Hi guys, This is for Chelsea and non Chelsea fans alike. Who will be more successful at their respective clubs in the 2012-13 season. Obviously we have some bias here as Chelsea fans, but lets try to look at this objectively. Di Matteo and Chelsea: Showed vast improvement when AVB left. League performances were a let down and its safe to say a 6th place finish was nowhere near good enough. Now that Drogba is gone, it looks like Torres will be the main man and our signings seem to reflect this in signing wide, quick flair players who can beat opposition defenders and put through balls through to Torres' feet. Hazard is an exciting prospect, and Oscar and Marin have both shown great talent and skill. Winning the Champions League was awesome and it looks as thought RDM achieved this by playing to our squads strengths, which we can all agree AVB did not, which is why his tenure was an abject failure (Dropping Drogba, Cole and Lamps who were still great players, as the former showed in the CL final, and insisting on playing Donkeys like Meireles and Bosingwa, who were out of sorts). Pros: Torres will be the main man and we all know what he is capable of in the right squad. Some great signings in hazard, Marin and Oscar (possibly Hulk aswell) The squad will be buoyed by winning the Champions League last season and hopefully this will make them want to build on that success RDM is a Chelsea legend and knows the club and the senior players both from his tenure as a player and as Assistant manager. Great Experienced pros in Lamps, Cole and Terry who have won numerous league titles before. Cons: RDM's relative inexperience at the top level A whole new play style and philosophy now that Drogba is gone A few new players to bed in and gel AVB and Spurs: Must be disappointed to finish 4th and lose out on a CL place, due to UEFA's ridiculous ruling. Spurs had a decent season until the last month of the campaign and looked a good bet for a top 3 finish until the Redknapp for England campaign seemed to derail their season and a string of disastrous results saw them over taken by their fiercest rivals, Arsenal and put them in the dreaded 4th spot which neither side wanted due to Chelseas impending CL final with Bayern. Until then though, performed very well and have some decent talent in Bale, Modric and VDV, Redknapp seemed to get them playing like contenders, keeping up with the Manc clubs for longer than anyone else. Spurs will want to go one better next season and break back into the CL Pros: Good squad of talented players who will be hungry to achieve after last seasons anti climax Players will want to prove themselves to the new manager Cons: AVB and his man management, hopefully he will have learnt a thing or two from his failure at Chelsea, but Spurs are a entirely different squad so that remains to be seen. Lack of signings so far. King has retired and Gallas is gone, so Spurs need to start spending some cash to bolster their defence, with only Vertonghen in so far. Spurs also require a main striker and their efforts to buy Adebayor are not coming to fruition. They do have 2 weeks to sort this before the PL campaign kicks off however, so we will need to reserve full judgement till after the season starts.
Agree with your thread but still think Terry, Cole and especially Lampard will cause some problems for RDM and for different reasons. This is surely the season when they WILL be phased out, especially Lamps, and they wont like it one bit. Interesting times.
Gallas is gone? Not as far as I'm aware but we have Dawson back after an injury hit season and we can keep Caulker if we want who has had a great season at Swansea, whilst Naughton who had a good season at Norwich can cover us at full back on both sides. Defence isn't the problem for us, it's replacing Modric and sorting out 2 new strikers that we need to be spending on. Whether we sort out those signings and whether AVB's tactics work for us are my biggest concerns at the moment. I'd say the potential reliance on Torres is neither a pro or a con, more a question mark. I wouldn't count on him coming good but neither would I rule him out, should be interesting.
Personally I think successes this season can only be gauged via our league position. Unless of course the unthinkable were to happen and we did win the CL again .....How ****ing sweet would that be. But back on point I still think we will finish above spurs so RDM for me
I do too. But he has been backed with money and chelseas squad looks younger and better now. The hardest task will be keeping the dressing room in check. We know how unhappy manager lampard gets when he isnt in the team every week.
Personally, I think AVB will have the better season, and I'm not saying that merely because I support Spurs. Whatever happens, though, it's going to be fascinating watching it all unfold.
Makes no sense, you spent practically the whole season slating AVB. Don't try and say it was our players either, because it was AVB you were criticizing.
It's true, Drogs, that I was critical of AVB. He did, at times, appear to be clueless. It's for the reason that I was against Levy bringing him in at Spurs, and you will know that I remain skeptical and have yet to be convinced that he has learned his lessons and has what it takes to be at the helm of a top 4 EPL club. However, having said all of that, I cannot fault AVB's stewardship since he arrived at the club, and I do believe that he will do better in the coming season than RDM. At the end of the day, it can only be about opinions, as none of actually know what is going to happen. In truth, the AVB/RDM scenario could play out in any number of ways, with neither of them necessarily coming out of it with any glory.
I kind of agree with this although I'm confident RDM can take us back to the level we were at pre-AVB league wise.
