You're right Sparks. I thought for a while he may get a bit more time - he did a great job blooding a bunch of youngsters, and the recruitments have been great (if not firing right now for sure) - but it would've been unprecedented for Abramovich / Granovskaia after a run like his. Yes only 6 weeks - but that matches

Ancelotti's "bad period"
Conte's bad run
Mourinho's bad runs
AVB's bad runs
Sarri's bad runs

etc etc. 6-8 weeks of shit at Chelsea, and you're done. Only exception is they gave Jose a bit more time in his seasonus miserabilus, when we were like 2 points above relegation zone in december

I suppose Lampard thought his legend status would have bought him more time. As well as the stuff like he's still new to management, the transfer embargo etc

Lampard shouldn’t have been anywhere near the Chelsea job after a merely above average one season at derby.

He rode on the coattails of a team that won the europa league and finished third and scraped fourth by a point in part because of Leicester’s clowning at the end of last year.

He has three fast strikers but plays constant giroud ball and then doesn’t play giroud.

Chelsea’s best success has often come from firing people. They get to two champions league (winning one) finals with substitute teachers in charge. Basically I imagine a huge number managers at Chelsea have a greater than one trophy per season because they are there mostly for less than a season.

Al that said: I can't remember a personal statement from Abramovich before

The other thing is there is a hefty chance that chelsea might be fighting Liverpool and Tottenham for fourth spot and I think I’d bet on Klopp and Mourinho over lampard to turn it around.

I was being silly about him beating me to the “abramovich” statement

Funkstain wrote:

Oh wait that was you sorry!

Ahem

Fuck you dino it’s my club not yours!

Thats better

seems a bit harsh and kneejerk decision to me, but then that seems to be the Chelsea way and so far it's seemed to work for them.
Funny though cos it was only a few months ago OGS was about to get sacked and they stuck with him and look where they are now...

Tottenham are labouring this game.

Barcelona in massive financial trouble. €820mil gross debt and €1.4 billion of liabilities. €420mil needs to be repayed this summer. Gulp. Well Messi is deffo off then. That would be a start.

https://www.football-espana.net/2021/01/25/barcelonas-financial-struggles-e820m-of-gross-debt-e1-4billion-of-liabilities

https://www.lavanguardia.com/deportes/20210111/6179486/austeridad-insolvencia.html

Not a big fan. Played some ok stuff with him, and yes, attacking football. Outplayed a lot of teams and then inevitably lost. His remit was to keep us up and he just wouldn't adapt the game plan.

We would have been relegated last year if we didn't change manager.

...

So plenty to be optimistic about.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12199339/referees-told-to-alter-offside-decisions-after-controversy-in-man-city-vs-aston-villa-game

In the middle of the season. For fuck's sake man

Was Watkins not behind the ball when it was played anyway? I wasn't too bothered by that one to be honest, although I do agree with your problem with using that as an example for a player not immediately interfering. He's going to get on the end of the cross if Schär doesn't try to get something on it.

They should have gone away, looked at it, decided on something and saw how the change in the rule would have played out for the rest of the season before implementing it next season

mistercrayon wrote:

I think with the Watkins one they didn’t check it because Schar does a kick type thing so it more easily fits the model of a new phase (not gaining an advantage because he receives it as a result of a deliberate action). Whereas the Mings one is a bit more ambiguous because he chests it and Rodri has to go in his personal area to get the ball (what does receive mean? Yes rodri takes it but you could argue that mings pushes it out away from himself, even though it’s a few inches rather than feet in the case of schar, for example)

I feel sympathy for Mings. Had he headed it away he’d have likely just given possession back to Man City, so he tried to control the ball as he was in reasonable space.

Aye, deliberately playing the ball needs to mean more than getting a touch on it but still not being able to stop the ball reaching its intended target.

Anyway, Webbins is quiet. Must be shaking like a shitting dog at the thought of his Leeds side taking on Super Steve's rampant mags