Congrats to Real Madrid. That was a masterclass by Ancelotti, one of *the* best managers in the world IMO, and despite his achievements, he is underrated for me. I can't believe we sacked him after finishing 2nd in the league! One of my very least favorite moments as a Chelsea fan. Madrid can definitely win this final, they have the defense and their attack is beautiful. Their display yesterday is one that I hope inspires Chelsea's defensive play down the line.
As for Bayern, hard luck to the fans here. It was definitely an off-day for the team, I was surprised by how lacking the players were in every department, and on a good day they would have scored a couple of goals minimum. Pep still has the German Cup final against Dortmund to help Bayern get the double. I was surprised by the large number of people hating on Bayern yesterday, especially from the non-Madrid fans. I'm no Bayern fan myself, but if I was, I would have been afraid to set foot on this thread last night
As well as being our best player (by a comfortable distance) he was also a big dressing room leader. By all accounts he was the leader of the French contingent, so pretty much 70% of the squad. In regards to Pardew I really don't want him in charge past the end of this season, the only scary part about that is who we'd get to replace him. Logically going all out to get Moyes in would be great, but I really can't see him wanting to work with the limited funds and lack of ambition from the heirachy.
Was it money that mainly swayed Cabaye away from Newcastle? What other reasons lie behind the players' complete lack of motivation these days I wonder? It is a bad coincidence that the downslide came for them after Pardew headbutted meyler. I though things would get better when Joe left.
He was our best player by a country mile and crucial to any success we had in the first half of the season (and even during the season we finished 5th). Selling him and not getting a replacement fucked the team over completely. You can blame the players for not having a backbone and adjusting but some teams collapse when a crucial cog is no longer around, regardless how much the rest of the team try. Gosling ain't no Cabaye. We lacked any semblance of fluid play and went back to good old hoof ball the moment Yohan departed. Coupled with a ton of injuries (hurrdurrdoicare), it was a melting pot of gash.
The rest of the players failed to adjust, some of them probably thought fuck it (Debuchy no doubt as he's best friends with Cabaye and hasn't ruled out a move in the Summer) and planned their great escape in the Summer too.
It's baffling. That season we finished 5th and the first half of this season showed that we're capable of something. Not even Pardew can get shit right for a long period of time though. As if he forgets what he gets the players to do. Probably wakes up in the morning, has his weetabix and wonders what he forgot the previous day. "Oh well, long balls it is!"
Like I said, some ridiculous Graham Carr recommendations and we could find ourselves doing a Euro push again next season. Or, because of one wrong move we could find ourselves fighting relegation. We won't have useful players like Debuchy, Remy and Coloccini (though all 3 along with the majority of the other better performers tapered off) next season though most likely. :lol
That is the life is Newcastle United.
It is unfortunate how much one player's leave can do so much damage to a team. I was afraid this would be the case for Chelsea when Mata left. Pardew's got to come up with better tactics though based on their current weaknesses without Cabaye. The team needs to spend on a worthy successor to Cabaye, at least a potential successor. Sorry to see you going through such turbulent times with the club, the most important thing for this season is no matter how bad things get relegation will be impossible and this summer will hopefully give the club enough time to plan ahead and find necessary replacements.
So now Ronald De Boer is talking up his brother joining Tottenham. Seems like it's going to happen.
De Boer is really great though, with Van Gaal not happening De Boer is the next best thing, easily for me. Aside the odd 4-1 loss with Ajax at a cup final (I think it was a cup final), he has been consistently doing a great job with Ajax.
