Koeman would be fecking awful tbh. That would be a proper Ashley appointment, someone who's been sacked from his last few jobs and is out of work and on the **** heap.
Ten Hag up to 12/1 from 22/1 now. Fonseca still favourite at 5/2, nice to see Lampard finally sliding down the odds.
Context is important I think here. I think if you look at the squad in comparison to those around at the time, it was still pretty much one of the best 3 in the league. Look at the defence, it was a perfect blend of experience and new blood. Cech, Terry, Cahill, Aspilicueta, Ivanovic, Cole, Ake, Bertrand, Ferreira, Luiz. In midfield you still had Lampard who was still more than useful despite being 34 (he played a major part in the following season), Malouda, Hazard, Mata, Ramires, Oscar, Moses. They were a bit light up front but it was still comfortably one of the best in the league. In reality it was an extremely harsh sacking of Di Matteo. He basically got booted because of a 4 game run in the league where he lost to Man U, drew with Liverpool and Swansea, lost to WBA and then got knocked out the CL. It was a perfect storm. Sadly for him Roman was by that stage far too high off the previous CL win so that exit was seen as criminal. When he left they were 3rd and 3 points off 2nd, 4 points off 1st. Man U finished 14 points clear of Chelsea so Benitez achieved little in the league. They'd fallen a step behind the top teams in terms of personnel, but no further than 3rd. Hence the CL was more of a struggle and they found Shaktar tricky who only fell to eventual finalists Dortmund and who also had two extremely tight group games with Juventus. But once dumped into the Europa, they found the level far easier and only really had to deal with Benfica in the final. A Benfica side who knocked us out that year for context. Good but hardly Chelsea. He did well, but he got a really sweet deal if truth be told.
Anyone but Bruce would include Lampard, Chris Wilder, Scott Parker, and any other clown managing to currently find their way into our manager odds.
Avoid Koeman like the plague. Sadly his management skills don't match his playing skills. His teams are ****ing awful. He sums up everything Barca have done wrong in recent years.
Di Matteo was never anything other than a stop gap; after he won the Champs League and the FA Cup against absolutely all expectations, Abramovich only gave him a longer contract so he could be guaranteed a nice pay off for the unexpected success he'd had. Benitez had an excellent record there in the face of massive hostility, especially considering how big names such as Scholari and AVB failed there.
What's happening in the takeover thread BTW? This thread appears to have become our local boozer now instead of that one. And are the Mackems still in the Warm Glow thread?
The makems have been crying and having tantrums, but they've started to go quiet as the reality settles in. They're a defeated force.. They can only kick and scream it's all they've got left.
He didn't improve them in the league and he had a soft touch Europa League. He then left. Good job, no more. Would Di Matteo have finished 3rd? Well we can only go off the evidence. Di Matteo - 7 wins 3 draws 2 defeats Benitez - 15 wins 6 draws 5 defeats Di Matteo looked set for a similar if not better haul. Of course he'd have had to turn round the bad run but with the players he had, this was possible. Would he have won the Europa League? You would have thought so with who they came up against but its cup comp so Benitez deserves credit regardless of oppo. So unless we are saying Di Matteo had an excellent record there, I don't think we can say Benitez did. Mind they did enjoy some great performances under him. Reminds me of when he nearly kept us up, great short term and reasonably attacking. Then revert to type after. Maybe that's where his expertise now lies, he's the new Sam Allardyce.
They've had the initial outburst, but now they're entering into the acceptance phase. Their lives have been destroyed emotionally forever. The real die hard fans will be struggling to cope with daily activities. The best part is that it'll just keep getting worse and worse for them.. It'll take them years to fully accept.
I'm really enjoying getting off on the ones saying " I'd rather be where we are than have those owners" Haha that's when you know a person is utterly defeated
Di Matteo was obviously never the flash big name that Abramovich wants to show off his club as the biggest in the world, he was never anything other than someone who filled in for a few months when needed. Ditto Lampard, RA only went for him cos no one else was available.
They still have their never ending Mags thread on their board, talk about living free in their minds. I used to have fun spinning them around when they tried to form a clique in the Warm Glow thread, but they've done a runner from there now.