The Benitez Thread

[Tomo 21,751]

People who think we would have done better with RDM are letting their hearts rule their heads. Now i wanted RDM to work as much as anyone (check my post's last summer) but as time went on it was clear that it just wasn't going to work.

You say, well we sacked him too soon? probably yes we did, but it's better to sack someone too soon then too late. If we sacked Scolari a couple of months earlier, Hiddink could have recovered a title win out of that season, but instead we waited until it got beyond a joke under Big Phil and then on Hiddink (despite only dropping 5 points, and both those games we hit the woodwork in injury time) could only get us 3rd and even if we won all the games, still would not have won the league.

The Juventus and Athletico game's were frightening, that was the worst beggining and end performance's from a Chelsea team since we went to Old Trafford under Big Phil and lost 3-0. Even the dark days of AVB and Carlo's second season we never performed so badly from the first minute to the last like we did in Turin especially.

Under Rafa we have performed on the same level but under RDM would we have even carried on performing on the same level? our worrying erratic displays aswell as what happened at WBA (completely nosedived) suggest's the chances are we would not have. The City game especially would have been really really messy.

Yes you could say results are identical but performances are not. Even in the games we fucked up in that he gets stick for (Southampton, Swansea, Reading, QPR) we dominated the games and didn't take our chances. We weren't dominating games under RDM, even at the start of the season our only truly impressive displays was Spurs and too a lesser extent Norwich (Arsenal game was won from two set pieces). The bad side of Rafa has been his substitution's which at time's have had me banging me head against a brick wall.

He improved us defensively, we were all over the place in RDM's late tenure and looked like nothing was changing, Rafa has come in and made us into a unit at the back, ok not to the extent Jose did but better than before. Hazard's defensive work has also improved ten fold and Lampard imo has looked better under Rafa than he has any time since the Double winning season. Rafa has also treated every player by merit and has managed to do it without causing a dressing room riot (something we have been wanting for years, no?).

I love Robbie always will, but sometimes in football you have to let your head rule your heart.

Im not convinced he is a genius manager (like Ruperb or the Scousers) and if it's a choice of him or Jose then there is only one winner but i do think he has made some decent contribution's that Jose can built on and above it i think he is a very decent man who has handled this job with dignity, professionalism and class in the face of the abuse he has got, a lesser man would have walked away.

Thankyou Rafa and good luck at you're next job, i will watch with interest.

[Madmax 9,219]

Yeah, well done Rafa. You have proven that you can win the Europa League with the reigning champions of Europe. You did something that should happen. And now you want credit for it like a 15-year-old looking to be commended for not wetting the bed during sleep time.

When you rubbed a magic lamp and asked the genie to turn you from a blog person back into a manager last November, Chelsea were four points out of first place and had four trophies to compete for. Then you showed up with your 1998 goatee and everything got worse.

You lost in the League Cup, the FA Cup and even the Club World Cup, and in the Premier League, you struggle to finish third, 16 points behind Manchester United. That is four times more than four.

You were supposed to fix Fernando Torres. He had six goals in the Eurjoke-a League, yes. But in the Premier League, he has not scored since December. He has seven goals. One more than last season. If anything, you have him fixed like a neutered labradoodle. Speaking of the Europa League, you beat four clubs that couldn't buy lunch at Chelsea's training ground and then one that has lost seven European finals in a row. This is how you finally won a trophy, Rafa. And you did this with a team that has regularly reached the final rounds of the Champions League in recent years, regardless of whether the manager can button his pants or not.

If a chef gets a bad review and then heats up a frozen pizza without burning it, is it vindication? You have done the bare minimum with the talented team at your disposal and so you get the bare minimum credit. You didn't burn the pizza. Congratulations. Now Fuck off.

Ooh nice copy-paste job from the Dirty Tackle blog.

[MetsajCFC 1,255]

Yeah, well done Rafa. You have proven that you can win the Europa League with the reigning champions of Europe. You did something that should happen. And now you want credit for it like a 15-year-old looking to be commended for not wetting the bed during sleep time.

When you rubbed a magic lamp and asked the genie to turn you from a blog person back into a manager last November, Chelsea were four points out of first place and had four trophies to compete for. Then you showed up with your 1998 goatee and everything got worse.

You lost in the League Cup, the FA Cup and even the Club World Cup, and in the Premier League, you struggle to finish third, 16 points behind Manchester United. That is four times more than four.

You were supposed to fix Fernando Torres. He had six goals in the Eurjoke-a League, yes. But in the Premier League, he has not scored since December. He has seven goals. One more than last season. If anything, you have him fixed like a neutered labradoodle. Speaking of the Europa League, you beat four clubs that couldn't buy lunch at Chelsea's training ground and then one that has lost seven European finals in a row. This is how you finally won a trophy, Rafa. And you did this with a team that has regularly reached the final rounds of the Champions League in recent years, regardless of whether the manager can button his pants or not.

If a chef gets a bad review and then heats up a frozen pizza without burning it, is it vindication? You have done the bare minimum with the talented team at your disposal and so you get the bare minimum credit. You didn't burn the pizza. Congratulations. Now Fuck off.

Very harsh on Rafa and very disrespectful towards other clubs in the Europa League. Search up the word "humbleness" and perhaps that's the reason why we've failed at times, we are too cocky. We take stuff for granted against "lesser" teams, where in fact we get outplayed and lose. In League Cup it had NOTHING to do with Rafa, it was all Ivanovic's errors. FA Cup, we were outplayed by a stronger Man City side, who had a weeks rest, strong bench and let's face it - better players. Nothing wrong with losing to a better team who deserved it. You sound like a spoilt brat who can't take a "no". Fernando Torres also scored many important goals, gave important assists, can't be so FIXATED on statistics, watch the games. Torres has been better than Ba couple of games already. And since December, it's been Ba mostly starting in EPL and Torres in EL and occasional appearances in EPL or as a sub.

We played 9 games in December, winning 7 of them. Including game against Everton at Goodison Park. That's a pretty good statistic for any manager and team, especially if new manager has had time to adapt for only days and has had that much hatred and lack of support coming his way. So he said something to the Chelsea fans, so what? We're not 10, get over it. That what's seperated winners and losers - winners don't look back and do their job. That's what Benitez did. You bring out what Benitez "lost" for us - RdM finished 6th, lost SuperCup with humiliation, lost UCL - especially Juve humiliation, lost Community Shield, had no rotation what so ever so had it was inevitable someone more experienced would come in. I respect RdM massively as an ex-player and as a manager but he is not a top level manager, yet. All that talk about he bringing us UCL - some Chelsea fans don't want to accept it but we rode massive luck last year. All those moments opponents hit the woodwork, missed easy chances even amateurs would have scored, saved/missed penalties, goals out of the blue - we just won the loto with UCL, and don't forget we finished SIXTH.

So you're right, UCL > EL but with what you just posted you're being disrespectful towards other "lesser" teams and also downgrading Chelsea's achievements.

Rafa's done well, good job to him.

All those pizza metaphores sound so stupid I won't even comment. And you say "won EL with UCL champs" - we didn't only add players but we lost a few important ones aswell - namely Drogba and Meireles. We lost squad depth and authority in Drogba. Don't deny it.

[Jase 43,479]

People who think we would have done better with RDM are letting their hearts rule their heads. Now i wanted RDM to work as much as anyone (check my post's last summer) but as time went on it was clear that it just wasn't going to work.

You say, well we sacked him too soon? probably yes we did, but it's better to sack someone too soon then too late. If we sacked Scolari a couple of months earlier, Hiddink could have recovered a title win out of that season, but instead we waited until it got beyond a joke under Big Phil and then on Hiddink (despite only dropping 5 points, and both those games we hit the woodwork in injury time) could only get us 3rd and even if we won all the games, still would not have won the league.

The Juventus and Athletico game's were frightening, that was the worst beggining and end performance's from a Chelsea team since we went to Old Trafford under Big Phil and lost 3-0. Even the dark days of AVB and Carlo's second season we never performed so badly from the first minute to the last like we did in Turin especially.

Under Rafa we have performed on the same level but under RDM would we have even carried on performing on the same level? our worrying erratic displays aswell as what happened at WBA (completely nosedived) suggest's the chances are we would not have. The City game especially would have been really really messy.

Yes you could say results are identical but performances are not. Even in the games we fucked up in that he gets stick for (Southampton, Swansea, Reading, QPR) we dominated the games and didn't take our chances. We weren't dominating games under RDM, even at the start of the season our only truly impressive displays was Spurs and too a lesser extent Norwich (Arsenal game was won from two set pieces). The bad side of Rafa has been his substitution's which at time's have had me banging me head against a brick wall.

He improved us defensively, we were all over the place in RDM's late tenure and looked like nothing was changing, Rafa has come in and made us into a unit at the back, ok not to the extent Jose did but better than before. Hazard's defensive work has also improved ten fold and Lampard imo has looked better under Rafa than he has any time since the Double winning season. Rafa has also treated every player by merit and has managed to do it without causing a dressing room riot (something we have been wanting for years, no?).

I love Robbie always will, but sometimes in football you have to let your head rule your heart.

Im not convinced he is a genius manager (like Ruperb or the Scousers) and if it's a choice of him or Jose then there is only one winner but i do think he has made some decent contribution's that Jose can built on and above it i think he is a very decent man who has handled this job with dignity, professionalism and class in the face of the abuse he has got, a lesser man would have walked away.

Thankyou Rafa and good luck at you're next job, i will watch with interest.

And not to mention, there is an obvious double standard going on. When we win games, especially the big ones, people praised the players for getting that 3 result but don't bother to give Benitez credit, not even a tiny bit. BUT yet, when we lose or fail to win games, most of these people blame everything and solely on Benitez when the players' performances on the pitch are the one that mess it up most of the time.

[Blue Traveler 256]

Definitely hate him. Looking at our eyes and say he did 100 percent good job with us! when lost all does finals and matches! Not giving Frank and JT proper time esp Frank to score. Still insist and restate what Liverpool means to him when he is at our club.

I don't take back my opinion cause he won a UEFA Cup actually i think it was down to players determination cause they really wanted to win this one after we couldn't win any thing this season & Benitez played a little part in it.

[SinineUltra 1,170]

Definitely hate him. Looking at our eyes and say he did 100 percent good job with us! when lost all does finals and matches! Not giving Frank and JT proper time esp Frank to score. Still insist and restate what Liverpool means to him when he is at our club.

I don't take back my opinion cause he won a UEFA Cup actually i think it was down to players determination cause they really wanted to win this one after we couldn't win any thing this season & Benitez played a little part in it.

Bravo, priorities.

Fact is, Frank is 35 this June. He himself has said that even-though he feels like he is 25, he knows that he is not the same on the pitch. Both of them struggled with injuries, especially Terry, who has been out injured majority of the time or regaining fitness giving pens away. Besides, like it or not, under your beloved Rafael Benitez he broke the scoring record while being our top EPL goalmachine.

The last sentence is trolling or what? Can't get the joke.

[DDA 9,924]

So many mixed reviews on Rafa but hate or like him you cannot take away the fact that he has handled himself in a very dignified and honorable manner. He arrived with the club burning effigies of his rotund self and the constant booing echoing around Stamford Bridge, chants calling for his head. The guy has stood strong and guided a disjointed Chelsea through a manic fixture list.

This is not to say I'm a big fan of Rafa but after the job he has done for us I am definitely not fulfilled with hate as I once was. He isn't the first manager to mug us off publicly and he won't be the last and I seriously think our fans need to get over it, nod your cap at Rafa for booking us in the CL and bringing us..... ANOTHER TROPHY.. Time to move on.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

People who think we would have done better with RDM are letting their hearts rule their heads. Now i wanted RDM to work as much as anyone (check my post's last summer) but as time went on it was clear that it just wasn't going to work.

You say, well we sacked him too soon? probably yes we did, but it's better to sack someone too soon then too late. If we sacked Scolari a couple of months earlier, Hiddink could have recovered a title win out of that season, but instead we waited until it got beyond a joke under Big Phil and then on Hiddink (despite only dropping 5 points, and both those games we hit the woodwork in injury time) could only get us 3rd and even if we won all the games, still would not have won the league.

The Juventus and Athletico game's were frightening, that was the worst beggining and end performance's from a Chelsea team since we went to Old Trafford under Big Phil and lost 3-0. Even the dark days of AVB and Carlo's second season we never performed so badly from the first minute to the last like we did in Turin especially.

Under Rafa we have performed on the same level but under RDM would we have even carried on performing on the same level? our worrying erratic displays aswell as what happened at WBA (completely nosedived) suggest's the chances are we would not have. The City game especially would have been really really messy.

Yes you could say results are identical but performances are not. Even in the games we fucked up in that he gets stick for (Southampton, Swansea, Reading, QPR) we dominated the games and didn't take our chances. We weren't dominating games under RDM, even at the start of the season our only truly impressive displays was Spurs and too a lesser extent Norwich (Arsenal game was won from two set pieces). The bad side of Rafa has been his substitution's which at time's have had me banging me head against a brick wall.

He improved us defensively, we were all over the place in RDM's late tenure and looked like nothing was changing, Rafa has come in and made us into a unit at the back, ok not to the extent Jose did but better than before. Hazard's defensive work has also improved ten fold and Lampard imo has looked better under Rafa than he has any time since the Double winning season. Rafa has also treated every player by merit and has managed to do it without causing a dressing room riot (something we have been wanting for years, no?).

I love Robbie always will, but sometimes in football you have to let your head rule your heart.

Im not convinced he is a genius manager (like Ruperb or the Scousers) and if it's a choice of him or Jose then there is only one winner but i do think he has made some decent contribution's that Jose can built on and above it i think he is a very decent man who has handled this job with dignity, professionalism and class in the face of the abuse he has got, a lesser man would have walked away.

Thankyou Rafa and good luck at you're next job, i will watch with interest.

We really should have an option on this forum to "Like" something more than once..

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

Main thing is the fat cunt is fucking off and @metsaj ''watch the games'' ??

Have been going to Chelsea games since 1967....

[Tomo 21,751]

Quick question to the fan's who hated Rafa because of his previous comments.

As Rooney stuck V sign's to our supporters during the Old Trafford title decider in 2011. will he be getting the same level of abuse if he signs for us?

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

Most of the people I go with dont have a go at the fat cunt for his previous comments, it was because of his ineptitude -dont know if you go Tomo, but the groans every game at his crap substitutes were all around, and infectious. And I dont hate him, that is too passionate- hes just a fat bastard chancer. I dont think theres any at away games who rated him -just the media and people on the internet

As for Rooney, dont really want him, baggage+ excessive wage bill, and dont forget he went nearly a year at Yernited with barely a goal

Anyway 4 games top left for the fat cunt -Everton, possible play off at Villa Park, and two yank games against Citeh. Adios.

[kobematabryant 400]

I found a video done by a Liverpool fan and I thought it was quite good. He speaks about how Rafa Benitez was treated in our club. I suppose I'll share it. I have to half agree with him.

[termninja 5,290]

Ever since he came at the club, I've said that I would put my feelings for him aside and give him my starting support because all I want is Chelsea to get best possible results. My heart was broken to see Robbie go, but it's over.

Season is almost done and judging Rafa's work until now, I have to say he has done a rather good job considering the time he arrived at the club, the difficulty of the job he took and the support he received from the fans. Football we played under him was good while he also managed to improve Torres' form and performances. Sadly, we couldn't reach the FA Cup final, but besides that it was a decent season.

Our team is still a bit short from winning the league title, but with Fergie gone, City probably changing their manager and hopefully, with Jose and some good transfer, I would expect us to nail the league next season.

Credit where credit is due, he has done a decent job and proven some things to us.

Still, I simply can't look at him as one of our own, it's rather as if I'm looking at a foreigner, but oh well, thanks for your effort Rafael

[The Skipper 20,609]

And not to mention, there is an obvious double standard going on. When we win games, especially the big ones, people praised the players for getting that 3 result but don't bother to give Benitez credit, not even a tiny bit. BUT yet, when we lose or fail to win games, most of these people blame everything and solely on Benitez when the players' performances on the pitch are the one that mess it up most of the time.

That's not true, a very black and white way of looking at it. The people that criticise him alas myself have given him credit for the big games we've won. And it's not true that people blame defeats solely on Rafa, just take a look at the Mikel or Torres threads.

I'll give Rafa credit for doing a decent job overall, he's been quite professional too, and yeah sure he won us a major trophy which is fair enough even though we were the strongest team in the competition and should be beating the teams we faced regardless (but still, you have to beat what's in front of you and he deserves credit for that) but you can't honestly hold your head up and say that he's not made mistakes in a couple of games we should've won.

This image below (courtesy of robdog) also shows some are overrating the job he's done. In the end it's the points that Di Matteo won for us at the start of the season that contributed quite a bit in us finished top four.

[Jase 43,479]

That's not true, a very black and white way of looking at it. The people that criticise him alas myself have given him credit for the big games we've won. And it's not true that people blame defeats solely on Rafa, just take a look at the Mikel or Torres threads.

I did not specifically said 'everyone' or 'all fans', did I? Obviously meant those haters who are just blindly driven by hatred.