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Chelsea Fires Di Matteo

seaplus

Well-known member
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Chelsea Football Club has parted company this morning with Manager Roberto Di Matteo.

The team's recent performances and results have not been good enough and the owner and the Board felt that a change was necessary now to keep the club moving in the right direction as we head into a vitally important part of the season.

The club faces a difficult task ahead in qualifying for the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League as well as maintaining a strong challenge for the top of the Premier League while competing in three other cup competitions. Our aim is to remain as competitive as possible and challenge strongly on all fronts.

The owner and the Board would like to thank Roberto for all he has done for the club since taking over in March. Roberto helped guide us to an historic Champions League victory and a seventh FA Cup. We will never forget the huge contribution he has made to this club's history and he will always be welcome at Stamford Bridge.

The club will be making an announcement shortly regarding a new first team manager.

I'm surprised by this move after winning the CL and FA Cup. Surely any great manager is going to have a bad run from time to time, however rare those might be. Will the next guy be worried that the first bump in the road might mean his job? I guess this gives more credit to the reports of arguing and player unrest in the Chelsea locker room.

So who do you think will be the replacement?
 
Rafa is apparently next in line. I think it's a weak move, Rafa will add some structure, but he's certainly not going to play the way Roman wants. RDM is hampered by a £50m striker who is scared to get in the box. There have been some bad results of late, but do you really want to trust Rafa to be the guy to make the buys in January and push on in the league?
 
I'm surprised by this move after winning the CL and FA Cup. Surely any great manager is going to have a bad run from time to time, however rare those might be. Will the next guy be worried that the first bump in the road might mean his job? I guess this gives more credit to the reports of arguing and player unrest in the Chelsea locker room.

So who do you think will be the replacement?

Di Matteo was a glorified first team coach for the FA Cup and Champions League run, it was the senior players driving that ship.

And Di Matteo isn't a great manager, I wouldn't even describe him as a good manager.
 
Di Matteo was a glorified first team coach for the FA Cup and Champions League run, it was the senior players driving that ship.

And Di Matteo isn't a great manager, I wouldn't even describe him as a good manager.

I still think you give him a season and believe he had a big part to play in their success last season.

But I wouldn't consider him great either ... that was regarding possible candidates and managers in general.
 
Rafa is apparently next in line. I think it's a weak move, Rafa will add some structure, but he's certainly not going to play the way Roman wants. RDM is hampered by a £50m striker who is scared to get in the box. There have been some bad results of late, but do you really want to trust Rafa to be the guy to make the buys in January and push on in the league?

I would absolutely want Rafa if I was a Chelsea fan.
 
This is such bullshit. I don't understand even though it was not hard to see coming since Roman is a fuckin turd.

I don't know, its not my club so I don't know all the details on what RDM was or wasn't doing. But from a distance, a FA Cup and a CL title can't seem that bad.

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It was always pretty clear this would happen eventually, RDM would have never gotten the job had he not somehow won the FA Cup and Champions League. I don't understand the fuss with Rafa, he clearly lost the plot in his last few years at Liverpool and completely failed at Inter. Either way, whoever gets it will probably be a placeholder just like RDM until the summer when Pep decides to come back.
 
Very shocked by this move...Sure their CL form this season is butt cheeks, but they looked the best side in the Premier League for the first 10 games or so. Struggling recently, but as everyone in here has said...every team goes through a little rough patch. The guy brought hardware to the club last year and it seems very panicky to fire him this quickly.
 
Official for a bit now, Rafa to be interim manager until the end of the season. We can only guess who takes after that.......
 
Official for a bit now, Rafa to be interim manager until the end of the season. We can only guess who takes after that.......

Pep or Mourinho.

Would've probably been Mourinho in July if they had won the shoot out againt Bayern in the Champions League last season. He's only sticking around until Madrid win the Champions League so he can shove it to the Spanish media and go back to England.
 
Pep or Mourinho.

Would've probably been Mourinho in July if they had won the shoot out againt Bayern in the Champions League last season. He's only sticking around until Madrid win the Champions League so he can shove it to the Spanish media and go back to England.

If I'm Pep, after dealing with the shit show that can be the Barcelona presidential elections and all, do I really want to go to Chelsea?

I think Pep and Mou would both rather go to United when Ferguson retires
 
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No way Jose goes back to the Chavs after it was roman who fired him mid season.

And I think Pep is smart enough to stay away from that situation.
 
Pep or Mourinho.

Would've probably been Mourinho in July if they had won the shoot out againt Bayern in the Champions League last season. He's only sticking around until Madrid win the Champions League so he can shove it to the Spanish media and go back to England.

Yeah it was a joke, I'm expecting Pep.
 
No way Jose goes back to the Chavs after it was roman who fired him mid season.

And I think Pep is smart enough to stay away from that situation.

They've apparently made up since then and has been trying to get him back for a while now. The main problem last time was a power struggle with Avram Grant and that Dutch Guy (Arsenen?), but they are both gone now so it would be easy for Jose to get the control he wants without having to shake up the club again.

And Pep wants to manage in London, not a much better place then Chelsea, apart from maybe Arsenal if it's true that the money is there, but Wenger is just being stubborn.
 
Fucked up situation.

On one hand, its not a surprise. At all. It always seemed like a reluctant hire, with Abramovich really left with no choice after Di Matteo did a great job in the second half of last season. No one felt like RDM was Abramovich's guy or had his confidence. So getting rid of him at the very first sign of "trouble" is really just par for the situation.

Still, fucked up. Winning the Champions League last season should have bought RDM a bit of leeway but nope. Abramovich has unreasonable expectations and no manager in the world is going match those.

Benitez is a good manager. Not a great one. I can't see him delivering what Abramovich demands, not for any length of time.

The problem is with Abramovich himself. Its not just limited to unrealistic expectations in terms of results, but also in playstyle. He wants exciting football that oozes class. He wants Barcelona on the pitch. But there are any number of issues there from - from the reality of what it took to build the Barcelona side to the fact that what works in Spain does not necessarily work the same in England. Not to mention the probability of Abramovich having some input into player selection, at least in terms of having favorites. Its a series of contradictions.

No matter how long Benitez lasts, Chelsea will manage to land another "name" manager. Why not? World class players, lots of money to spend, plus the manager will get paid well. Everyone recognizes it as a "no win" situation for a manager so its not like getting fired eventually will kill their reputation. Sign a three year deal for millions a year, get canned after one, get paid for two more. Not a bad deal.

Don't see Mourinho coming back. The player problems went beyond Mourinho butting heads with members of the Chelsea front office. The club buying Shevchenko was all Abramovich and that was a major sore spot. Its not like Abramovich was constantly dictating every buy, but he obviously has influenced a few. It also seemed like Abramovich disliked the relatively defensive style that Mourinho favors. Just don't see that happening.
 
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