Villas Boas (EX) Chelsea manager

[RedReet]

Some of them are quite mild compared to what I can remember. I'm pretty sure that some people said us signing AVB= league title.

I'm also more sure that a lot of the people claiming he was the best thing since sliced bread had barely watched Porto played and their main ally was wiki. Not that I'm cynical or anything.

[Lee]

I'm also more sure that a lot of the people claiming he was the best thing since sliced bread had barely watched Porto played and their main ally was wiki. Not that I'm cynical or anything.

Can't believe such a thing would happen on this forum.

[Muddled]

If Chelsea appoint Benitez - and it is believed to be '75 per cent certain' they will - they are taking on a master strategist.

[Muddled]

Chelsea need Rafa Benitez's tactical genius to clean up mess created by Andre Villas-Boas

If the first emergency phone call from Roman Abramovich is to Rafa Benitez, a swift second should be made to his former number two at Liverpool, Pako Ayesteran.

Should Chelsea benefit from the Benitez who arrived alongside an expert backroom team at Anfield in 2004, they will find a remedy to the catastrophic mishaps they’ve suffered recently. If they’re thinking of appointing the one who left after an acrimonious few years in 2010, the divisions currently visible at Stamford Bridge will eventually broaden to the size of the Grand Canyon.

Benitez has spent too long away from football, and it is inconceivable one of the game’s deepest thinkers has not evaluated why so many lesser coaches have taken jobs while he’s been ignored. That Andre Villas-Boas was ever recruited before him at Stamford Bridge didn’t make a lot of sense based purely on experience and track record, so in many ways an error may soon be rectified.

The oversight certainly had nothing to do with coaching ability. If Chelsea appoint Benitez - and it is believed to be '75 per cent certain' they will - they are taking on a master strategist. There will be no more post-match inquests into tactical incompetence, while analysis of defensive ineptitude will disappear within weeks. Chelsea fans will be immediately reacquainted with the Jose Mourinho era, when the beauty of a hard-fought, highly efficient 1-0 win was more fully understood and appreciated.

For three years, Benitez transformed Liverpool. In 2005, he led what many considered a deeply flawed squad to Champions League triumph, allowing previously comic characters such as Igor Biscan and Djimi Traore to leave as ultimate winners.

In many ways, what he did a year later was more impressive. A new look squad collected 82 points and won the FA Cup, beating Mourinho’s most formidable Chelsea in the semi-final again.

It only started to go wrong after the third year – the 2007 Champions League final - when his right hand man, Ayesteran, followed other previous close confidants (who’d also triumphed with Benitez at Valencia) out the door. Ironically, one of the reasons they fell out is because Benitez thought Ayesteran wanted to go to Chelsea. If the pair could be reunited now, a partnership which has echoes of the Brian Clough-Peter Taylor partnership, would transform Chelsea into potential Premier League winners again.

Bereft of sound counsel, Benitez became more obsessed with politics than football in his latter years at Anfield. Although he fought Manchester United for the title in 2009, it was an erratic, unstable period.

A lot of that, it must be said, wasn’t his fault. The ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett took its toll on everyone at Liverpool. A fair proportion of it undoubtedly was down the Benitez, however, and for his next employers’ sake he must have come to realise the mistakes as he opened the doors of his Wirral home to the media in an effort to alter perceptions. At the very least, he must have often wondered how on earth he’d allowed circumstances to develop where he could lose his job to Roy Hodgson.

If he gets the call, Benitez is clever and pragmatic enough to know he will need to revert to his former self to succeed at Chelsea. He’ll need to work with senior players rather than alienate them like Villas-Boas has done. John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, in the short-term at least, will need to be allies if an arrangement is to become permanent.

Benitez has more chance of anyone of repairing Fernando Torres. Their relationship deteroriated at Anfield too in the final season, but there’ll be mutual benefit in forgetting that to revive each others’ career.

As a short-term fix, Benitez and Chelsea can work. Longer-term, for any manager to succeed at Stamford Bridge, there will come a point where the Terrys, Lampards and Drogbas will have to be subservient to the will of the manager.

Benitez would relish that battle too, and the political dynamic between the manager, dressing room and owner would be as enthralling – and ultimately possibly as debilitating - to watch in west London as it was on Merseyside.

Linkage: Telegraph

[Shaggy]

Blimey.

[Chris]

Bascombe is a muppet. Not really much point in sacking him with so little left of the season anyway, might aswell wait till the summer where more/better candidates would be available.

[Chazza]

Didn't Bascombe and Rafa have a falling out?

Seem to remember articles from him sticking the knife in after he left the Echo?

[Shaggy]

Yep they did.

[cream]

Please noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[Chazza]

Weird he is talking him up then

Unless he wants him back in the firing line

[dom9]

Is Bascombe to be trusted these days?

[Mostar]

I would absolutely hate it if he would take them and turn them into a winning club.

If that would happen it would affect his legacy with us.

[Rich]

No doubt about it - if Rafa turned around Chelsea's fortunes he'd be lauded by the ******s in the press.

[Fivex]

The only way he'd take that job for more than 6 months would be if he's allowed to have an LFC release clause inserted.

[Rich]

I would absolutely hate it if he would take them and turn them into a winning club.

If that would happen it would affect his legacy with us.

Let's not forget just how shabbily "the club" treated Rafa in that final year.

Senior players allegedly going behind his back to speak with the MD.
The MD openly briefing the press against Rafa.
The H&G debacle.
A good proportion of the fan base turning their back on him.
Getting sacked.

It's a measure of the man that Benitez is still so deeply, and clearly, in love with the club and the area.

I'd be gutted if Rafa went to manage Chelsea or any English club to be honest, but he deserves success and I'm sure it is only a matter of time until a big English job is offered to him.