"Chelsea is a big club but I would never take that job in respect for my former team at Liverpool no matter what" "Chelsea fans lack passion" "We do not need to give away flags for our fans to wave - our supporters are always there with our hearts and that is all we need. It's the passion of the fans [Liverpool's] that helps us win matches - not flags" - Rafael Benitez
I actually wonder if we will get a full house on Sunday...and that some Blues might boycott the game! I cant go anyway as I've a do to go to with the family!
He'll get **** all of a reception, possible fat Spanish waiter jibes and then the results will decide the rest. If he ****s it, abuse by the bucket load, if he turns Nando back into a 25 goals a season striker and we play like gods he'll be loved. Fickle, but that's the way it is.
You were one of our biggest rivals at the time he said that, what else do you expect. Booing him this Sunday and boycotting the game surely just proves what he said is true
Rubbish. It will show that we have passion at the very least, and lets not forget something...it's not us who have something to prove or us that have to make amends.
Pat Nevin was saying last night that a lot of the players think the relationship between Torres and Abramovich led to Rafa's appointment - and that Torres found out before everyone else did.
I can well believe that. RA gets too close to players, as well we know...Shearer wielded the same power at the toon, except he scored **** loads of goals.
Booing your new manager and the team before they have even kicked the ball is not passion, it's just pathetic
I'm a Chelsea fan , so I will tolerate him, but this hurts, this is like coming home and and finding your bird in bed with the ugle bloke from down the street
Zenden will be his assistant apparently. That could be bad for you, he's not been half as good when surrounded by yes men (basically without Pako Ayestarán)
please log in to view this image He's probably a decent man in real life but he will always be known as a **** by Chelsea fans. I'd rather have had Joe Pasquale until May.
Chelsea fans wake up! Your owner doesn't give a **** about you and what you think about his decisions. You do not even come into his thinking. I'm not crowing about that - merely telling it as it is. So there's little or no use you individually or collectively boycotting the match or giving Rafa a hard time. Whatever you think about Rafa as a manager, he will do a very professional job and do his very best for you club for the time that he is with you. That's the kind of individual that your owner has hired. Whilst his heart will always be with Liverpool you can have no doubt that he will be seeking to ensure that Chelsea beat us. He is both a very good man and a very good manager. How Chelsea fans react to both Rafa and Abramovich is up to you but you should think very carefully and not take knee-jerk positions like those idiots McNulty and Nevin on Radio 5 Live
Define 'plaything'. He's doing what he thinks is in the best interests of the club. As a fan, I'm glad the board doesn't listen to the fans as largely football fans have no ****ing clue how to run a football club. You listen to fans or be too sentimental and you end up hiring an old has been like Dalglish and let him waste 100 million on dross.
I agree to some degree with the first part, fans know very little about the running of a club, but with RA it looks like he doesn't have the best interest of the club in mind. Where is the investment in the stadium or in youth development? The kind of investment needed to keep Chelsea running if one day RA decides to move on. Perhaps that is what he is looking at with Rafa as he's very good at getting the whole club running together and the correct infrastructure in place to get a club moving in the right direction. Is the short term thing just a softener for fans? Perhaps RA will give him the job come the end of the season.
