Rafa Watch

[Muddled]

That picture is aces! It's so right for this place, can I use it in the future please? Predominantly for use in the post match threads, obv.

[McDermotX]

[Kenneth]

Why do think Roman signed up Rafa and refused to give Lampard and Terry new deals?

I know that Terry now got a new deal but IMO Roman tried to do the same thing you want him to. A big **** off to player power, a big **** off to Terry and Lampard. A big **** off to the Chelsea fans.

He wanted to show who is in charge. He didn't understood how big hero Terry is among the Chelsea fans. That is a war he can't win.

He can but he lacks the balls to follow it through. He obviously wanted AVB to tackle player power but didn't back him up enough.

[Exiled_red]

[dom9]

I doubt that Roman would have had the same problem at us. We don't have Terry and Lampard in the squad.

IMO he would have built a new stadium straight away and spent a load of money on new players.

I would rather have Roman as owner than Gillett and Hicks.

So with Roman we would probably be playing in a fantastic new stadium now without any debt at all.

How do you know that Gerrard and Carra and Reina and Agger and others wouldn't behave similarly in a similar situation?

[Captain Stu]

So with Roman we would probably be playing in a fantastic new stadium now without any debt at all.

Rubbish.

Chelsea are hugely in debt to him, they call it "bonds" but it's essentially a loan, if he decides the leave the club owes him hundreds of millions of pounds to be paid within something like 72 hours.

So no, he's not the messiah - he's a rich Russian prick.

*

Roman had the perfect chance to start Chelsea's new era under AVB but, as previously said, he didn't have the balls to back him. Look at how Levy has backed him - both financially and in his decision making - they've got some great transfers done to build a new spine for the team and are looking a much better squad than they were under Redknapp. Chelsea really, really missed the boat by sacking AVB.

[Mark79]

Yup, it was a toss-up between us and them and I am genuinely thankful he chose them because we'd be the most hated club in the world right now.

I thought it was always Spurs he wanted but saw Stamford Bridge when past on his way to WHL? Spurs were not even a CL club, so the fact we might have pushed Chelsea out that season did not make any difference IIRC.

Apparently he looked into a few clubs but ultimately it came down to Chelsea or Spurs. Daniel Levy has even spoken about it.

[Norbs]

At least Spurs had some pedigree, would've been much easier to stomach

[Mark3]

Worth a read...

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ian-herbert-rafael-benitez-is-not-flawed-because-he-grew-tired-of-being-abused-at-chelsea-8515815.html

[Mark79]

Well said, Ian Herbert.

[Shaggy]

Worth a read...

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...a-8515815.html

Go on Herbie

[Phoenix07]

A man adrift at the Bridge: Now sneering players mock Rafa over his astonishing outburst as his reign hangs by a thread

By Neil Ashton

Rafa Benitez arrived early for training on Thursday morning in a battered and beaten-up Volkswagen Golf. Chelsea’s interim manager looked bleary-eyed as he was driven into the complex in Cobham, Surrey, by Paco Di Miguel, the club’s first-team fitness coach.

They are close friends and confidants, talking through the day’s training schedule on their way into Chelsea’s first-class training centre each morning. As they inched in traffic through this well-heeled Surrey village, they would have been forgiven for wondering if it would be Benitez’s last day in the job.

The interim coach knows that he is a passenger at Stamford Bridge, just muddling through until owner Roman Abramovich appoints the 10th manager of his ruthless regime. Benitez’s verbal attack on Chelsea fans at Middlesbrough, moments after the club had progressed to an FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester United, took everyone at Chelsea by surprise.

It was premeditated, a calculated gamble after he sensed he had lost the support of the players and key personnel at the club, as well as that of the Chelsea fans.

Chief executive Ron Gourlay, the grim reaper for a succession of Chelsea managers, arrived at the training ground shortly after lunch for some serious talking. He was there, according to the official line, for talks about commercial contracts with players. But Thursday was all about Benitez.

As the players waited in the changing room to go out for a short, sharp warm-down, they poked fun at Benitez while watching repeats of his meltdown on Sky News.

Benitez acted as though nothing had happened, calling the squad together for a brief session designed to shake the tension from tired legs after their 2-0 win at the Riverside.

Their casual session was watched by technical director Michael Emenalo — a man routinely referred to as Barry Manilow by the players — before the pair met, privately, for clear-the-air talks.

On Tuesday, when Benitez had left the training ground with the players to travel by plane to Teesside, he was already aware something was brewing.

Unusually, chairman Bruce Buck had decided not to travel to the game and Emenalo, another regular presence at matches, remained in London. It was a sign Chelsea had made their move for another manager and Benitez’s radar was on to it by the time they were taxiing down the runway at Gatwick.

The players sense change, too, and for weeks the dressing room has been gripped with anxiety and animosity as they prepare for yet another managerial departure.

There is already distance between Emenalo and Benitez, but a bigger concern is the growing gap between the players and the manager.

It escalated in the dressing room at the Etihad Stadium last Sunday after Chelsea had been beaten by Manchester City. In a brief post-match analysis following Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat by Roberto Mancini’s team, John Terry forcefully voiced opinions about his continued omission from the team.

With the exception of Benitez, the rest of the squad believed the exchange had been made in the heat of the moment following a defeat in a big match.

The following morning, when the players made their way out to the training pitches, it was clear the pair had yet to put aside their differences. Benitez began the discussion and Terry responded when the manager gathered the squad in a circle before training.

A robust exchange followed, with members of the squad jumping in to defend the captain’s views.

Senior players have spoken to the manager and told him the training is not good enough for a club of Chelsea’s ambitions. Saliva tests for the players tell Benitez whether to increase workload or decrease it. Terry just wants to play.

When Benitez told them their attitude and application was ‘the reason so many managers have been sacked’, one player responded by telling him the team won the Champions League last season.

During the confrontation Benitez also confirmed, as if it were needed, that he would be ‘leaving in three months’. Few will stop to say goodbye. Even Fernando Torres, the club’s £50million striker, is unlikely to say adios after suffering another alarming crisis of confidence.

He has become withdrawn again, isolated from the squad and largely conversing in Spanish with his friend Yossi Benayoun and countryman Juan Mata.

Individual players have spoken with Benitez about his training methods and tactics, but their comments have been largely ignored. The atmosphere is hostile, particularly after a run of results that threatens the owner’s ambition of finishing in the top four and guaranteeing Champions League football for the new manager.

The only noticeable trend of late has been an increasing number of visits to the club doctor after the appointment of a pretty young nurse. Serious surgery is required on the squad, but the operation to remove Benitez as manager began some time ago.

For supporters it began the day he was appointed to replace Champions League-winning manager Roberto Di Matteo after they were beaten by Juventus in November. In spite of systematic and sometimes awful personal abuse from fans, all designed to break Benitez’s resolve, Chelsea attempted to clarify their position this week.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...yers-rant.html

[dom9]

Worth a read...

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...a-8515815.html

It is.

Anyne who thinks that Rafa's remarks were anything less than completely calculated clearly has absolutley no understanding of the man.

[dom9]

The only noticeable trend of late has been an increasing number of visits to the club doctor after the appointment of a pretty young nurse.

[Frenchie]

I don't know what all the fuss is about, he went there for money, ten million reasons to suffer abuse and get called names for a few months work. No brainer really and now he is clever enough to piss them all off and get himself the heave ho albeit with a severance.

Sure his reputation has taken a knock but he is set up for life.

He will move on and hopefully the scum at Chelsea, fans, players and owners alike will all contract ebola and have an excruciating demise.