Chelsea Terrace Talk – Irish Examiner Article By Trizia

You’re two one down in a cup tie against lower league opposition – there are 10 minutes left – you have an energetic, lively young striker on the bench – what do you do?

You swap a right back for another right back of course!!!

And that ladies and gentlemen, is why Benitez is a moron. Not the only reason obviously – but I only have 800 words so can’t even begin to do the A-D’s. The fact that he left Mata out again also demonstrates that he has no idea what yet makes this team tick. Everyone knows that on paper, a Chelsea B team should be more than capable of handling Brentford – but given our current fragility, wouldn’t most people start with him and then, if we were cruising, take him off? Yeh – me too.

The team evidently don’t get what he is trying to do either – although Benitez says that both Abramovich and Emenalo approve of tactics and style of play – if this is true, then we really are in trouble.

To be honest I am sick of talking about Benitez and hearing about Benitez. His ego prevented him from taking a lesser position and easing himself back into management inconspicuously. He was a disaster at Inter and then spent two years without a job, yet he is arrogant enough to believe that he can just waltz into top flight football again. He has proved he can’t. Worst manager to have held the Chelsea job under Abramovich by a country mile – and as the press seem keen to remind us – there have been a fair few.

The fans vitriol for the Spaniard is only increased by the hypocrisy from Abramovich and the board – we know better managers have been sacked for less; we were told that his appointment was “necessary” to “keep the club moving in the right direction” – he has failed to keep the club moving in the right direction – yet the Spaniard is making noises about making his position permanent – I really can’t see any logic. It’s almost as if the owner and board are trying to alienate the support – for what reason, I cannot begin to guess.

It’s not doing his damaged reputation any favours either, but of course all parties have painted themselves into a corner now. What price those at the top making the admission that they screwed up? Not likely is it? The other thing that I simply cannot work out is why he is being given such an easy ride by the press. I repeat – the worst Chelsea manager of the Abramovich era, yet they seem almost sympathetic – insinuating that he has been somehow harshly treated. I need to leave the subject of our interim manager alone as it is turning me into a furious, hateful, gibbering wreck….

So onto the weeks other “talking point”. Eden Hazard; let’s first state the “facts” – ball boy tweets prior to match that he is intending to time waste in a semi-final second leg; he along with other ball boys do just that every time they get the ball; just over ten minutes left on the clock and said tweeting ball boy instead of handing ball back to anyone on the pitch decided to lie prostrate over the ball; Eden Hazard kicks at ball under player in attempt to get the ball back; ball boy rolls around and around and around clutching his side claiming Eden booted him; Hazard inevitably gets sent off.

I actually accept his sending off – I am disappointed the ball boys actions were directly responsible (I believe that had he not faked injury Hazard wouldn’t have gone) – but whatever – let’s just say that we accept that.

What I don’t accept is the utter hysteria that followed – jounos claiming that that they had never seen anything so awful on a football pitch – some claiming it worse than Cantona’s kung-fu kick, calling for 7/8/9 match bans?? How did we get to this – seriously?

The ball boy was 17 years old and I would hazard a guess physically bigger than Eden. He apologised to the player which suggests he did something to be sorry about doesn’t it? Needless to say, fellow professionals and most managers sympathise with Hazard – as do most free thinking half decent football fans. It’s those screaming blue murder I don’t get. One particularly delicate flower actually rung a radio station to claim that she was so shocked by the incident that she was considering never going to football again – give me strength!!

It’s not like Hazard say, booted a female steward leaving stud marks and a 4 inch bruise – like a certain Rio Ferdinand did. But then, just to add insult to injury the FA announce that the 3 match ban is “clearly insufficient” – so making statements regarding the punishment without even having heard any of the evidence – the kangaroo court sits again. Last year a similar incident in a match between Oxford & Swindon resulted in a yellow card and no further action by the FA despite it being reported to them. So what’s the difference?

The difference is the media hysteria and the involvement of Chelsea football club. The FA flaunt their own rules when it suits them, metes out justice in accordance to what it thinks the papers would most approve of and uses Chelsea as its own personal cash cow. Once Wembley is finally paid off Abramovich could quite possibly make a move to claim ownership – after all Chelsea would have paid for most of it. The FA are out of touch, lack consistency and are endemically biased against certain clubs and allows others to do as they please. Is there anyone left that has a modicum of respect for them?

This season cannot end soon enough for me – perhaps this is all some sort of penance for winning the Champions League – there cannot be unadulterated joy without abject misery – it’s all about the world being in balance!

in all seriousness – the current situation isn’t helping anyone – I can’t imagine Benitez is as unaffected by the abuse as he claims – and as I’ve said before the fans are so disillusioned with it all that it’s hard work following the team at the moment. Many of us followed Chelsea in some of its darkest days – but we were bankrupt and our players were on the whole second rate journeymen – we expected dire football and less than pleasing results.

Now we have a manager we detest, a board and owner who seemingly don’t care, a team of internationals who have lost confidence and the winning mentality and no light on the horizon. I think that this is the first real crisis in Abramovich’s reign – the way he deals with it could have a long term effect on where the club sits in the English game and on the support. Time to swallow your pride Roman – such times call for a “special one” to sort it all out. You know it makes sense.

Posted by Trizia

(You can see all of Trizia’s articles here)

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