[Archived] Roberto Di Matteo

[Majiball]

It would be quite funny to see Guardiola at Chelsea and Jose at United carrying on the rivalry.

[Hanks]

Just been confirmed that it is Benitez until the end of the season

[Majiball]

Rafa .......................................................... Droopy

[BRFC1995]

about the most mental and unpopular appointment that could have been made.............Roman following the venkys rulebook on how to alienate your fans

Quality of football is about to drop at chelsea..........gone by march

http://until-rafa-goes.co.uk

Chelsea forums are amazing right now utter vent your spleen anger and hatred of the man........christ i hope some of these were kean sympathisers getting they're medicine now

[RevidgeBlue]

What a shocking appointment Benitez is. even on a short term basis.

The Spanish waiter will soon flood the Bridge out with mediocre Spanish players and have Chelsea competing for the Europa League spots if his time at Anfield is anything to go by.

[jim mk2]

Abramovich sees Benitez as the man to get the best out of his £50m investment in Torres. The appointment is very unpopular with Chelsea fans who remember him criticising their club when he was at Anfield. Chelsea fans have always been yobs in suits - couldn't happen to a nicer lot.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

What a shocking appointment Benitez is. even on a short term basis.

The Spanish waiter will soon flood the Bridge out with mediocre Spanish players and have Chelsea competing for the Europa League spots if his time at Anfield is anything to go by.

I swear he got them to 2 Champions League Finals and they even challenged for the title once. He won La Liga with Valencia....twice. He wasn't good at Inter but they had an aging squad...Mourinho had won the treble with it before but that's Mourinho....I rate Benitez as a manager....signed a few duds but who hasn't.....Luis Garcia, Alonso, Maxi Rodriguez, Skrtel, Benayoun, Lucas and Torres were good signings.....very, very good in some cases.

People say he never replaced Xabi Alonso but he did....Aquilani just got injured and never settled.

Great article I've just found on Benitez - http://tomkinstimes....cts-and-record/

Abramovich sees Benitez as the man to get the best out of his £50m investment in Torres. The appointment is very unpopular with Chelsea fans who remember him criticising their club when he was at Anfield. Chelsea fans have always been yobs in suits - couldn't happen to a nicer lot.

That was my thinking....Di Matteo would be off in the summer anyway and he clearly can't get the best out of Torres.

Benitez apparently said this once -

"Chelsea is a big club with fantastic players, every manager wants to coach a such a big team. I would never take that job, in respect for my former team at Liverpool, no matter what. For me there is only club in England, and that's Liverpool."

Agree with your view on Chelsea fans.

[Audax]

Even though Benitez and Fernando are from the same country, I thought there was a dispute/bad relations between the two.

But I'm all for giving someone a second chance and Benitez has the accolades.

DiMatteo won the CL with Chelsea. In that I enjoyed it seeing that before that he got West Brom promoted and was sacked from their the following year.

Awful sacking.

Di Matteo is one class act.

I think I agree with this!

[neekoy]

Di Matteo will walk into another club, Harry mightn't have QPR sealed yet

[CapeTownRover]

we need a coach

[yoda]

Don't know why all those Chelski fans are getting wound up, it is a tempory gig for the fat waiter because coco is playing hard ball with Roman, who realising that coco is the "man" has agreed to give coco time to think it over until he can see what he can do there.

[Black Burn]

If this happened before Kean left, would anyone fancy giving Roberto di Matteo a chance at the helm of Blackburn Rovers? This is just a "what if" question, by the way, and I would never trade him for Henning Berg, but I was thinking that while everyone slates Roman Abrovmich for sacking his manager without giving him a chance, is anyone on here willing to give him one?

[Amo]

If this happened before Kean left, would anyone fancy giving Roberto di Matteo a chance at the helm of Blackburn Rovers? This is just a "what if" question, by the way, and I would never trade him for Henning Berg, but I was thinking that while everyone slates Roman Abrovmich for sacking his manager without giving him a chance, is anyone on here willing to give him one?

Was just about to pose the same question.

Honestly? I *think* I'd take a CL winning manager over Berg. And that's nothing against Henning.

Let's not forget that Di Matteo has also done the business in this league.

[OJRovers]

Chelsea fans can't moan at Abromovich after the amount of money he has put in and still has to put in every month to keep them solvent.

The price you pay is that he can do what he wants.

I still think its harsh on RDM, he'll walk into another job soon enough.

Its going to be interesting seeing the media reaction (Sky Sports panel / Talkshit in particular) to the Chelsea 'RAFA OUT' protests which have already started.

[Mike E]

Chelsea fans can't moan at Abromovich after the amount of money he has put in and still has to put in every month to keep them solvent.

The price you pay is that he can do what he wants.

I still think its harsh on RDM, he'll walk into another job soon enough.

Its going to be interesting seeing the media reaction (Sky Sports panel / Talkshit in particular) to the Chelsea 'RAFA OUT' protests which have already started.

It's not their fault he spends 70million on changing managers, though. Agreed on the hypocrisy of the media (as always).

[joey_big_nose]

Was just about to pose the same question.

Honestly? I *think* I'd take a CL winning manager over Berg. And that's nothing against Henning.

Let's not forget that Di Matteo has also done the business in this league.

I don't think a Champions League winner manager would step down to the Championship, no matter how he was sacked. Someone, at the very least, like Swansea would have given him a crack in the summer if Roman had sacked him then.

[K-Hod]

Daft decision, but RDM was only ever a stop gap IMO.

Abramovich should probably work on the longevity of the club with the academy et al, rather than just chopping and changing everything all the time.....

[cn174]

Maybe Sparky should resign again and go chasing after the job once again!

[Gumbi]

It will be interesting to see what the media and other managers say about the Chelsea fans when then start their anti Rafa chants this weekend.

Edit: Didn't see that it had already been mentioned. Sorry.

[Black Burn]

Maybe Sparky should resign again and go chasing after the job once again!

After his disaster at Queen Park Rangers? I hardly think so. He'll be lucky to remain manager as QPR, as a matter of fact.

To think at one point of time he was being touted as the successor to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. How the mighty has fallen. He was my favorite Blackburn Rovers manager though (Kenny Daglish doesn't count because I only became a fan 10 years ago or so), and I wouldn't mind seeing him at the helm of Rovers - but I guess if you ask me now I'll pick Henning Berg over him.

[ABBEY]

Rafa .......................................................... Droopy

WE ALL KNOW THE REAL RAFA

[bluebruce]

Stupid decision to sack Di Matteo. Stupid decision to hire Benitez. He's such a poor manager.

[Black Burn]

Stupid decision to sack Di Matteo. Stupid decision to hire Benitez. He's such a poor manager.

I would argue that Benitez isn't a poor manager. His achievements are there for all to see. What he did at Valencia and Liverpool were amazing. A poor manager would be Steve Kean, and a few months ago if you said Kean was resigning to make way for Benitez I think most of us would go crazy with joy. On the other hand, I personally dislike Benitez's tactics and style, so I understand why Chelsea fans are unhappy with his appointment. But hey, at least they didn't get Avram Grant. I was laughing my head off when they speculated that Grant might return for a second stint at Chelsea. Now that, along with Kean, falls under the category of poor managers. But not Benitez.

[BuckyRover]

I don't think RDM did brilliantly. Chelsea never really played well with him in charge barring the ECL win. But I don't think anyone can say that was anything other than a backs against the wall job (and without Drogba impossible).

I don't think he should have been given the gig in the summer but as has been pointed out he was forced into it due to the cup wins.

Whether or not Benitez is an improvement or not is a different matter. I think he might be but needs to get the support of the fans ASAP to do well.

[bluebruce]

I would argue that Benitez isn't a poor manager. His achievements are there for all to see. What he did at Valencia and Liverpool were amazing. A poor manager would be Steve Kean, and a few months ago if you said Kean was resigning to make way for Benitez I think most of us would go crazy with joy. On the other hand, I personally dislike Benitez's tactics and style, so I understand why Chelsea fans are unhappy with his appointment. But hey, at least they didn't get Avram Grant. I was laughing my head off when they speculated that Grant might return for a second stint at Chelsea. Now that, along with Kean, falls under the category of poor managers. But not Benitez.

No, Kean falls under the category of absolutely awful, atrocious, cataclysmically bad managers. And I'm talking about him being poor as a 'top level club' appointment. Though I personally wouldn't have liked him here as he's an asshole. But what I really hated about him purely as a manager was his constant insistence on playing good strikers out on the right wing when he already had good right wingers. It was retarded in the extreme. Other than that he was alright. Very lucky with his Champions League Final win though, passion and Gerrard carried the day there.