dn997

You will never get an easy game in a significant match at Goodison Park, these days. You just want to damn Benitez if you win and damn him if you fail to. Wouldn't it be just easier for some of you to give up on football for the rest of the season and take a look again in the summer? There is a good chance that your owner will fancy a new boss by then, along with another yacht and a few more Francis Bacon paintings.

If RDM had been appointed just a couple of months ago and had successfully deployed Luiz in midfield and got the results Benitez has, there would be few complaints. I doubt you would be worrying about the Corinthians game, a great deal. In fact, the hyperbole would be as ridiculously over the top as the talking down of Benitez's start is.

Oh, get a grip. He's 34. He's probably got another year left in him, but giving him another contract is not in the interests of the club. He'll spend most of the time on the bench and every time that things aren't going well on the pitch, the crowd will just start chanting for Lampard, undermining the confidence of the guy who is trying to establish himself in that role. It's better to make this his last season. You want to remember him as a player who was always good enough to be on the pitch. If he stays any longer you will just get sporadic and increasingly ineffectual cameo performances. Terry's deal runs out in 2014 and that would be a good time to part company with him, as well.

Looking at it from a neutral's point of view, it just looked a very routine win. When you watch your own side 1-0 up, towards the end of a game, it seems you are hanging on for dear life. To me, Norwich never looked like they were going to score and Chelsea appeared comfortable. Defensively, Chelsea looked very strong. Torres didn't play well and offered little in the way of movement, so it's far too early to say that Benitez has sorted him out. A lot of your players look like they have a goal in them, though, and the shape of the team looks good. It's rare for Holt to be so starved of even half-chances at Carrow Road.

That sentence I've highlighted is both disrespectful and provoctative, but what else can we expect from scousers, plastic or otherwise? Offended by everything ashamed of nothing.We get it ok. The current interim manager was manager of Liverpool when you last won the Champions League.As such he has earned his place in Liverpool history. Never mind the ignormonious manner in which he left Anfield, never mind the even more ignorminious manner in which he was sacked by Inter. And whatever you do don't bother to menion his subsequent inability to gain employment for a period approaching two years. I'm not from Liverpooll, as I pointed out before (perhaps in another thread). The city is one of the best arguments for the return of the workhouse and the low regard which it's citizens are nationally held in is fully justified. I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that Benitez couldn't have found work for 2 years somewhere, although he did live in the North-West, in that time, and might have just fallen in with the wrong crowd. It's easy to get into the habit of just signing on and drinking cider in the park, every day.

As has already been pointed out, it was Drogba who handed the trophy to Abramovich. But don't a little thing like that stand in your way. I remembered that part wrong. My bad. RDM actually just approached RA on the steps, going up to get the cup.

Now Hodgson was welcomed at the start and given respect No he wasn't. He was treated disgracefully by the fans, pretty much from day one. As with Benitez, a few comments were blown up out of all proportion and the fans quickly resorted to playground abuse. Owl Face, Fat Spanish Waiter, blah blah blah. Hodgson was up against it much more than Dalglish was, but he was a Southerner with no previous history with the club. Football fans can be complete morons.

Fata was the only available out there with a CV of any note. Percisely. You couldn't have got anyone else with his pedigree. How can you say "didn't work either" did you not see the name on the European Championship league trophy of FA Cup last season. Because you were playing so badly this season. It wasn't just Torres, although he was awful. Its Torres that was a huge factor in Robbies dismuissal and had he not been given so much leeway, a new striker would have made the results that much better and I think RDM would still be here, then we would be free of not only Benitez but a few WUMs like you as well. RDM had to get Torres playing again, though, and couldn't do it. I don't know if Dalglish had much involvement in either the Suarez or Carroll signings, but he couldn't get them to score the goals Liverpool needed, so was sacked. What a load of Bollocks. I guess the last part of what I wrote was the hardest part for you to argue against, so you just didn't bother.

I voted for Moses. I thought Luiz played OK, but his shooting was a bit wild and ambitious. Also noticed that he didn't make much of an effort to get back when Holt looked through on goal, but was flagged offside. It looked like he was just thinking 'either he scores or he doesn't', rather than getting back to deal with whatever happened after Holt had shot.

How did he con his way into the job? He hasn't achieved as much as AF or JM, but he shares a lot of their qualities and traits. Kenny Dalglish was Liverpool, far more than RDM was Chelsea. That didn't work out either. The fans aren't always right, especially when they let sentiment dictate how they reach a decision. RDM is a classic case of a short-term boss who will come in and be everybody's best mate, raise moral and string a few results together. He is not the sort of man you need to oversee radical change and big decisions that have been put off for too long. Your squad was great, but it got old, very cliquey and with some enormous egos. I think you have bought pretty well, apart from Torres, in the last couple of years, but the team now needs someone in charge who can handle such a major transition. Winning the CL was a huge achievement and RDM deserves a lot of credit. At the start of this season, you were a mess though, frankly. The sticking plaster was peeling off and it was time to call a surgeon in. I'm not saying that Benitez has sorted you out yet, but he is one of the few men capable of doing the job and just about the only one who would accept it, given how many have been through the revolving door in the last 10 years.

It won't get to him. That sort of thing wouldn't get to Mourinho or Ferguson, either. They have the same strength of will, inner confidence and self-belief. It would certainly get to RDM. No way he could handle that sort of thing. You wouldn't see Benitez holding up a trophy to a club owner, like a dog that's just fetched a stick and wants a pat on the head, either.

He bought the club for £1 and sold it for £140million. As far as treating the fans with respect goes, how about calling The Chelsea Independent Supporters Club a bunch of parasites? The club was back in the mire, financially, when RA shipped up to save the club's bacon, after trying to live way beyond it's means, in the years beforehand. If it wasn't Bates, someone else would have seen the opportunity, at the 11th hour. You play on a serious piece of real estate.

There is too much for me to answer there and I've already made my opinions clear. With regard to RA, though, no man has done more for your club in it's entire history. No player and no manager. He could have chosen any number of medium sized top flight clubs across Europe, with medium sized support and not a great amount of success, historically, but he chose yours to spend a billion on. While you can argue that your geographical location was the main reason for this and that his long term plans are still pretty much unknown, he deserves more respect from the fans. The last ten years have been the most successful period in your history. He compares extremely favorably to just about all club owners in the Premiership, over the last ten years. Manchester United and Liverpool have been used as cash cows by their owners, in that time, and are in terrible financial shape. Arsenal have given up on genuinely competing and a pliant supporter base has just been made to accept second best, so the the balance sheet is kept in order. Spurs just keep sacking managers and fail to win anything, despite investing plenty of money. Look at Newcastle, West Ham, Portsmouth, Southampton, Villa and Leeds. These are fairly similar sized clubs to Chelsea and have been run disastrously. Who do you expect to pick up the tab, when he is gone? If generous multi-billionaires were so easy to come by, how come Liverpool and United weren't able to get one? You got one. Man City got one. Thats about it!

No. Even my right hand turned it down and laughed, callously.

He's home in his room.

I'm just interested in football. The game is now about money and statistics. The days of players you could feel a connection with - guys that might be in the bookmakers with you, a couple of hours before kick off and live a lifestyle you could relate to are, sadly, long gone. I kind of look at it all as one big strategy game now. The players and managers as faceless pieces on a board. Benitez is just a powerful piece to have. Just saying that flipping the board up in the air and going off in a sulk is a bit silly really.

I'm not from Liverpool. I don't like Scousers much. Bunch of self-righteous victims, always looking to point the finger of blame at someone else. Not too keen on chavs from South West London, either. Nor the more recent arrivals to your flock, from more fashionable postcodes. Actually, I hate everybody. Even Father Christmas.

I think Paisley achieved a bit more than RDM. Overseeing the final stages of a cup competition doesn't really compare to this... Football League First Division (6): 1975–76, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83 League Cup (3): 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83 FA Charity Shield (6): 1974, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982 European Cup (3): 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81 UEFA Cup (1): 1975–76 UEFA Super Cup (1): 1977 RDM is popular mainly because he used to play for you. He was a pretty average player too.

Mourinho has never shown much interest in going back to a club he has managed before. His eye is always on the next big thing. His job at Madrid was the same as all his predecessors there. Make the club better than Barcelona. Arguably, it's his first taste of failure. Alright then, unarguably, despite enjoying a squad containing Casillas, Contreau, Khedira, Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema, Ozil, Alonso, Essien, Modric, Higuain and many other great players. Madrid are as far behind Barcelona as when he took the job. Whether that alters his career map remains to be seen, but I think it's unlikely.

Well, you've had nine different men in the hotseat, in the last decade. It's a fair bet that you will have someone else to moan about, next Christmas and he won't be around for long, either. Try and enjoy the victories, at least.

I think Chelsea just have to come to terms with Benitez being their manager now. You have 6 pretty tough games to come over the next few weeks. It's unlikely that you will get through all of them, without a defeat, so I guess that there will still be plenty of bad feeling, a month from now. I do think that a lot of fans feel that they went a bit overboard with the abuse towards him, after his appointment. Gradually, fans on this forum seem to be adopting a softer line. It's more annoyance than anger now and some appear to think that perhaps it wasn't the worst move that RA has ever made. With regard to Benitez's comments about plastic flags and passion, it's worth considering how you would have felt if a manager of your club was having a go at other fans, in that way. You would love it, as all football fans would. Having a dig is just part of the game. For what it's worth, I think that both Anfield and Stamford Bridge can get pretty quiet when the home team isn't having things it's own way. When Mourinho was top dog in England, the only manager to really compete with him on a tactical level was Benitez. You can argue about balls crossing the goal line, but getting results against Mourinho's Chelsea in big Champions League games is a huge achievement, when your squad isn't as good as his. Benitez is a hard man to like. He's stubborn, scripted in his media conversations and quite a distant figure. Most of what he does works though. He doesn't always get it right. The players got him out of a hole in the 2005 CL final. There were plenty at Liverpool who were happy to see him go, when he was sacked. Most have changed their mind about that now, though. When he spent big money, he tended to get it right. He made Liverpool a feared team again, for a few years, and nobody else has really managed that, since the 1980s. There really aren't that many good managers around. Most of them don't come across as nice guys you would like to have a pint with. They are winners, obsessively focused and don't really care what people think of them. The same goes for top players. There isn't a team in England that would relish playing Chelsea, next weekend. Few teams looked forward to games with Liverpool when he was in charge, either. I wouldn't pay much attention to what happened at Inter. God knows what was going on at the club during the short time he was there and most managers don't last very long in Italy. To me, it looks like the players at Chelsea are willing to play for Benitez. You have had plenty of managers where that certainly didn't appear to be the case. My guess is that they think that he knows what he is doing and they respect him, even if they don't like him. RDM had a poor start to the season. You knew he would need to have a good one to stand any chance of staying in the job. Chelsea look in better shape than they did a couple of months ago. I think that fans should try and forget about comments made in the heat of battle and just look at the situation logically. You have a very talented manager and are a force, right now.