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[Salazar]

Because United aren't as soft a touch as Arsenal innit.

 

[FootballFan]

Why aren't you going for De Gea? Barca could unsettle the fuck out of him if they wanted too.

He'd cost a lot imo. Probably happy enough at Man Utd too.

He had his doubters(which I disagreed with) but he has proven how good he is*, they would expect a pretty big offer.



*Dat foot save technique.


Remember when Valdes tried to trick/dribble past Di Maria and it cost Barca the trophy? :lol what a legend.

 

[Zabojnik]

He won't even be Best Pepe by the time he joins Barca. SP7 is coming back after a year-long injury. #ForzaSimonePepe

Barca don't need a great keeper anyway, since they win by possession.

 

[brokenbeans]

Yeah at first De Gea took a lot of heat mainly because of his frame his lack of experience plus the fact he's at team competing for the title where mistakes are noticed far more.

Certainly the second half of the season he has been excellent plus he's more stacked now.

He ain't going anywhere.

 

[Empty]

where is valdes going anyway. monaco?

 

[qindarka]

Maybe with that comment specifically, but the whole tone of the article was "we deserve better," at least how I read it. There's no reason to disparage Benitez, except out of resentment toward the press for calling you entitled, ungrateful and fickle fans.

The main problem I have is that he's giving himself credit for being honest about the facts, then bullshits about how Chelsea should have been better than United. Yes, United relied on their strikers to win games and City were disinterested, but they both still got a lot of points. United almost broke the record. Is it Benitez's responsibility to make other teams perform well against Utd and City? It's not like Utd play Chelsea for 20 games.

A supposedly hated manager, supposedly with an outdated system (despite that 4-2-3-1 is used by nearly every top team) still managed to keep the dressing room under control, and won you a European trophy.

So in the end, he wrote a whole lot of stuff, personally attacked a journalist, and came off as exactly the kind of fan everyone thinks of Chelsea supporters as: entitled, ungrateful and fickle.

The site is down at the moment so I can't recheck it but I don't believe that he mentioned that Chelsea should have beaten United to the league. Yes, Benitez may have achieved the minimum requirement of finishing in the Top 4 but he has not done well in the league. Fact of the matter is that we were 4 points off the top when he came in and are now 16 points behind. Perhaps our inferior squad would have seen us fallen further behind in any case but 12 points is a significant number. Even looking past mere numbers, Chelsea's performances in the league have generally been poor, even in games that we won, such as the victory over Villa last week and the home game against Sunderland a month ago. Teams we should be beatin more convincingly but only just managing to struggle through. Also quite a few hopeless, gutless performances such as against QPR and Southampton. And then there is the constant surrendering of leads, a lot of which has to do with his appalling substitutions which hand the imitative to the opposition. Often, we substitute Benayoun on for a dangerous attacking player and end up dropping deeper, inviting pressure and conceding a late equaliser. If you look at our results, we have generally performed well against the top teams, such as outplaying United in all 5 of our meetings, but we tend to play down to the level of the opposition, cue a lot of silly dropped points. I understand that he had a nightmare schedule and had to rest players sometimes but still, his league performance has been nothing to write home about.

The Europa I do give him credit, but looking at the road to the final, Prague, Bucharest, Rubin and Basel are hardly the sternest opposition, only Benfica ought to have put up a challenge. Of course, you can only beat who is put in front of you but I don't think it's necessarily an extraordinary achievement either.

He does deserve blame for the COC and CWC which should have been winnable given the opposition faced. FA Cup defeat was down to the officiating and I guess he did well against Man United.

And is it really entitlement to call journalists out on their behaviour? We all know that the standard of football journalism is rubbish. The article did mention, quite rightly in my opinion, that the media are currently rushing to give Benitez credit for everything and absolving him of all blame. Like the nonsense in sites like the Guardian about him helping Torres 'blossom' when he has still largely been poor or crediting him for transferring Luiz to CM, when it was done by necessity due to injury and the fact that Luiz hasn't performed at all well in that position.

I really do not see it as entitlement to call Benitez out on his job performance, one can disagree with them of course, but there are legitimate criticisms to be made regarding his tenure here and to dismiss them simply as being fans' entitlement is bullshit.

That said, the vitriol against him, I do admit may have gone too far. I personally don't give a shit what he said about Chelsea in the past, it was just the usual pandering nonsense that managers and players like to peddle. I would judge his time here as being barely acceptable, he hasn't shown anything to merit the full time job but I won't hold negative feelings or anything. And thanks for the Europa.

Edit: In regards to the 4-2-3-1, I agree that he may not have made his point clear. My take on it is that he thinks that Benitez tries to shoehorn all his players into that formation whether it fits or not. I know that there were quite a few fans calling for him to use a 4-3-3 on certain occasions, some players such as Ramires would function better. Then again, it was Di Matteo who stuck with this formation all the time and it did win us the CL and allows us to accomodate Oscar, Mata and Hazard so I won't really put much blame on him for this, also given my own lack of tactical knowledge.

One final point which I've mentioned before, I am generally not fond of criticism of an entire fanbase. I've always took it to be posturing, a play for a feeling of superiority, as if the millions of people in a certain fanbase are inherently worse people than that of another fanbase. Similar sentiments are reflected in the whole denouncing of foreign fans as plastic, for instance. And in many other issues outside football.

 

[GorillaJu]

We're fucking getting Reina..

Don't think so. Not that I'd begrudge him if he wanted to return but he's not agitating for a move, frequently and without hesitation refers to Liverpool as his home, and the club don't seem to be interested in selling.

What is said in public and what's actually going on are frequently different so it wouldn't shock me if he ended up moving in the end. I just don't think it's likely.

 

[FootballFan]

He won't even be Best Pepe by the time he joins Barca. SP7 is coming back after a year-long injury. #ForzaSimonePepe

Barca don't need a great keeper anyway, since they win by possession.

.

Remember when Valdes tried to trick/dribble past Di Maria and it cost Barca the trophy?

 

[Salazar]

What is said in public and what's actually going on are frequently different

You mean Agger might be telling Eriksen not to sign for Liverpool ?

Craziness.

 

[The_Hitcher89]

Spanish football...what a pile of shite.

 

[deGod]

He'd cost a lot imo. Probably happy enough at Man Utd too.

He had his doubters(which I disagreed with) but he has proven how good he is*, they would expect a pretty big offer.



*Dat foot save technique.


Remember when Valdes tried to trick/dribble past Di Maria and it cost Barca the trophy? :lol what a legend.

You me and messi were his only believers

 

[GorillaJu]

The site is down at the moment so I can't recheck it but I don't believe that he mentioned that Chelsea should have beaten United to the league. Yes, Benitez may have achieved the minimum requirement of finishing in the Top 4 but he has not done well in the league. Fact of the matter is that we were 4 points off the top when he came in and are now 16 points behind. Perhaps our inferior squad would have seen us fallen further behind in any case but 12 points is a significant number. Even looking past mere numbers, Chelsea's performances in the league have generally been poor, even in games that we won, such as the victory over Villa last week and the home game against Sunderland a month ago. Teams we should be beatin more convincingly but only just managing to struggle through. Also quite a few hopeless, gutless performances such as against QPR and Southampton. And then there is the constant surrendering of leads, a lot of which has to do with his appalling substitutions which hand the imitative to the opposition. Often, we substitute Benayoun on for a dangerous attacking player and end up dropping deeper, inviting pressure and conceding a late equaliser. If you look at our results, we have generally performed well against the top teams, such as outplaying United in all 5 of our meetings, but we tend to play down to the level of the opposition, cue a lot of silly dropped points. I understand that he had a nightmare schedule and had to rest players sometimes but still, his league performance has been nothing to write home about.

The Europa I do give him credit, but looking at the road to the final, Prague, Bucharest, Rubin and Basel are hardly the sternest opposition, only Benfica ought to have put up a challenge. Of course, you can only beat who is put in front of you but I don't think it's necessarily an extraordinary achievement either.

He does deserve blame for the COC and CWC which should have been winnable given the opposition faced. FA Cup defeat was down to the officiating and I guess he did well against Man United.

And is it really entitlement to call journalists out on their behaviour? We all know that the standard of football journalism is rubbish. The article did mention, quite rightly in my opinion, that the media are currently rushing to give Benitez credit for everything and absolving him of all blame. Like the nonsense in sites like the Guardian about him helping Torres 'blossom' when he has still largely been poor or crediting him for transferring Luiz to CM, when it was done by necessity due to injury and the fact that Luiz hasn't performed at all well in that position.

I really do not see it as entitlement to call Benitez out on his job performance, one can disagree with them of course, but there are legitimate criticisms to be made regarding his tenure here and to dismiss them simply as being fans' entitlement is bullshit.

That said, the vitriol against him, I do admit may have gone too far. I personally don't give a shit what he said about Chelsea in the past, it was just the usual pandering nonsense that managers and players like to peddle. I would judge his time here as being barely acceptable, he hasn't shown anything to merit the full time job but I won't hold negative feelings or anything. And thanks for the Europa.

Edit: In regards to the 4-2-3-1, I agree that he may not have made his point clear. My take on it is that he thinks that Benitez tries to shoehorn all his players into that formation whether it fits or not. I know that there were quite a few fans calling for him to use a 4-3-3 on certain occasions, some players such as Ramires would function better. Then again, it was Di Matteo who stuck with this formation all the time and it did win us the CL and allows us to accomodate Oscar, Mata and Hazard so I won't really put much blame on him for this, also given my own lack of tactical knowledge.

One final point which I've mentioned before, I am generally not fond of criticism of an entire fanbase. I've always took it to be posturing, a play for a feeling of superiority, as if the millions of people in a certain fanbase are inherently worse people than that of another fanbase. Similar sentiments are reflected in the whole denouncing of foreign fans as plastic, for instance. And in many other issues outside football.

This is a monster of a post and I'm not going to reply to every point, but the author basically implied what I said when he claimed Chelsea failed to take advantage of a vulnerable-looking United and a disinterested City. How can one take advantage when those teams are still winning almost every game? It's not Rafa's fault that Van Persie pulled late winners out of his ass on a nearly weekly basis.

The entitlement claims don't come from calling out the manager on the team's poor performance. It was that the fans absolutely refused to back the manager that the club hired from start to finish. It may not have been borne out of an expectation that you deserve the best in the field for every season, but that's certainly how it looks from over here. Your club fired two world class coaches, then hired an up-and-comer, recognizing that the old guard needed to be shown the door in favor of young ambition. Then you fired him, replaced him with a club legend and fired him, too. Then you hired another manager with a good record and spit bile and venom at him without ever giving him a chance. I don't know what word besides "entitled" or "fickle" fits here. "Petulant"?

If the fans had been quietly or at least respectfully showing their distaste, then reflected on the performance when all is said and done and said "yeah okay it really wasn't spectacular," you'd definitely have more people on your side. As it is, from the very beginning, he was never given a chance. You guys sang "you're not my manager," and flogged him relentlessly from the moment he was touted as a possible replacement for RDM up until when he lifted the EL trophy and some fans decided that, yeah okay, you've got us this time, Rafa.

When you scream and shout "we hate you, we hate you, we hate you!" and then he goes and leads the team to the EL title, and then you go back and say "it's not fair how you portray us as being spiteful and ungrateful!" You aren't going to curry favor with anyone, especially when the first five paragraphs of what you're saying is how much you despise the man. Not exactly setting the scene for a balanced look at the facts.

It's true it's not a majority of the fan base. It's not a majority of United fans that go to U21 games to shout "murderers!" but unlike the Chelsea fan base, United fans show their disapproval of such belligerence. Anyone who ever went even as far as "well I'd like him to do a good job, so as my team's manager I support him" were drowned out instantly by the overwhelmingly vocal dissent. I'm sorry but I can't help feel that Chelsea fans, as a whole, deserve the reputation they've made for themselves over this whole debacle.

 

[KidA Seven]

Kakitaniiiiiiiiiiii

 

[GorillaJu]

Kakitaniiiiiiiiiiii

Such a shame Cerezo can't keep them out as well as they put them in.

 

[confuziz]

12 pm to 12 am. It's Fantasy Island day!

 

[dc89]

Did you get the Wilbury one? I can't wait till he gets a 3DS.

Did you send it?

 

[KidA Seven]

Kakitaniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 3-1 Cerezo

 

[dc89]

Todays Manchester Evening News. Mancini apparently paid for that with his own money.

The official Manchester FA twitter account said he took it out. What a class act.

 

[Coldnoodle]

 

[Mac_Lane]

Good to see Nantes and Guingamp coming back to L1, especially the former one.

And I'm still amazed by the crazy rumours going around Monaco. But nothing has been signed yet, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this really plays out.

 

[Sleeplessnights]

Looks like a douche, he'll fit in.

 

[KidA Seven]

Why aren't you going for De Gea? Barca could unsettle the fuck out of him if they wanted too.

Yeah right. He already crushed a move to Barca. He said something like "Barca have a lot of targets so I don't really care. I'm happy here and have a contract. I want to win a lot of trophies with Manchester United." I can't remember the exact quote.

Barca will have to try to get him in a couple of years, but it's impossible right now.

 

[KidA Seven]

You me and messi were his only believers

Most of United GAF were his believers, not just you guys.

 

[Gareth Bale]

Todays Manchester Evening News. Mancini apparently paid for that with his own money.

The official Manchester FA twitter account said he took it out. What a class act.

Without your explanation I assumed it was City supporters thanking him for the last 3 years

Pretty stupid assumption the more I read it

 

[Salazar]

Banned Paper story makes the players sound pretty babyish.

 

[3Sixty]

Looks like Cortese is staying.

Southampton Football Club is pleased to announce that the Executive Chairman, Nicola Cortese, and the owner of the Club, Katharina Liebherr, yesterday concluded their regular strategy review for the Club and signed off on plans for the Club's continued development.

Commenting on the Agreement, Nicola Cortese said:

"We are now in a position to move forward with our ambitious plans for the Club and I would like to thank Katharina for the very helpful manner in which she approached our talks about long term strategy. I am pleased that this matter is now resolved.

"We can now focus 100% on our preparations for next season. We have tremendous momentum now at the Club and we are looking forward with great confidence to an exciting and successful campaign next season. The last few days have shown me the unity that we now have across the Club in the players, the First Team Manager, the staff and the Chairmanship which normally takes years to achieve. I have always believed that to create this unity would make us a very strong Club and it is a unity of which I am unashamedly proud."

 

[The_Hitcher89]

Don't trust ParcelForce. Silly bunch of cunts

 

[3Sixty]

Don't trust ParcelForce. Silly bunch of cunts

Well they're no yodel.

 

[Empty]

while there's a million exciting/interesting things about next season, i'm really looking forward to seeing what pochettino can do with his first full season.

 

[Salazar]

Holy shit

@ Reysol v Cerezo

 

[Lambda Pie]

if Tottenham wins and Arsenal loses or draws, Arsenal is out of the CL.

is that correct?

 

[Lightning]

if Tottenham wins and Arsenal loses or draws, Arsenal is out of the CL.

is that correct?

Yes.

Not quite sure why you care so much as neither club is off interest to you.

 

[confuziz]

Yes.

Not quite sure why you care so much as neither club is off interest to you.

It's Lambda..

 

[Lambda Pie]

Yes.

Not quite sure why you care so much as neither club is off interest to you.

oh friend, i care about every club, that's how big my heart is.

i do enjoy the preemptive sodium levels.

 

[FootballFan]

Just realised there won't be a clasico at the beginning of the next season for the Supercopa de Espana thing that Valdes lost us last time lol.


edit
Don't get it, Lambda is just asking, don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[Labadal]

Milan needs a new center back?

 

[dc89]

Banned Paper story makes the players sound pretty babyish.

I was genuinely a little peeved at that.
Some of the stuff was just stupid. He was their boss, he's not there to he liked.

Sam Matterface said an interesting thing on the radio last night. He said when we played Ajax away he was in the hotel that City were staying at.

He said that all night Mancini was tucked away in a corner of the lounge/bar area with the coaches preparing for the game whilst the players enjoyed themselves socialising. He said they were there for a few hours.

When we lost, Mancini said he didn't prepare enough. Matterface said he didn't know how he could prepare more going off what he saw, Mancini was obviously deflecting heat from the players. And then some of them do what the banned paper implies, what a disgrace.

Don't trust ParcelForce. Silly bunch of cunts

DPD, UPS or bust.

 

[3Sixty]

Milan needs a new center back?

Too young.

 

[KidA Seven]

Holy shit

@ Reysol v Cerezo

Japanese Ronald looks creepy

 

[DominoKid]

Yeah at first De Gea took a lot of heat mainly because of his frame his lack of experience plus the fact he's at team competing for the title where mistakes are noticed far more.

Certainly the second half of the season he has been excellent plus he's more stacked now.

He ain't going anywhere.

the De Gea hate was always silly. based in ABU feelings IMO because i don't think many (if any) of our fans ever doubted him. i know i didnt. of course it was going to take him a while to get used to the EPL, but of course you had the idiots hoping SAF would just give up on him, probably because they knew how good he was.

Kakitaniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 3-1 Cerezo

lol that's pretty shit.

 

[Lambda Pie]

Don't get it, Lambda is just asking, don't see anything wrong with it.

i know, right?

it's not like i'm gonna troll Arsenal if they miss the CL, i'm not that type of guy.

 

[phaze]

Constant training.

Late but :lol what is it with him and headbutts.

 

[KidA Seven]

lol that's pretty shit.

Can't blame the keeper. Looks like he fucked up in that replay, but it really looked like the striker beat him to the ball in the first angle. Great pass from the midfielder put that defense in a lot of trouble, but I didn't gif that part.

 

[dc89]

Japanese Ronald looks creepy

http://25.media.tumblr.com/72792e1b0adab050c99bd2c47d916b3a/tumblr_mmzedfWTVq1r7jzw9o1_500.gif[/IMG[/QUOTE]

Will Moyes find the Shinji Kagawaa User Manual penned by Jurgen Klopp in the bowels of Old Trafford, or did Fergie burn it?

 

[Lambda Pie]

Will Moyes find the Shinji Kagawaa User Manual penned by Jurgen Klopp in the bowels of Old Trafford, or did Fergie burn it?

right stick for skills, circle to shot, what else is there?

 

[Lightning]

Don't get it, Lambda is just asking, don't see anything wrong with it.

That's why he has a poem ready in case we don't make it, right? Just a question.. sure it is.

If we miss out on the CL that will be the least of my disappointment but just wondered why he cares so much given neither team matters to him. Nothing wrong with interest, just wondered.

 

[DominoKid]

right stick for skills, circle to shot, what else is there?

RB for Clevgod's Signature Shot.

 

[The_Hitcher89]

DPD, UPS or bust.

Unfortunately it wasn't up to me

Some twat called Fernando fills out a Missed Delivery card telling me to go to the post office. I walk there, only to discover that the cunt never actually dropped the bloody thing off, only picked something up, and in fact has put it back into the system for redelivery either today or on Monday. 2 things:

1) I live 10 minutes away from the Post Office. Leave it there if you're going there anyway.
2) Don't tell me in no uncertain terms that you did leave it there, when you clearly didn't.
3) Change your fucking name


I'm normally completely fine and forgiving of people making errors like that, but it seems like a completely avoidable and stupid mistake to make. If I lived further from the Post Office, I'd be livid.

 

[Freewheelin']

Unfortunately it wasn't up to me

Some twat called Fernando fills out a Missed Delivery card telling me to go to the post office. I walk there, only to discover that the cunt never actually dropped the bloody thing off, only picked something up, and in fact has put it back into the system for redelivery either today or on Monday. 2 things:

1) I live 10 minutes away from the Post Office. Leave it there if you're going there anyway.
2) Don't tell me in no uncertain terms that you did leave it there, when you clearly didn't.
3) Change your fucking name


I'm normally completely fine and forgiving of people making errors like that, but it seems like a completely avoidable and stupid mistake to make. If I lived further from the Post Office, I'd be livid.

My postman comes at like 12 every day now I used to love getting up and seeing a package in the letterbox addressed to me lol, made me feel special

Post office are cunts, deal with it

 

[Lambda Pie]

That's why he has a poem ready in case we don't make it, right? Just a question.. sure it is.

i actually don't. no more poems till August, after this weekend i'll go on hiatus since i honestly don't care about Summer transfer talk.

i'll watch Roland Garros and Wimbledon, though.