Rafa Benitez was officially welcomed at Stamford Bridge and frenetically booed by Chelsea fans. I have never witnessed the reaction of the home fans about the appointment of a new manager in the history of Premier League football.
Rafa Benitez was appointed interim manager after the Champions League loss against Juventus Turin and replaced Roberto Di Matteo. In his first Premier League match against Manchester City, he faced a hostile environment by his own Chelsea supporters. Abusive chants and signs with “Rafa Out” were all over the stadium.
The Chelsea fans responded to the comments he made during his time at Liverpool. The former Liverpool manager claimed he would never coach at Stamford Bridge. During his time at Liverpool, he said:”Chelsea is a big club with fantastic players; every manager wants to coach such a big team. But I would never take that job, in respect for my former team at Liverpool, no matter what. For me there is only club in England, and that’s Liverpool.”He also made comments against Chelsea fans. He said: “We do not need to give away flags to 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 us to win matches – not flags.”
Chelsea supporter don’t support Abramovich’s decision. Trizia Fiorellino, chair of the Chelsea Supporters’ Group said: “”The fans don’t expect to pick and choose the managers but it was pretty evident there were only two people that were not acceptable in this case – Benitez and Avram Grant. It was almost as if the board and the owner were trying to send a message to the fans to say ‘we run this club, not you – you have no say.”
Chelsea will face Fulham in the local London derby on Wednesday, November 28th at Stamford Bridge before they face West Ham away. Only results will help Benitez at Chelsea and the supporters expecting an apology or at least an acceptance of what Benitez said when he was at Liverpool. Rafa Benitez will face the fans sooner rather than later.
