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Will be interesting to see the young looking MUFC team against Galatasaray tonight... See if they survive their stay in 'Hell' and come away with the points.

Hopefully DDG will have recovered from his wisdom tooth removal and we get a good midfield for the weekend and QPR... The team needs to give someone a good thrashing IMHO...

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the loon previously known as dr lee

Actually neither.

Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Mikel, Ramires, Dave, Mata, Oscar, Hazard

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To be fair it makes sense... Torres has been a wasted player on the pitch for weeks, might as well do away with the striker and use that 11th man more effectively elsewhere...

Let's see how this goes... Juve's new stadium looks tiny, but maybe it's just the angle!

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Ref in this game has bottled it already... Heck, he bottled it in the first 15 minutes or so... Two 2-footed studs up 'tackles' by the home team and he does nothing...

The young team is doing very well with the pressure the insane crowd is making...

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the loon previously known as dr lee

Well that was humiliating. Chelsea completely outclassed, didn't even look like being in control from the first minute to the last. Torres is done as a top level striker, Di Matteo has to be on borrowed time now, with a Guardiola shaped shadow hanging over him.

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Chelsea still can win this group.

edit: My bad, I looked at outdated table. Chelsea still can make to play offs anyway.

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Any old sap can pull teeth from a dead crocodile.
It takes a man to pull teeth from a live one.

Yep.. Completely outplayed. Where was the fighting spirit? I am very disappointed with the team today. That was our chance to make it through the group stage on our own. Torres is done and I'll be surprised if he is still a blue in February. RDM, I hope will be but knowing our owner he is in a pretty nasty situation, especially if we don't beat City.

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Tough game.. Needed a better ref IMHO... A stronger line up would have been useful as well...

Still.. We are top of the group and safely through already, so SAF can try out a few tweaks for later in the competition....

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the loon previously known as dr lee

Hate to admit it but three players were needed on that pitch tonight... Terry, Lampard and Drogba.

You send a team out without a leader and they just run around like headless chickens.

We've got some fantastic young players now, but no talismen...we need some of that old Drogba/Essien steel back in the side, to let the flair players get on with it. Problem is, our 'steel' has to come from Mikel and Ramires, with Luiz behind them...three players more at home passing and moving than simply stopping others getting past.

Oh, and a striker would help...

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Agree 100%.

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100% true, take Everton v Reading last week. We didn't have that rat Neville, he's rubbish at football, but he doesn't half put the "big" players in their place. Without him we couldn't find the motivation to go on and finish the game.

disgraceful goal!

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/shock ... sjaelland/

what was he thinking!

then on the restart, i think Shaktar were going to give nordsjaelland a free goal, which Adriano protested against


this is not in the rules of course, you don't have to give the opposition the ball, but it is bad sportsmanship, and he shouldn't have done it

this is what Ajax did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPk-wmqP5ec

Chelsea have sacked RDM.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20423905

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awful decision, i mean Chelsea go through managers like nobodies business!

3rd in the league only 4 points from top, fairly difficult champions league group, i don't think Abramovich likes RDM, and him winning the Champ league last year forced his hand into giving him a managerial contract


I don't envy any manager going to Chelsea, and i really hope Guardiola doesn't go there

no manager is safe there

Isn't RDM the 7th manager that Roman has sacked...?

From what I have been listening to I haven't heard a single person, fan or pundit, that agrees with this. Interested to hear what Mr-E and Adaemus think of this...

Bookies have Pep at 5/4!

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Not sure Benitez is the right person for the job (although he was the only manager to get the best out of Torres). Guess he is only a placeholder until Pep comes out of retirement.

I know. His face expression afterwards was so annoying. His team mates also seemed to be supporting him instead of telling him off.

I lost all respect for these players


Edit - longer video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... RpRKIzLCTE

Today I am ashamed. WTF are they doing? I realize RDM wasn't the boards first choice, but come on! We have had 1 month with bad results and that was enough to kick out a legend in Chelsea FC, a man that coached the team to a historic CL trophy, a man that seemed to have the players respect and was loved by most fans..
Sadness and anger pretty much sums up my feelings today.
What top level manager in their right mind would want to take the job? Good for a quick paycheck I guess..

I am ashamed...

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I reckon Benitez or Avram Grant until the summer when Mourinho leaves Madrid and makes a triumphant return to Chelsea.

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If...

I would agree with all that and I'm not even a Chelsea fan but can see from reactions that this is a hard pill to swallow for Chelsea fans.
It comes across as though Roman thinks "my manager wins a trophy, then has a few bad results, no time to turn it around so f*ck off and I will just get in another". And then there is no stability as the players and staff have to get used to another persons system.

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Only just heard the news... Can't believe how stupid the club have been. Okay, RDM was on the brink, but surely...surely you would wait until AFTER we play City to sack the manager!

Completely destabilise the club 3 days before a top of the table clash against one of your main rivals.

I'm embarrassed to be a Chelsea fan right now, the club really don't help themselves or their reputation. They make all these claims about aiming for stability and then sack a manager every 5 minutes.

All I'll say is this, in 1990 Alex Ferguson was one game away from being sacked, after a terrible run of form. If you believe in a manager, you have to stand by him through the odd bad patch. How can the players respect a manager when they know he's probably leaving again in 6 months?

If we appoint Benitez I'll just start banging my head against the wall...

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http://www1.skysports.com/football/news ... -Di-Matteo

looks like it might be the case,

Surprised he lasted this long TBH... Half expected Roman to dump him after the CL win... Anyone who takes this job is a fool IMHO as they'll be out of a job before the end of the season...

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the loon previously known as dr lee

winning the champions league forced his hand. Roman had to employ him.

The thing is, Avram Grant came close to winning the Champ League (one post away in penalties), if Terry had scored and they had won, would he have remained manager the next season.

I feel for RDM, because he hasn't done a bad job all things considered, but Chelsea needed someone else as manager, so this sacking was inevitable.

Rafa Benitez though as the new possible manager, i'm not convinced, he couldn't do anything with the treble winning Inter squad,

So are Chelsea looking to Rafa as a short term deal in the hopes that Pep will join in the summer...?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20427966

And if so, what if Rafa is a complete failure over the next few months and then Pep can't be talked round by Abramovich?

It all seems a bit of a mess to me.

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What manager would want to enter a situation like that? If AVB is to be believed a couple of players hold tremendous influence in the dressing room and you have to do right by them. You have an owner who thinks its OK to sack a manager after a few bad games despite just winning the most unlikely CL ever. Don't see too many more managers being brave enough to enter into this situation.

I feel sick...

Edit: At least it's only til the summer, but to be honest if I was Pep I wouldn't want to manage this shambles.

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And I bet your head is hurting too.......

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I'm working on a nice dent in the plaster...should be big enough to hide myself in by Christmas...

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Oh just great!
Going from a Chelsea legend to a man that have said ''Chelsea is a big club with fantastic players, every manager wants to coach a such a big team. I would never take that job, in respect for my former team at Liverpool, no matter what.
For me there is only club in England, and that's Liverpool".

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its propaganda though, many managers have been there

Rafa might be good for Chelsea, might sort the defense out (as you've been leaking goals of late since i've got no clean sheets in fantansy football ), might make Torres play well, although that will be debatable

as liverpool fans say

"in rafa we trust"




but in all seriousness, it might not be too bad having him in the interim

So... The FA have finally chucked out the claims against Clattenburg... And have charged Mickel with using insulting and/or threatening language... And, as I wasn't aware of, it appears that Mickel never heard the 'insult' directly... It was heard by another player... Who translated it to him after they 'heard it'

Hope Clattenburg can get back to his job properly now...

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the loon previously known as dr lee

Yep, 'cos he was so good at that...

This has been a shameful couple of months to be a Chelsea supporter...it's like the hangover after the drunken season before, and it's showing no signs of abating.

Everything looked so good at the start of the season...now it's all gone to sh*t.

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Just watched the first press conference with Rafa.. Oh dear..
Apparently he hasn't even spoken with Roman yet.
Then the rest was basically "Trophies, win every game, win every trophy, trophy trophy trophy, i have all the trophies"
on every question..

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Sigh. If it turns out Rafa doesn't have the key to Torres' soul or whatever and it turns out that suckitude is just Fernando's new groove, then I can't see Benitez lasting to the end of the season, because he has little else going for him right now, judging by the end of his time at Liverpool and his disaster of a stint at Inter, which I followed more closely. I'm still mad at him for opening his mouth and demanding new players and getting himself fired, if he had stayed on, the way they were going, Inter probably would have finished 7th at best. But yeah, it was a completely boneheaded move to let Drogba leave and not bring in any alternative to Torres. No matter how good someone is supposed to be, at any quality team there has to be competition for places.

As for the CL, while I honestly did feel bad for Chelsea, I was personally relieved to see Juve perform the way they did; they have a strong team and have only lost 2 matches in all competitions over the last season and a half, it seems having their unbeaten run ended by Inter actually refocused them, they've been on great form since then. Getting a result in Ukraine will be a challenge but if the same Juve, the real Juve, shows up, then it's well within their means. It was also nice to see Milan finally doing something right, who saw Mexes' goal? Almost on par with Ibra's.

It's still not helping Serie A out of its coefficient quandary though, thanks to the Europa League contingent showing as much disdain as ever for the aforementioned competition. The CL is great, but the countries that have moved up recently, Germany, France, Portugal, have earned their points through the Europa League...

Well done.

ZOMG. YES, YES, YES, YES. Giancarlo Abete is not a complete and utter troll!!!!! I can't believe it. I've been calling for a return to 18 teams since they first went to 20, when I was still going through some of the most awkward phases of puberty. It was a bad move all around. It made the league less competitive, with some very poor teams competing in the league over the last few years, it made the schedule more congested, higher travel costs, etc, etc.

Now, this had better actually happen. I'm really crossing my fingers. The idea about having Europa League semi-finalists getting into next year's CL is a fantastic idea as well, would finally give Italian clubs a reason to take it seriously. Hopefully UEFA will allow it.

Okay, so what genius scheduled Chelsea v City for the same start time as the grand prix?

Looks like it's two screens on the go this afternoon.

Can't see Chelsea having a chance, though City have been a bit of a shambles themselves at times lately so we will see.

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I know!

I'll probably record the Chelsea game and watch F1 live. First time in a long time I can't see a game live..
Can't see Chelsea winning either. Mr Benitez will probably have Torres on for 90 minutes so...

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Barca beat Levante 4-0, Ath Madrid beat Sevilla by the same scoreline, and Real lost to Betis

the gap between Barca and Atl Madrid is 3 points, but the gap between Barca and Real is now 11!!!!