when he took over Chelsea were 3 points behind United and 7 above Spurs, he was talking about winning the league and multiple trophies. Chelsea were well in the title race, somehow he convinced everyone that declining to scrape top 4 was a success? On top of that he flopped against Corinthians and won a competition you only get into by failing in the Champions League, beating the giants of Sparta Prague, Steaua Bucharest, Rubin Kazan, FC Basel and Benfica (only decent team you came up against, played you off the park) along the way.
He wasn't responsible for the CL failure and you can only beat who's in front of you, but I don't regard beating pub teams in a competition Aston Villa don't even take seriously as a significant achievement. As soon as he dropped so many points you were out of the title race he tried to convince everyone your squad of amazing players is a team in transition. The masterstroke was his rant against the fans though which got him the sympathy vote, I'm pretty sure the booing was minimal at that time anyway.
I criticised Chelsea fans for their treatment of him when he took over but it seems like he's gone full circle, underrated to massively overrated. He took the 2nd best squad in the league imo and gradually dragged them down the league, managing to pull the wool over everyone's eyes in the process. Amazing.
did Rafa actually do a good job?
posted on 27/5/13
fair enough kneearsh, I don't think he's a bad manager at all and I'm not saying he did an awful job, his stock just seems to have risen a lot during his time at Chelsea and I'm not sure why
posted on 27/5/13
comment by Somebody that you used to know (U11039) posted 16 minutes ago
Kneerash, but we were 3 points behind them when Rafa took over and ended the season 14 points behind them. Is the gap in quality between Chelsea and United as much as that, considering we beat tem at Old Trafford and in the FA Cup? I somewhat doubt it and the board need to question why that gap was so much.
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But surley a change of manager mid season has to account for the gap increasing, coupled with the run that United wen't on post Xmas, they ran away from everyone not just Chelsea.
posted on 27/5/13
But surley a change of manager mid season has to account for the gap increasing
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isn't the point of a change in manager to try and improve results though.
8bit doesn't seem to realise that the gap will have increased because Man Utd got better, not because Chelsea got worse.
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maybe, the point I was making was that when he took over they were 3 points away from United and for me they have a better squad, they have amazing players. He took them out of the title race to the point where people were saying it's a success to scrape top 4, which baffled me to be honest.
posted on 27/5/13
comment by 8bit... (U2653) posted 47 seconds ago
fair enough kneearsh, I don't think he's a bad manager at all and I'm not saying he did an awful job, his stock just seems to have risen a lot during his time at Chelsea and I'm not sure why
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I see your point and agree he's getting too much praise for what he acheived but IMO that's mostly to do with the reception he got at the beginning, the media love a story like that and would naturally write about it.
posted on 27/5/13
But surley a change of manager mid season has to account for the gap increasing
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isn't the point of a change in manager to try and improve results though.
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Yeah it is but just look at united's results post Xmas, they wen;t on a long winning run and barley even drew a game, they increased the gap over everyone in the PL not just Chelsea.
posted on 27/5/13
I appreciate your points Kneerash and agree that United's run was bordering on crazy. However, considering Di Matteo's outlay and the fact that our squad was a lot better than last seasons, I thought Benitez, who I think is a far better manager than Di Matteo, should have put up a better title challenge than he did. Overall I was satisfied with his overall performance as manager but it wasn't as good as some of the media are making out in my opinion
posted on 27/5/13
he did as good a job as could be done - all he received were boos by all of the disgraceful fans, but overcame them
posted on 27/5/13
Somebody that you used to know
Fair points
It looks like Rafa will get the Napoli job or another decent job, we will have to see how he does there
posted on 27/5/13
*You will have to see how he does there
posted on 27/5/13
people keep saying that he achieved his targets.
can you honestly believe when he was taken on, 3 points behind united, that his target was anything less than "keep us challenging for the title"?
it was only when we had a series of poor results against lower teams, and slid from 2nd to 6th, that this suddenly became "qualify for the champions league". even this we only just made with a sequence of close victories in the run in.
was he a success? no. the simple fact is, if RDM hadnt been sacked, and had the sequence of results that Rafa did over the first 15 games or so, he would have been fired.
he was the worst temporary manager we have had in the Abramovich era, by some distance. the decent end to the season shouldnt mask the fact that we were in a tough position because of his failures.