http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/chelsea-interim-manager-rafa-benitez-1899742 Dreadful club; a bit like a Subaru with glued-on spoilers and go-faster stripes. I honestly think that had Rafa done that emergency caretaker's job at United he'd have gotten more thanks. Blotted his own copybook, imho, by even taking it on in the first place. Truly awful gobshites.
At least some fans have had the decency to admit they were wrong about him....as for the morons who can't see it...**** them, Rafa's too good for them anyway. His record speaks for itself and given the vitriol aimed at him he's done a really good job. I hope he gets a club who appreciate him Well done for proving them wrong.
That makes two clubs now where his actual achievements have been massively overshadowed by politics, he's won silverware when the conditions were, shall we say, less than amenable at both. These wins were also against the odds, especially at Chelsea where the team was looking lost.
Fair point about the players but I don't see why the fans should be pleased with him, he won 1 trophy out of 5 and finished 3rd, exactly where they were when he took over. What he said about Chelsea and Chelsea fans was very rude and I wouldn't expect them to forgive so easily, although it does appear some have. I seem to remember Boris Johnson was less than complimentry about Liverpool, if he became mayor of Liverpool would you forgive him just because he didn't do a terrible job?
So you class what Rafa said about the Chelsea supporters the same as Johnson's comments about Hillsborough and a Liverpool man who was beheaded by Iraqi terrorists? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3749548.stm
What on earth was he supposed to do about the CL when he took over? Without a shadow of doubt, your owner was far, far too premature in sacking RDM, especially as you'd started reasonably well in the league and were just having a dip - as I saw it - and were not the first to struggle in the CL the year after winning it. But that was Roman's fault, not Rafa's. You don't have the balls to tell your sugar-daddy he's wrong though, do you? So you took it out on the most convenient target. As I said, your owner has the club. it's prestige, dignity and class by the balls, and as he personally has none of the above you have to go along with it as you're too afraid of going back to where you were pre 2003. Don't get me wrong, we'd love a sugar-daddy too; but perhaps one of the reasons we don't have one is that any owner of our club knows we're not afraid to criticise them if they pulled such as stunt and we won't take it out on the incomming manager. Many of us abhor what FSG did to kenny, but it certainly ain't Brendan's fault.
I've read on their board weeks back "thingis he took over when we were 3 points behind united" as if real management is CM The things listed in that article about the difficulties dont figure in the thoughts of plastic fans who know nothing about football clubs let alone their own and also that they are so entrenched they just cant admit they were wrong. When rdm left they were finished in the cl yet some of them gobshites went on to say rafa got them knocked out of the CL. I doubt rdm would have got them top 4, the honeymoon had ended by the time roberto got sacked.
Yes, absolutely the point. Rafa made a crack about plastic flags, Johnson mouthed the calculated words of that swivel-eyed, right-wing fanatic Simon Heffer that a whole sub-culture demographic was responsible for a whole array of unjustified self-pitying over Hillsborough and Ken Bigley, even though the actual minute's silence was being held in manchester during an international match, where it was debtable if any Scousers were actually present. Had the ugly ****er said that about a religious group or gypsies he'd have been ****ing prosecuted for inciting racial hatred.
Apologies if I caused any offence by using the idiot as an example, my recollection was that he hadn't written the article but was just editor at the time and didn't endear himself with his attempt to get out of apologising. Obviously that's ended up a more extreme example than I intended I wasn't including the CL, I was thinking of the 5 being the Prem, League Cup, FA Cup, Europa League and Club World Cup or whatever it's called. He made the problem on his own with his comments about Chelsea fans when he was at Liverpool. I'm a Spurs fan by the way and take great offence in being confused for a Chelsea fan
I liked RDM when he was at WBA and thought his previous record, being far better than Rodgers', meant he deserved a step up, unlike Brendan, but he succeeded at first because he simply took Chelsea back to what they did before, which worked. Fair play to him for keeping it simple. However, it certainly seemed like when he tried to instill his own ideas this season they weren't going to happen overnight and there were clear problems, which hadn't even been exacerbated by the intense fixture schedule that materialised. And RDM didn't have to do it with the fans on the side of any opposition they faced. RDM might have achieved 3rd and the Europa. Might. Rafa did. But I get why some of their fans can't bring themselves to even call it quits and say his bill's paid in full. My ma's one of them. Sore bitch. So, never expected the Chavs to give him any credit. What I'm really loving is the revisionism of Rafa in the media. Those twats have finally had to admit the bloke's got chops.
I also have to say was impressed by dimatteo at west brom who scaked him too. I thought he was a puppet at chelsea though and i think it was not for RA who has done more IMO to shoot himself in the foot than anyone since blackadder. If he's shoved pencils up his nose at least we'd know he was putting it on eh? Di matteo at chelsea simply defended like mad in the cl and got very lucky not once but 5 times on spearate days where they could have gone out. they also had drogba to rely on and their playing staff to boot. In fairness not achieving with that is a worse crime. Lets be clear if LFC had not froze badly and lads like downing back passed until Carroll came on the fa cup final MIGHT have been different. Once the semi final line up was known that year i knew we had no chance.... our form had gone so bad we crawled to the final and really still could have drawn it if that carroll header had been ruled in. i don't think di matteo was all that.... After all he led them to european disaster..... Rafa lost the world club championships i nthe last couple of mins.... if anyone follows that trash it was a classic SA defend then get a late on effort, they lost to city in the fa cup which is a big game in the semi after all and then frankly... the league cup? If you'd put mourinho in at chelsea the chavs would have called 4th and no cups genius. I don't really mind..... I have a little rankle with rafa over his mad buys that won't allow me to make a saint out of him. A legend yes, a saint no.
He might have done even better! Afterall, who thought he'd win the CL with them? It's difficult to use hindsight in this argument because it's slanted in Rafa's favour as you could never say with any certainty RDM could have even kept them in the top 4. To extend that argument though, when Rafa was appointed, Chelsea had the potential to challenge for the title, we know Rafa didn't manage that and RDM could have. RDM had Chelsea top after 9 games, who's to say with the distraction of the Champion League out of the way that he couldn't have got them back up there? Anyway this isn't really about RDM, he was sacked so matching how well he was doing compared to how well Rafa did is a bit of a low benchamark to judge Rafa by. I just don't think the results Rafa's got have been anything out of the ordinary with the squad he had. With that in mind and his comments about never managing Chelsea and shot at their fans, combined with the rivalry they had it's easy to see why Chelsea fans won't be rushing to thank him or congratulate him.
Still like Rafa, but hate the fact he was successful at Chavski. They deserved nothing. I hope they get their precious Jose back and he flops hard. Who will they cry for next, Robbie? Haha, he was a **** manager - just recalled the old guard and told them to play as normal.
