What Happens Next For Rafael Benitez?

 I don’t really like to go on too much about other clubs, their players, fans or management but sometimes it’s fun to.

 Last night after beating Middlesbrough in the FA Cup Rafa Benitez spoke about how some of the Chelsea fans hinder rather than help the team by singing against the manager and creating a negative atmosphere. He’s not wrong. And how many of us tune in to Chelsea’s home games on Sky so we can listen to the crowd’s reaction to their own manager because we find it funny a set of fans can be this short sighted? Plenty of us, we find it amusing.

 Rafa feels the reason the fans haven’t got behind him is because somebody high up at Chelsea decided to officially name him ‘interim manager’. The title suggests he won’t be there beyond the end of the season (as do some of the results and performances under him……) but to be honest a ten year management contract at Chelsea is also no guarantee of any more than a few months in charge.

 The reason Chelsea fans don’t like Rafa isn’t his Liverpool connection (they were happy enough when they signed Torres, little did they know….), it’s because of comments he made about Chelsea when in charge at LFC. We played them twice in Champions League semi finals, the atmospheres at Anfield have become legendary, they were nights amongst the greatest in or history and will never be forgotten, full of banners, scarves, flags, passion and noise. The two legs at Stamford Bridge were quiet, uneventful and full of plastic flags that the club laid out on the seats for the supporters. Rafa simply pointed this out, he was praising the Liverpool fans and comparing them to Chelsea fans by stating facts, something he would later become even more famous for doing.

 Rafa praised the Liverpool fans to let them know how much they helped the team, it was an attempt to get even more out of the supporters and consequently the team, it was a way of trying to gain an advantage and win. In short it was a manager doing what you’d want your manager to do. If the Chelsea fans don’t want to  see this then that’s up to them. They and Rafa between them have ensured he won’t be there next season anyway so it’s all irrelevant.

 I have a solution that I think suits everybody. Rafa will leave Chelsea in the summer and be looking for a job. He wants to work somewhere a manager is given time, somewhere the board, supporters and players will continue to back the manager even if he doesn’t deliver them trophies. He loves English football. He has a house on Merseyside. There will be a job available across Stanley Park come May time. Could be a perfect solution all round. I’m just saying….