

We are blatantly better off today. A simple comparisson of our squads shows that. We have better, younger players, and far less valueless drains on the club. We have a youth setup with several very exciting talents in it that are genuinely being developed. We have some serious problems, on and off the pitch, but, as ever, things are not black and white. The naysayers have some basis for their argument, as do the optimists, but then that doesn't make for a good bit of forum spamming.