In Defence of Rafa Benitez:

It was impossible to ignore the despairing, desperate cries of Chelsea supporters across the world at roughly 7:30pm on Wednesday 21st November. Rafa Benitez has been appointed manager of the Blues in the aftermath of the dismissal of Roberto Di Matteo, surely one of the cruellest sackings in recent memory. Supporters young and old can be seen crying into their replica shirts, dreaming of Munich, trophies and John Terry (shin pads and all). “What could be worse than Benitez?” they cry! Well, as it turns out, a lot.

Football fans are often fickle, choosing to forget the past if it doesn’t suit the future. Chelsea fans are not exempt from this. There was much abuse aimed at Fernando Torres when he was wearing the red of Liverpool, but when he arrived at Stamford Bridge, there was fanfare and genuine belief that they had signed one of the world’s best strikers. Admittedly, this hasn’t exactly worked out well for anyone so far, but the point remains. Why has the appointment of a manager who so brilliantly thwarted so many Chelsea cup runs in the mid 00’s been met with such distain?

Chelsea fans argue that Benitez has been out of work for two years since his sacking from Inter Milan and that he is simply not a good manager. But, as the man himself put it so adeptly, let’s look at the facts.

In a glorious spell as Valencia boss, he overthrew the Barcelona/Real Madrid dominance and secured two historic La Liga titles as well as the UEFA Cup. It was this winning mentality that prompted Liverpool to appoint, a then clean-shaven and youthful-looking, Rafa Benitez in 2004. Mention 2005 to any Reds fan and they will almost certainly combust in excitement reminiscing of that glorious Champions League victory in Istanbul. A year later, as much as it breaks this writer’s heart, he repeats the trick with a Steven Gerrard inspired FA Cup triumph over West Ham.

It hasn’t all been plain-sailing however. An ill-fated spell at Inter Milan, following the hugely successful Jose Mourinho era, in 2010 put the first real blot on Benitez’s CV. Some fans will point to the less successful end to his reign as Liverpool boss where the trophies dried up and the cracks started to appear in his relationship with the hierarchy. And of course, there is the question as to why he has remained unemployed for two years, frequented various football magazine shows across the world, including some rather entertaining interviews in this country.

It might just be that at this moment in time, Chelsea need Benitez and Benitez needs Chelsea. RDM was never secure in the proverbial ejector seat that is the Chelsea Manager’s job especially when Roman Abramovich is attempting to play fantasy football by luring Pep Guardiola to mould the West Londoners into ‘Barcelona in Blue’. Benitez presents himself as a stop-gap, which if all goes wrong with Pep and right with Rafa, has the potential to hold down the position beyond the end of the season. For Benitez, the benefits are clear. A job at one of the biggest, richest clubs in world football, world class players at his disposal and no doubt a nice pay check to take home with home at the end of a long day on the training pitches at Cobham.

There is no doubt that Benitez’s teams play attacking, attractive football and whilst Chelsea fans have taken an immediate dislike to their new gaffer, they cannot deny that the man knows how to get results. Just ask them to recall Champions League semi-finals in 2005 and 2007 and they will begin to recoil in horror of the memory of being unceremoniously dumped out by Rafa’s Liverpool. One of the main issues with the appointment is the way that Benitez is seen to have treated the club in the past. One supporters group has today spoken of the ‘dismissive’ way that Benitez has spoken about Chelsea in the past.

However, the supporters have to see passed this and look to the future, something they managed to do with Fernando Torres and must do once again. There is a school of thought that Benitez may be the man to help Torres rediscover his form of his halcyon days on Merseyside, and whilst this remains to be seen, there is no better man equipped for the task than Rafa Benitez. This may well have been a key aspect to Abramovich’s thinking, because as things stand, Torres looks suspiciously like another owner indulgence gone dreadfully wrong.

I cannot assure Chelsea fans that sacking RDM and bringing Benitez in was the correct decision, but to chastise the new man before he has even taken his seat in the home dugout at Stamford Bridge is as ludicrous as anything else surrounding this situation.

Follow me on Twitter: @Alexstoz

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