Benitez shares thoughts on his time at Chelsea, but prior comments are tough to forget - opinion

Rafael Benitez hopes that the work he did at Chelsea during the 2012/13 season will be seen as “a good, professional job”.

What’s the story?

After the Blues won the Champions League and the FA Cup under Roberto Di Matteo in 2012, Roman Abramovich had little choice but to give the Italian the job full-time. However, the 49-year-old was sacked in November and replaced by former Liverpool manager Benitez.

Whilst the Spaniard was not exactly popular at Stamford Bridge, he did a good job in south-west London, taking Chelsea to third in the Premier League as well as winning the Europa League. He left the club soon after.

He has been speaking about his time there to The Athletic and said:

“It was a very easy decision because it was a top club with top players.

“What I have to say is that the board, the players and the staff were always very supportive.

“I think the majority of the fans appreciated what we did at this time. I was really happy to perform and do what we did.

“I hope that history will look back and see we did a good, professional job and that we were successful.

“I still have a great relationship with a lot of people there.”

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Legacy amongst supporters

Saying the Spaniard was unpopular when he first arrived is an understatement. Benitez was strongly disliked amongst the Blues faithful, especially after the numerous clashes between Chelsea and Liverpool. He faced Chelsea 26 times as Liverpool manager, including during the 2005 Champions League semi-final infamous for Luis Garcia’s ghost goal.

It was always going to be an unforgiving task, but there can be no doubt that he did what he could with the Chelsea side at the time. To pick up a trophy was commendable – they had finished the previous season below Newcastle in sixth place.

However, it is naive for him to think that Blues fans would display gratitude towards him. Who can forget those immortal words from 2007 when he said:

“We don’t need to give away flags for our fans to wave. Our supporters are always there with their hearts, and that is all we need. It’s the passion of the fans that helps to win matches – not flags”.

They weren’t the only disparaging remarks he made about the west Londoners either.

When he moved to SW6, he refused to apologise for those comments, a move that would have gone some way to relieving tensions amongst the supporters. But he failed to do so and while the record books may document Benitez’s time as a respectable season under the circumstances, Chelsea supporters will unlikely ever look upon his legacy at the club fondly.

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/30JtJ4y