There are rumours going around that Grant will be brought in as a technical consultant to Benitez, which could mean that he will provide a safety net if Benitez' predictably dismal showing as Chelsea manager continues. Grant was never popular with Chelsea fans, in part because he replaced Mourinho, and in part because he has a very grim air about him. However, he actually did pretty well as Chelsea manager; consider his tenure:
-recognized talent: retained Steve Clarke as assistant; bought Anelka and Ivanovic
-dealt well with skepticism from the fans, and won many people over before the end of the season
-stabilized the ship, which was no easy task after JM (something which Benitez could not do at Inter, under arguably easier circumstances)
-finished runner-up in our three most important competitions. This is much better than what most people currently expect of Benitez
-almost bagged Chelsea the big prize: he was literally inches away from getting the trophy that JM could not attain at Chelsea. JM's last game involved guiding a demoralized squad to a home draw against Rosenborg at a half-empty stadium, amid complaints of uninteresting anti-football (although that last claim is highly subjective). At the time, JM's interviews all suggested pessimism, dissatisfaction with a supposed lack of backing from the club officers, and a lack of ideas about how to move the team forward. Grant took us from that stage to almost winning the competition we valued most at the time - if not for some wet dirt in the wrong place, he would have done it. Grant's only major technical error in that match was putting Essien, a makeshift right-back, against an in-form Christiano Ronaldo, but some would argue that his hand was forced by a lack of alternatives.
-bonus points: he's coming off winning the Serbian title; he would only be a caretaker; he's not Benitez
Grant was decent, and can improve the team
posted on 4/12/12
No, you and many more have done that. You've rejected a multi trophy and two times European manager of the year, due to tribal loyalty and thus deem a two times relegated manager as better than him. You're pathetic. The statistics aren't meaningful, they're ridiculous based on idiotic fans like yourself, who can't see a priest on a mountain of sugar.
posted on 4/12/12
http://www.boxofficefootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/23wp9h5-thumb-180x135.gif
His tactical know how and his way of communicating it to the team.
posted on 4/12/12
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/web04/2009/11/12/11/anigif_rafael-benitez-is-a-wizard-8508-1258043431-82.gif
Then you have the tactical magician. I mean just look at the above. It's clear for everybody else to see. The guy has powers.
posted on 4/12/12
No, you and many more have done that. You've rejected a multi trophy and two times European manager of the year, due to tribal loyalty and thus deem a two times relegated manager as better than him. You're pathetic. The statistics aren't meaningful, they're ridiculous based on idiotic fans like yourself, who can't see a priest on a mountain of sugar.
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I think a doorknob has a better chance of understanding this than you, but I will try again anyway. You have falsified the results of a poll, thus rendering it meaningless, for no other reason than your loyalty to a mediocre relic from your declining club. You have thus promoted ignorance and misinformation, and you do not even possess the mental capacity to understand that. Please, go play with a ball of string, or partake in some other comparable activity that's suited to your abilities, rather than subjecting others to your presence.
posted on 4/12/12
I'll try to get it through to you. The results were already falsified after you and many like you deemed a twice relegated manager as better than a multi trophy and twice European manager of the year winning manager simply due to tribal issues.
I lost my ball of string last time I went out my catflap
In truth I think you lot are pathetic. Some see the constant sacking of managers as ridiculous but some want it to continue three games in.
At Liverpool we say "No man is bigger than the club". This means that the club is more important than anything. It's like me saying I'd prefer John Barnes as manager over Fergie. John Barnes is a crap manager, Fergie is a multi trophy winning manager and I've grown to hate the man with a passion but I'd certainly take him as manager. Why? Because the club is more important.
Do you sleep?
posted on 4/12/12
"I'll try to get it through to you. The results were already falsified after you and many like you deemed a twice relegated manager as better than a multi trophy and twice European manager of the year winning manager simply due to tribal issues."
The word "falsified" clearly has a different meaning to you than it does to the rest of the English-speaking world. If a poll expresses a sentiment with which you disagree, it does not mean that the sentiment is not representative of a population. You have falsified the poll because it no longer represents the population which it is meant to represent. Is this starting make sense to you at all, or does it need to be expressed in 15 more different ways before understand it?
"many like you deemed a twice relegated manager as better than a multi trophy and twice European manager of the year winning manager simply due to tribal issues."
Chelsea fans, myself included, generally have no loyalty to Avram Grant whatsoever. The fact that you think so illustrates that you know nothing of our club. What you did, on the other hand, was indeed done simply out of petty tribal loyalty, and the sad thing is, the mediocrity that is Benitez is the best thing that your club has had going for it in decades. If you disagree, please explain why no club, including yours, has wanted to touch him with a ten foot pole for ages. The fact that he's at Chelsea is simply a predictable result of our desperation to get the last bit of mileage out of our useless record-price acquisition.
"Do you sleep?"
I'm thousands of miles away from home on business at the moment, and cannot get adjusted to the schedule; thanks for asking.
posted on 4/12/12
No it means the same to everyone. If a poll asks who would you prefer and you base it on tribal issues relating to a persons time at another club and not ability you have falsified the results. You don't care about your club as you let this cloud your judgement. You would rather a twice relegated manager over a multi trophy and twice European manager of the year winning manager based on tribal issues.
Is it getting through yet? I know it's difficult when you don't actually sleep but have a real think.
posted on 4/12/12
In the overall scheme of things we all know that these types of polls these days are next to worthless because they do get inputs from people that really don't care and have their own agendas for voting. There is no way you can stop people with an agenda or that the question was not directed to from voting which is why I pay them no attention and never bother voting on them.
posted on 4/12/12
No it means the same to everyone. If a poll asks who would you prefer and you base it on tribal issues relating to a persons time at another club and not ability you have falsified the results.
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No, you doorknob. People can apply whatever decision criteria they want, as long as they actually address the question that was asked, and the responders constitute the target demographic. What would invalidate the poll is if people were answering a question other than the one asked, or if responders were not taken from the target demographic. The poll was not asking who is the better manager or anything of the sort - it was directed at Chelsea fans, and it was asking whether they would be willing to have Benitez replaced by Grant. Here is a direct quote from WAGNH: "If you were given no other option than one of these two as Chelsea's manager, who would you prefer to be stuck with?" Are you at all able to understand what you read?
All you're doing is regurgitating what I say like a parrot, and misapplying it to myself and other Chelsea fans, with no comprehension or even any attempt to understand what any of it means. You cannot even answer a basic query to support your view, such as why nobody wanted to have anything to do with Benitez until we bought him out of desperation. I feel genuinely sorry for you and anyone that's obligated to deal with you in any way. I have no such obligation, so I'll filter you instead.
posted on 4/12/12
In the overall scheme of things we all know that these types of polls these days are next to worthless because they do get inputs from people that really don't care and have their own agendas for voting. There is no way you can stop people with an agenda or that the question was not directed to from voting which is why I pay them no attention and never bother voting on them.
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Thanks, JFDI, that exactly summarizes my argument with that guy. He got people with an agenda to invalidate an otherwise interesting poll. The good thing is, with hundreds of votes in, we saw that the poll was fairly stable (at a 2:1 ratio in favor of Grant), so we can at least preserve some of the knowledge obtained there.
I personally have no stake in the result of the poll. I simply have respect and appreciation for knowledge and stats, and what that guy did was attempt to suppress knowledge to further his agenda. In some quarters, that's known as "censorship." Colloquially, that's known as "being a pr*ck."