Rafa Watch

[Bender]

how much **** can you take till you flip your wig ? how can you even contemplate getting those moronic chelsea fans on your side

[RichC]

I think it was the heat of the moment comments from him, as Bender mentions keeping your cool under those sorts of conditions must be nigh on impossible.

Not the smartest move from Rafa but who can blame him, winners from this will be the sports writers as it gives them am easy story

[little dave hedgehog]

i think liverpool fans are also winner in this, because **** chelsea.

[Exiled_red]

@liam_lfc_: He didn't just tell Chelsea fans they're **** when he was LFC manager. He told them they're **** when he is Chelsea manager. What a guy.

[RichC]

i think liverpool fans are also winner in this, because **** chelsea.

Not really anything to do with us but I agree with your second point

[Darkon]

how much **** can you take till you flip your wig ? how can you even contemplate getting those moronic chelsea fans on your side

Just think tvere is a difference between trying to win Them over, and just letting it slide untill you are finished with the job. All he has sine is to further alienate himself...

[Fredo]

We did the same thing albeit with a bit more class with Boy Rodgson.

[Captain Stu]

Don't see how Rafa can stay as manager dopey Club and am sure that cunt Terry has had a hand in this

Well he's supposedly the "senior player" who, when they had this argument, was throwing the European cup win in his face implying that they'd been doing absolutely fine before him.

Really? So fine that Di Matteo got canned?

They're a ****ing joke and what he said was not only true but also far too polite, they deserve a far more scathing attack after the malicious, personal abuse they've levelled at him since day one. Even worse is the headline writers wanking themselves into a coma over his "rant" when it was nothing of the sort - it was a balanced, reasoned discussion where he simply stated some truths but of course that doesn't make a good headline does it?

We did the same thing albeit with a bit more class with Boy Rodgson.

I didn't see or hear a single fan boo him or complain before he'd even managed a game. I wasn't overwhelmed with the idea but thought "hey, maybe he can steady the ship for a year or two and then make room for someone better" but it all started going tits up in his after-derby press conference. The Hodge at least got a change, Rafa was doomed from day one.

[Shaggy]

The BBC website described it as an "amazing rant".

Just listened.

Are these people serious?

Still - nice one Rafa

[Captain Stu]

It's not a rant, he's not cracking up or losing it, he didn't lay into fans or anything like that... he just "spoke".

FFS.

[Shaggy]

Ollie Kay:

Just back from Middlesbrough 0 Chelsea 2 -- a forgettable match followed by an unforgettable Rafa Benitez press conference ....

A few thoughts on an ill-advised marriage of convenience that looks beyond repair

* He knew what he was saying. He's not the type to blurt things out by accident. These are opinions he has kept bottled up for weeks and quite clearly something over the past 24 hours -- still trying to find out what -- prompted him to say them. I don't imagine it was the away fans at the Riverside; they were now more hostile than they have been all along

* He's correct in what he says about the hostility towards him being damaging to the team. The same could be said of the hostility towards McLeish at Villa, Kean at Blackburn etc. A depressed atmosphere is bad enough; a toxic atmosphere is far more damaging. Was he wrong to say it? If he wants to keep his job, yes. But he sounded to me like someone who said it while fully aware of the likely consequences, whether that means being "sacked in the morning" or attracting ever greater hostility on Saturday.

* I'm not surprised Chelsea fans made life uncomfortable him from the start. Not just because of the "history" with him -- much of which seems to be based on an imagined quote, but I accept there was more to it than that -- or because they don't rate him, but because, if a culture exists where Chelsea's fans and indeed players end up thinking they can vote with their feet, it's an extension of Abramovich's continually crass decision-making

* Benitez shouldn't have gone near Chelsea in the first place. Neither should they have gone near him. Both were totally ill-suited to each other's needs -- short-term, medium-term, long-term. Chelsea needed someone who could quickly win hearts and minds after the unpopular sacking of Di Matteo. Benitez needed -- and will soon more than ever need -- a club where he can quietly rebuild his previous reputation, somewhere calmer with room for improvement like the Valencia of 2001 or the Liverpool of 2004. And please, Liverpool fans, don't suggest the Liverpool of 2013. Too much water under the bridge.

* There shouldn't have been a vacancy for Benitez to fill in the first place. Chelsea had a very bad final month under Di Matteo, but injuries were a big factor. Also, he was effectively an interim anyway. Why replace one interim with another? As Benitez said tonight, people need to realise Chelsea are in transition. They happened to win the European Cup last season, but they finished sixth in the Premier League, which is probably a better reflection of their team -- collectively, as opposed to individually -- than what they did in the cups. Being third in the Premier League in November, four points off the top, and struggling in a tough Champions League group shouldn't have got Di Matteo the sack

* Abramovich needs someone to tell him that this really isn't working. Yes they won the Champions League last season, but that looks even more like the last triumph of a crumbling empire than it did at the time. After winning a second successive Premier League title in 2006, Chelsea were in a position to dominate English and European football if they made sensible decisions. Unfortunately for them, that's when Abramovich went very hands-on. Yes they've won a lot of FA Cups since then, but there are only two trophies that matter to Abramovich and it will soon be seven years in which they've won one Premier League title and one European Cup (in the year in which they were weakest).Yes they've won plenty, but they could and should have won more and be in a position where, on and off the pitch, they have a far clearer future than they do currently

* I'm glad Benitez has spoken his mind -- or at least get those few immediate frustrations off his chest. I'm sure he could and will say far more, but it would make a nice change for an (imminently?) outgoing Chelsea manager to reflect what a basket-case the club is, rather than allow themselves to be silenced by a confidentiality agreement.

* Who will Chelsea turn to in the short term if Benitez's position is deemed untenable? The word over the past few weeks, since the cracks began to widen, it would be phone-a-friend time again on Who'd Want To Be A Billionaire. Avram Grant? Stranger things have happened. Just not at sensible clubs ...

[Reece]

Yep I've heard/seen "rant", "meltdown" and how angry Rafa was mentioned last night and so I was expecting a real venomous attack.

Then I heard it this morning and he couldn't have sounded more calm and calculated

[Captain Stu]

Very well said, Oliver.

[Vermilion]

Get in Rafa lad. About time those Chavvy ****s had the truth told em!

[Captain Stu]

I just love how they think that, even after this episode (I mean the booing and lack of support as a whole) they'll get a top manager like Klopp. Same as they thought they'd get Guardiola.



They really must think that managers live in caves and don't pay any attention to what happens across the rest of the world. No manager is going to take that job while Roman is there.

If anything proves what a joke club Chelsea are it's AVB overtaking them with Spurs, he's a class manager with a great approach to the modern game and he (like Rafa) was laughed at and mocked and made a scapegoat for their team of old arseholes and now look at him - pissing all over them as they free-fall.