You can feel even a little bit of compassion towards someone even if it's their own mess. The stress of being a football manager is immense, never mind when the entirety of your own team's fanbase are against you and the media are piling on huge amounts of pressure. You'd have to have very thick skin to be ok with that.
Benitez to Chelsea Discussion & Sack watch
- Thread starter KM
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
You can feel even a little bit of compassion towards someone even if it's their own mess. The stress of being a football manager is immense, never mind when the entirety of your own team's fanbase are against you and the media are piling on huge amounts of pressure. You'd have to have very thick skin to be ok with that.
He knew the score before he took the job. This short posting will have paid him millions of pounds. Feel sorry for workers in HMV who are about to lose their jobs, feel sorry for those who can't find a job in the worst global depression in 70 years.
Don't waste your compassion on someone who knew exactly what he was getting himself into, who is being made even richer in the process and made a lot of the bed he is now lying in with his outspoken comments/proclamations at Liverpool, eg. "I would never manage Chelsea"
Lets be fair. Rafa has a 100% record for us in the CL
I'm sure there's someone, somewhere peddling that!
Im not even sure I want him there until the end of the season now, as Im fed up for his post match interviews already.
Lets be fair. Rafa has a 100% record for us in the CL
I'm sure there's someone, somewhere peddling that!
Probably Rafa.
Lets be fair. Rafa has a 100% record for us in the CL
I'm sure there's someone, somewhere peddling that!
Im not even sure I want him there until the end of the season now, as Im fed up for his post match interviews already.
Which brings us back to the same question, apart from a mercenary, who would go there?
So looks like FSW will be there for next season as well, if Mou doesn't make a surprise return that is.
How could they justify it? His form has been far worse than the "blip" which got Di Matteo sacked. He has lost us the World Club Cup and we are sailing out of the Capital One Cup.
Every single competition he has been brought in to contest, he has fecked up - apart from the FA Cup (and it's still early days there - I'd wager money we don't win it).
Never mind the poisonous atmosphere around the club that his presence causes, on performance grounds alone how can it be justified?
2 wins from 8 at home, terrible form.
Why do the bookies rate him so surely to be not be fired before they knew about Peps choice? Seems strange to me that back so highly
I remember the endless threads about the Glazer's a few years ago. There were several posters who'd say things like "better the devil you know" and "who's to say new owners wouldn't be worse". At that point (and even now) I was of the opinion that it would be difficult to have worse owners.
If I were a Chelsea fan I'd end up supporting Abramovich, even with his craziness. You won't change his endless quest for instant, constant success, but at least his positives outweigh his negatives. Chelsea will roughly break even with the new TV deal, if you discount transfer fee's. I highly doubt many Chelsea fans would trade the circus for an inevitably big decline in quality, as without an owner who put in some good investment you'd need to sell to buy. If he left in the Summer you'd still have RDM, but wouldn't have Oscar or Hazard, that's for sure.
Was thinking the same. I think it's a good lay on Betfair.
I have been very tempted too, but just wonder if they know something I don't, its rare to see them put the odds up by that much with only knowing what we know.. perhaps Rafa has pics of Bromovic's sneaky Russian wheeling deeling
I have been very tempted too, but just wonder if they know something I don't, its rare to see them put the odds up by that much with only knowing what we know.. perhaps Rafa has pics of Bromovic's sneaky Russian wheeling deeling
Mourinho has gone into 5/4 favourite with Stan James. If we go out to Swansea and lose to Arsenal which is perfectly possible in this vain of form, expect Benitez to go out to 5+.
A lot of times he has been proven right with his sackings and managerial turn around, but its different this time in that before he replaced them with interim managers that were competent and likable.
Joses sacking was obviously the worst one, and Grant, although poorly received by fans was still capable of carrying on the nucleus of Joses work and went one better in the CL than Jose could with us.
Hiddink gave us an FA cup and again regrouped us after Scolaris mess.
RDM did a similar job after AVB came to us a few seasons too early.
I liked Ancelotti a lot too, he was a good manager who helped us win our first double, not to mention a respectable person. I doubt many on here really had negative views on the man as a person?
Benitez though almost seems like a ' feck you' to the fans. Even if he won us a cup, which seems unlikely and keeps us in the top 3 or 4, its still not right. He is the wrong person, a disagreeable oaf, a gigantic tampon if you will. A master of how not to win leagues and trophies by the worst kind of inconsistency.
If RDM was in charge and the recent results had been a loss to Everton and Draw at Stoke between wins against QPR and Southampton and Swansea we would not be talking about how incompetent he was. However winning games that are hard then not winning the home bankers is a gross sign of mismanagement, and exactly what held Liverpool back when they actually had a title winning team in 2009.
I get all this. Just to be clear, I am no Rafa Benitez fan and never have been, and any sympathy I have for him at the moment doesn't mean anyone else is being left out.
Just think it's quite sad watching an interview and seeing a man looking pretty broken when it really is just football. I am sure he will get over it sharply with that massive paycheck like you say, though.I get all this. Just to be clear, I am no Rafa Benitez fan and never have been, and any sympathy I have for him at the moment doesn't mean anyone else is being left out.
I hate the phrase "it's just football". Normally uttered to you by your Aunt or some kind of other ignorant matriarch when your team lost and you were absolutely gutted about it as a kid.
It's not just football.
I have been very tempted too, but just wonder if they know something I don't, its rare to see them put the odds up by that much with only knowing what we know.. perhaps Rafa has pics of Bromovic's sneaky Russian wheeling deeling
Remember what also affects the odds, is where the money is being bet. You get alot of people all putting down bets on a manager being fired, then the bookies will change the odds so that they can get more money being bet teh other way. Ideally they balance the betting out so that no matter what the outcome they still make a profit.
Not saying they might not have inside info, but that betting patterns matter quite a bit also. Every summer we see some players odds on transferring to some club take a wild swing and it turns out to be because of the betting patterns not because of inside info as the player ends up at some other club.
I know he'd had a tendancy to mess things up in recent years. But I really don't think the chav fans are helping atall.
Wilkins was on earlier saying the hostile atmosphere will be transferring to the players on the pitch. Might explain their poor home record under him.
Wilkins was on earlier saying the hostile atmosphere will be transferring to the players on the pitch. Might explain their poor home record under him.
good way to try and get the supporters to lighten up. Now you will have some supporters saying "Hey guys let's give Rafa a break, we are hurting the team, Wilkins said so."
A. Men. To. That.
"It's only a game"...that used to piss me off!
It is just football to be fair, although that's not to say there isn't some other sort of self-derived significance in being a football fan. I have no idea what I'd do without United - I keep thinking it's no longer that big a fixture in my life, only to then laugh at how much time I spend on here whilst looking towards the games as great highlights of my week.
Funny though when you step back and think about what it actually all is. Say in the instance of Benitez, you have tens of thousands of people furiously pissed off with a manager who, 5 whole years ago, made a few comments that these people didn't like about a business that they would claim is 'theirs': a business that people pay in order to see a group of players that most likely have very little concern for the people watching them, and with whom there is basically no genuine affiliation other than the money that is being paid.
Not the most romantic outlook and perhaps a bit of a cliche intellectualisation, but you could be forgiven for agreeing with the Aunt that the emotions we feel as football fans are most likely pretty irrational at times.
"It's only a game"...that used to piss me off!
It is just football to be fair, although that's not to say there isn't some other sort of self-derived significance in being a football fan. I have no idea what I'd do without United - I keep thinking it's no longer that big a fixture in my life, only to then laugh at how much time I spend on here whilst looking towards the games as great highlights of my week.
Funny though when you step back and think about what it actually all is. Say in the instance of Benitez, you have tens of thousands of people furiously pissed off with a manager who, 5 whole years ago, made a few comments that these people didn't like about a business that they would claim is 'theirs': a business that people pay in order to see a group of players that most likely have very little concern for the people watching them, and with whom there is basically no genuine affiliation other than the money that is being paid.
Not the most romantic outlook and perhaps a bit of a cliche intellectualisation, but you could be forgiven for agreeing with the Aunt that the emotions we feel as football fans are most likely pretty irrational at times.
Like any kind of love, loving your football club is utterly irrational which is partly what contributes to the beauty of the feeling and bond between supporter and club.
True, that's a much more positive way of looking at it instead of the blunt and soulless way I put it in that second paragraph.
Edit: Although it's fair to say Chelsea fans don't seem very loving currently! Love produces strong emotions, I suppose...
Edit: Although it's fair to say Chelsea fans don't seem very loving currently! Love produces strong emotions, I suppose...
Love the club, hate what's happening to it seems to be the ethos at the moment.
If Di Matteo was the heart and soul of the club, a legend who had delivered the FA Cup as a player and again as a manager, along with the European Cup, gets bundled out of the training ground at 4 in the morning by Buck and Gourlay and is replaced by the ultimate footballing mercenary who had disrespected the club, the fans and vowed never to manage here until he found himself on the dole for 3 years and had a change of heart - well, it's going to take away a little bit of the romance, sadly.
People are rightly pissed off with the way that the shambolic way that the club is run.
I don't understand the mercenary thing. Sacked at Liverpool, sacked at Inter. Is he going to turn down a Chelsea job after years of unemployment/blogging?
No, of course not. But when the sun was shining, he came out and made comments like "I would never manage Chelsea out of respect to Liverpool".
He is someone who has no affinity with our club who replaced a man who is one of the most important men in our history who had delivered the impossible, from the position that he took over.
He didn't do the replacing, the owner did. Let's be real, if a club hire and fire managers regularly there aren't going to be many with this affinity.
Seems to me the structures in place are the issue and not the manager but he seems to be taking the brunt of the abuse. Which is possibly what is translating into the poor results seen thus far.
Rafa will have to take some time off soon, as there's a new Wordpress update on the horizon.
It is a complete disaster, no doubt. The managers are not allowed a single season of 'failure' in a league you have been competing for with the likes of City, Arsenal and United. Less in Di Matteo's case and after THAT victory, too. It is the most ridiculously unreasonable set of expectations.
Chelsea fans' love for Rafa is amazing.
It's a shite phrase to be fair. I wonder how they would feel if I said, "it's just a reality TV show", "it's just the X factor".
We all have our tastes. So annoying when women do that.
It is annoying and whether after a bad result on TV or when you're injured and can't play in real life.I had a broken toe nail which got infected and prevented from playing football for a month, my friends and family members were all saying 'it's just football bla bla ..' I wanted to strangle them
If Liverpool brought him back in they might just be improving their management situation.
It really is a strange dichotomy. When I went to the states, I overheard some parents laughing over their kid supporting a team here in England because the team is in England.
"Why does he get so upset when they're so many miles away? It's not like he can join in with the atmosphere"
Poor chap
Just heard on sky sports, Rafa has far and away the worst lose% and most games lost of any manager under Abramovich …. Brillaint!
But he has all the stats that we are making progress in many areas apparantly. Apart from in World Club Cup finals, the COC and the league. Apparantly we're creating more chances, according to OPTA.
fecking snake oil salesman he is.
I don't hate him personally, I can even forgive some of the comments he made in the heat of battle years ago but I simply don't rate him as a manager. He's the only manager of another club that I've heard the crowd at Stamford Bridge sing "we want you to stay, Rafa Benitez, we want you to stay" when he was imperiled at Liverpool, dragging them down to mid-table from where they would never recover.
Who had the last laugh.
Swap deal for Brendog Rodgers? Makes sense for everyone.
rafalution in full swing now.....
rafa must surely be leading in the Net Spend area...
I don't know. Liverpool are already mediocre. Do we really want them in the bottom half now?