Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

Scolari yes, AVB not really. Chelsea are masters of imperiously sweeping away all before them and then grinding to a halt after a few weeks, they did the same in Ancelotti's last season.

My pal thinks he saw Scolari in central London last week. Start the rumour mill.

i like how its always benitez getting in contact and never the other way round

maybe in ilf myth it is. this morning all the reports are the other way round. plus last season it was reported that he rejected a short-term contract from chelsea.

on an interview-by-interview basis

the Telegraph now reckons it's Rafa or Avram Grant as caretaker

Oh PLEASE let it be Avram Grant. And then somebody get PeteW back over here.

I wonder where Harry's stationed himself today? I imagine him hovering at the top of the escalators at Notting Hill Gate station, trying to maintain a signal.

no way does Redknapp get the Chelsea job

As a caretaker with a view to a permanent move next year, it could happen. He was being talked about as a future Chelsea manager before Spurs fell off a cliff last season. QPR is more likely though.

Harry as short as 5/2 2nd favourite with some bookies for the Chelsea job, though he's still favourite for QPR.

Maybe he could do both, it's only just down the road innit.

Stupid horrible club. God I hate them. Chelsea that is, not QPR.

di matteo to qpr could work

Cunts are going to qualify for the next round of the Champions League an' all

They really aren't.

Benitez "before the end of the day" says the Guardian

It's actually saying a new manager before the end of the day, with Rafa as favourite, which isn't quite the same.

Interested in where Di Matteo goes next - how do you judge the right level for someone who's gone from a rookie mid-table Premiership manager to a CL winner in a few months?

you could maybe look for a Premier League club with Italian connections in desperate need of a new manager?

PLEASE DONT LET IT BE PEP

Rafa would be the best for everyone, yes I am glad of all this talk.

Sacked at 4am, nice. How does anyone manage to do anything at 4am?

Matt: He's been credited with a lot of the hard work turning WBA around in good long termy ways and produced the exciting tactics and CL his boss wanted at Chelsea. I think he'll do just fine and be decently high on a lot of chairmans lists. I wouldn't be surprised to see him go to a high profile Italian team, Allegri is forever waiting to be pushed out the door and if they can't get Pep he could be a promising second choice.

I dunno, I just noticed I got offered a job on an email coming at 5.10am (yayayayayayayay btw)

(suck rdm im gonna be working in west london come next year!)

(suck it not just suck)

(or on second thoughts, no)

anyway, rafa or 'arry in. both are 'ilarious.

congrats sam

grats sam, hi nilmar

Any team that fancied martinez will fancy rdm

I notice you haven't said what this job is that you were offered seventy minutes after di Matteo got fired.

di matteo was fired at 4am?

where was ron gourlay to give the happy news forty-five minutes after the end of the game??

ha its for cancer research, a disease slightly nicer than working with jt

well they didn't want to fire him before the flight back. That would have been awkward

Driven to the Lubyanka Cobham after landing back at Gatwick at 3:30, got the bullet in his own office. Gourlay and Buck sitting alone at the front of the plane while coaching staff sat in the middle. I presume the players were throwing screwed-up paper from the back row.

rafa in :(

and as "interim manager", blimey he must've been desperate.

aren't they all 'interim' at Chelsea?

The downside of lol Chelsea is that they're too competent to appoint a lol manager. Shoulda been Shearer. No, shoulda been Terry.

Gonna be really weird if Rafa's still manager when Chelsea come to Anfield later this season.

Ja, this isn't right at all.

2010: BBC Radio 5 live
CHELSEA APPOINT BENITEZ
Chair of the Chelsea Supporters Group, Trizia Fiorellino, on 5 live Sport: "I am gobsmacked. Chelsea pulled the rug from under Roberto Di Matteo, which was just ludicrous. Now they have got in someone of Benitez's calibre, who is a poor manager. Nobody has wanted to employ him for two years. What does that tell you? In England he won two things, both on penalties. Di Matteo did that in 20-odd games, it didn't take four years. Benitez has a propensity for zonal marking, which doesn't work in the Premier League. He is the wrong choice for Chelsea and the fans do not want him."

Prove them right, Rafa

lol

Benitez has a propensity for zonal marking, which doesn't work in the Premier League.

srsly dude if that's all you've got stfu

Perhaps most worrying is that his appointment will include a transfer window. Unless interim means just to the end of the calendar year.

tbf he can't really fuck anything up between now and May unless they plummet out of the top 4 and i feel safe betting that won't happen

"What does that tell you? In England he won two things, both on penalties"

This argument makes me laugh so much. What did Ferguson won in England prior to his appointment at United?

ferguson hadnt managed in england to the tune of a couple hundred mil

Of all the available options, the guy who has a good working relationship with your out of form £50m striker is never going to be the worst.

xpost So didn't di Matteo.

that makes a perfect lack of sense

xp logic short-circuit?