It was when we needed to focus on getting to top four. It would've been nice to have won but there were far more pressing issues that faced this club in my opinion.

As for me devaluing trophies, I very much enjoyed the League Cup Final thank you very much.

In December? Have to agree to disagree there. We may never get to play in a CWC again and it would have been special to win it. I think at that time there wasn't any need to worry about league position just yet.

Enjoying it is fine we all did but you were an advocat for resting players in the LC final to concentrate on league matches. Which I still say was a daft thing to say about a cup final.

Edited April 22, 201511 yr by Bobbywoodhogan

And his job was to completely balls up a cup semi against Swansea?

 

We're not entitled to win every cup competition known to man 

 

Ivan had a mare and cost us two away goals. Mourinho, described as "The best manager in the world" on another thread, lost a 2-0 lead to Bradford who are two leagues below us. sh*t happens. 

No, he's a c**t!

 

He's a c**t who could have done far worse which could have lead more serious ramifications on our club. A season out of the top four for example. 

Robbie was a one-dimensional manager who was found out after a good start and saw us eliminated from the CL, but that's not really his fault. The mistake was hiring a manager who was vastly out of his depth.

When that realisation dawned then it became an issue of who could get us top four at the end of the season - that was the only target and Rafa managed it. No point rehashing the past though because we ended up with the best manager in the world back and a far more focussed, organised structure going forwards.

I actually agree with you on Robbie but he had earned his shot I felt. I knew it wouldn't work out though but Benitez replacing him was just an awful feeling. It was hard to enjoy that period apart from a few matches including EL final.

Can people just not accept that he did his job?

Finished 3rd with a European Trophy. Arsenal fans would bite your hand off for that. All attained with no pre-season. A job well done in my opinion. Fair play to him.

Of course he did his job but he also did a lot of negative things. However I think it might be best to move on, he brought us a trophy which was great and then left as we all wanted.

As I said, if chelsea fans think he did a good job, I respect their opinion, even if I don't agree with them...(that should go both ways). people from outside however telling me how I should feel can go fcuk themselves..

What's your opinion on how he treated that club doctor?

I don't know to be honest, I know him and Dr. Muller hve been having problems with each other since Pep arrived so this was no surprise but I can say Pep has every right to mad since half the squad looks like it has been wiped out by a plague.....

Speaking of fsw, this is hilarious

http://bit.ly/RafaCake

In December? Have to agree to disagree there. We may never get to play in a CWC again and it would have been special to win it. I think at that time there wasn't any need to worry about league position just yet.

Enjoying it is fine we all did but you were an advocat for resting players in the LC final to concentrate on league matches. Which I still say was a daft thing to say about a cup final.

 

Because the league is paramount, in both instances, for the future of this club. Not going to go over old arguments again though.

 

And I think we'll play in the Club World Cup when we win the Champions League next, and we'll be rightfully viewed as the best team in the world.

Because the league is paramount, in both instances, for the future of this club. Not going to go over old arguments again though.

And I think we'll play in the Club World Cup when we win the Champions League next, and we'll be rightfully viewed as the best team in the world.

Playing in it again is fine if it happens but then we could have had two in our cabinet.

I don't know to be honest, I know him and Dr. Muller hve been having problems with each other since Pep arrived so this was no surprise but I can say Pep has every right to mad since half the squad looks like it has been wiped out by a plague.....

I don't think he had every right to treat a staff member that way at all. Thought it was disgraceful.

Think PSG needed to see this video before playing barca...this is how you fight in the cl...not first time I have posted it on here, but gives me chills every time

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_vwHbR5Ag

Think PSG needed to see this video before playing barca...this is how you fight in the cl...not first time I have posted it on here, but gives me chills every time

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_vwHbR5Ag

 

Quite possibly the most incredible game I've ever seen. 

I'm not even bothered I'll admit I don't hate Rafa as much as I used too. Not saying I warmed to him but from watching all his press conferences here he took a lot onboard and dealt with it well. Didn't see him blaming anybody else all the time like AVB was, he also out of most of our managers we've had since Roman actually played a lot of youth which was an exciting thing to see. Even if the 70th minute subs were so predictable at times. It was great to see Ake get a lot of gametime, Piazon played when he could also.

 

He done the job, didn't do a tremendous job in my opinion but he did the job. I mean we had 2 easy cups to win that season and somehow we didn't win them. Capital one cup was a very easy route we screwed that up and don't even get me started on the club world cup. We lost some embarrassing games too but we did United over whenever we played them.

 

All in all it wasn't really that bad, I think it would have been a lot worse if we had kept Di Matteo for the rest of the season, quality manager but not sure if he was up to the task.

Think PSG needed to see this video before playing barca...this is how you fight in the cl...not first time I have posted it on here, but gives me chills every time

Cheers, can never tire of that, but it's still not good for my ticker. Even now I get over excited.

Robbie was a one-dimensional manager who was found out after a good start and saw us eliminated from the CL, but that's not really his fault. The mistake was hiring a manager who was vastly out of his depth.

 

When that realisation dawned then it became an issue of who could get us top four at the end of the season - that was the only target and Rafa managed it. No point rehashing the past though because we ended up with the best manager in the world back and a far more focussed, organised structure going forwards.

 

Benitez is a pretty one-dimensional manager himself who didn't even have a good start and got us eliminated from, what, four competitions? I doubt Di Matteo would have done much worse. I'm confident he could have somehow navigated our way past Steaua Bucharest and Rubin Kazan. You never know, he might even got us a point at home to QPR, not lost 2-0 at home to Swansea, or found a way to beat an average side like Corinthians to win a trophy we've never won before. We'd have also been spared the sight of a Chelsea manager grinning and waving at the Kop.

 

Fine if you think he did a good job. Clearly a number of posters here disagree with that. I remember no tangible improvement on Robbie, lots of crap results and performances and we just scraped CL qualification with one game left of the season with a big helping hand from Benteke. Winning the EL was nice, obviously, but it has to be said the standard of opposition was poor and doesn't cover up what was otherwise a pretty ordinary season performance wise. So yes I get tired of constantly hearing from non-Chelsea fans with their own agendas how brilliant he was.

 

Just as a final thought. Two years after Rafa decided JT wasn't good enough for us any more, JT is at the heart of a team on the verge of winning the league, while Rafa is on the verge of being ditched by the 5th best team in Italy, who were the 2nd best when he arrived.

Benitez is a pretty one-dimensional manager himself who didn't even have a good start and got us eliminated from, what, four competitions? I doubt Di Matteo would have done much worse. I'm confident he could have somehow navigated our way past Steaua Bucharest and Rubin Kazan. You never know, he might even got us a point at home to QPR, not lost 2-0 at home to Swansea, or found a way to beat an average side like Corinthians to win a trophy we've never won before. We'd have also been spared the sight of a Chelsea manager grinning and waving at the Kop.

 

 

He may well have done. Hard to know but I think Benitez at least instilled a bit more discipline in the side. Let's face it, we had an awful midfield then but I liked the way Hazard progressed under him. I also enjoyed seeing Nathan Ake given a chance. But yeah, the QPR game was terrible.

 

 

Fine if you think he did a good job. Clearly a number of posters here disagree with that. I remember no tangible improvement on Robbie, lots of crap results and performances and we just scraped CL qualification with one game left of the season with a big helping hand from Benteke. Winning the EL was nice, obviously, but it has to be said the standard of opposition was poor and doesn't cover up what was otherwise a pretty ordinary season performance wise. So yes I get tired of constantly hearing from non-Chelsea fans with their own agendas how brilliant he was.

 

 

I think sometimes people underestimate just how poorly this club was run, probably from Mourinho's sacking right up until the signing of Torres. Credit where it's due, we've turned it around marvellously but I don't think Rafa did anything more than a decent job. 

 

I have no doubt that a lot of posters disagree and I'm sure the support at the Bridge would be split too. 

 

 

Just as a final thought. Two years after Rafa decided JT wasn't good enough for us any more, JT is at the heart of a team on the verge of winning the league, while Rafa is on the verge of being ditched by the 5th best team in Italy, who were the 2nd best when he arrived.

 

He was wrong about JT. Not the first time he's proven the doubters wrong.

Edited April 22, 201511 yr by Blue Daze

Tbh I'd have liked to have seen RDM given longer as we always normally play sh*t in November anyway. But it was the CL group stage that lost him his job.

It was, but think many chelsea sides would have found it hard against juve and Shakhtar that season...not saying it should have happened, but wasn't like we were facing Maribor etc

I can never ever warm to Benitez, the guy thought that Terry was finished and said he couldn't play more than 1 game a week anymore, he's full of sh*t.If he had remained our manager we wouldn't be where we are now Terry would probably have retired. Just thinking about it makes me feel a bit sick inside.

And I felt sick every time I saw him in the dugout, at press conferences, anywhere near anything Chelsea in fact. I looked at BBC sport pages constantly hoping to see he'd been sacked. I couldn't enjoy matches. I was miserable.

It was, but think many chelsea sides would have found it hard against juve and Shakhtar that season...not saying it should have happened, but wasn't like we were facing Maribor etc

 

We got ten points, which is usually enough to qualify for the next round. Didn't it come down to one goal in the end? And bear in mind that City finished bottom of their group without a single win.

And I felt sick every time I saw him in the dugout, at press conferences, anywhere near anything Chelsea in fact. I looked at BBC sport pages constantly hoping to see he'd been sacked. I couldn't enjoy matches. I was miserable.

 

I barely went to any games that season. I f*cking hated it to be quite honest. I didn't look forward to any games, I simply dreaded them.

 

Winning the Europa League was good but it was a mediocre season overall. I'm still annoyed we didn't win the COC or the CWC seeing as we were clearly the best team remaining in both competitions.

We got ten points, which is usually enough to qualify for the next round. Didn't it come down to one goal in the end? And bear in mind that City finished bottom of their group without a single win.

It was blowing the two goal lead v juve in the first game which really came back to bite us

That season was toxic at the Bridge. Remember some people wanting us to lose games so that Rafa would get sacked, including the match at Leeds which just beggared belief. 

 

My view was that it was sh*t that it happened but it wasn't going to change so we might as well get behind the team, yet some persisted with that sh*t chant which was totally their right but probably didn't help with results. Rafa made some bad tactical moves, but there were some good moments that season like the United game at home in the FA Cup or the Europa League Final, or the promotion of Ake to the first-team squad, or doing Leeds 5-1 at their place, beating United in the league at Old Trafford, seeing Lamps beat the record and in light of that you could say Rafa did an adequate job.

 

That's why I think some supporters thawed towards him. I always thought the offence taken at the flags comment was a bit funny and was reminded of it when the club put out flags before both the League Cup Final and PSG match.  

Yeah and I'm not saying Robbie should have been sacked because of our CL failure but I think that's why he ultimately was