Having made it to the Semi Final of the Europa League, if we beat City on Sunday that means the only available slot is the 7th/8th May a few days after United away. Tough schedule. P.S AVB really is a nutcase isn't he? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22118844 Boro and Fulham both made it to finals with far less resources.
Agreed - just hope it doesnt go the other way - not win anything and fail to make top 4!!! Mind you, if City don't win the FA Cup - Mancini may get the boot. If that does happen.....would Jose go there?? New challenge, unlimited funds and another way to beat up Man U?
It is after AVB opened his big gob this morning ,ok it was a Sun report but still not nice to see. I thought he was an ok fella but now I'm not so sure http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...Boas-claims-his-Tottenham-squad-is-loyal.html
It is, and a win secures top 4 pretty much but...that United win has certainly eased the pressure. Worse case, we lose tomorrow and third is still in our hands. Spurs are in trouble though, if they don't win I think they'll be massive outsiders for top 4 as I think Arsenal will get the 6 points required from their games. Personally a draw will be a good enough result for us and I can see a 1-1.
No Angel, he's a prize bell and an extremely bitter man. From his point of view he's already a world class manager and left a club he loved in Porto to work for a massive club like Chelsea where he could implement his own ideas. He got it wrong, and was sacked and it's something he has never recovered from. Packed up his life to be sacked in 6 months and is hated in Oporto because of it. Chelsea weren't loyal to him, but he was hardly loyal to Academia, Porto or even Chelsea now. He has never been able to get over Mourinho denying him the opportunity to coach the team when at Inter and because of it he seems dead cert on surpassing him. He went to Porto, he then went to Chelsea but unlike Jose he failed so had to prove his worth at another PL club. If he succeeds, he'll be off to Real/Barca quicker than you can blink. I had huge sympathy with him when he was sacked and wished him all the best especially when I heard the story about sleeping in Cobham overnight but that ended with his incessant rants and attacks about our club. There's a saying "Don't wash your dirty laundry in public", that applies to him.
I think we'll win. If we win top 4 is guaranteed and players can be rested for the Europa League final which is what Benitez will want. He'll go for the win tomorrow and play a s**t squad v Villa on Saturday.
His assessment of the Chelsea squad seems spot on to me Angel, the Old Guard really did themselves and the club no honour with their arrogant behaviour at that time. Interesting that Benitez has marginalised their power, yet not a squeak from above. Someone has told them how it REALLY works when they are past 30 !!!!
I hope he realises finishing 4th does not mean 'Qualifying for the Champions League'. We need to guarantee 3rd, and we've always struggled at Villa - he needs to put out teams to win ALL our remaining games.
I always give someone the benefit of the doubt, and I didn't know too much about him when he came to Chelsea, which is good as I didn't prejudge him, and thought as I always do that a manager can be very different at one club than he is at another. I still thought that when he went to Spurs, and like you wished him the best. The last few days have been an eyeopener for me though and now my opinions of him are very different. I don't read any newspapers or watch news on tv as most of it is sensationalised rubbish anyway, which is why I mentioned this with the link I posted . (Passed on to me by my son) I think the sleeping at Cobham, and some of the other things he did just shows an obsession which I mistakenly thought at the time was a passion.
