Many a manager has made a poor
decision or two by either doing well at a smaller club and snapping at the
chance of taking over a bigger club with a bigger budget or may have been out
of work for a sustained period of time and took what was on offer despite
knowing deep down it was not the best decision to accept the job. The latter
scenario has played its self out in football many times and Rafa Bentiez’s
tenure at Chelsea is another case study.
No one can fault Benitez taking
the manager’s job at Chelsea as Chelsea have an excellent squad and resources
and it would have been a good move if it weren’t for two reasons, having a boss
who values the playing staff more than the manager and in the past managing one
of the clubs fiercest rivals inflicting some of the clubs most painful defeats
making him an instant target for Chelsea fans none too pleased by his
appointment in the first place.
It wouldn’t be fair to call the
manager’s job at Chelsea a poisoned chalice but it has a all the hallmarks. Its
most successful managers have been shown the door not months after bringing a lorry
load of silverware (Jose Mourinho, Carlo Anchelotti and Roberto Di Matteo),
others have got results when times were less than perfect (Avram Grant and Guus
Hiddink (although he left due to other commitments)), or didn’t really enough
time to make their mark and make necessary alterations to an talented but
ageing squad (Luis Felipe Scolari and Andre Villas Boas).
Benitez must have known that it
was going to be a mighty task to win over fans who didn’t like him much when he
was manager at Liverpool when the rivalry between the two sides was toxic at
best or the rivalry he had with the still popular Jose Mourinho, who is rumoured
to be the man to replace Benitez. There have accusations that Benitez is being
bullied by the fans who would probably have kept them content if he didn’t lose
a game, which is unrealistic and unfair.
Benitez will most definitely
leave in the summer, if not any time in the near future or going on Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich track record, anytime between noon and teatime today.
In sum, Rafa has been treated
unfairly and has had it rough but Benitez must have known that the fans were
not going to happy having lost a popular and successful manager and former
player in DI Matteo replaced by a man who managed Liverpool when the rivalry
between the two sides was less than cordial to say the least producing some of
the most controversial, mean spirited yet entertaining 90 minutes of football
ever seen on English soil. All that Benitez can do now is win as many games as
possible and secure a place in next year’s UEFA Champions League as any other
scenario is unthinkable.
