Chelsea made a massive mistake

On the back of Rafa’s scathing attack of Chelsea fans, it appears the interim manager has now burnt any bridges he had before the match. Not only did he accuse the Chelsea faithful of not supporting the team enough, but he also accused the decisions by the board, namely giving him the title of “interim” manager.

I agree. Chelsea did make a”massive mistake”. To appoint Rafa Benitez, the former Liverpool manager who said “I would never take that [Chelsea] job, out of respect to my former employers”, was then and still is now a foolish decision. He may have won however many trophies ten years ago, but the fact is he was never going to garner the support of the fans quickly – and now that he has lashed out like this, the hostility will doubtless continue for the rest of the season.

Having not been employed for a long stretch going back to his job at Inter in 2010, he was never going to come in and make a difference straight away. The 0-0 draw against City in his first game was solid, if unspectacular. But what followed was unacceptable, including a 3-1 loss at West Ham. We then had several losses at home, including the 1-0 loss to QPR, and we have now dropped down to fourth behind Spurs.

Ultimately, Rafa was always doomed from the beginning. An already tense relationship with the fans made worse by a poor start to his career. But I’m sure he knew what he was getting into. But what does this all mean for ‘Project Torres’? One of the reasons cited for bringing Rafa in was to get Torres scoring again. Now that Abramovich was prepared to risk the wrath of the fans in appointing Benitez, Torres has done little to show his gratitude. He still somehow manages to completely disappear from matches, and doesn’t score important goals for the club. Romelu Lukaku has been carrying WBA through the season, and he is doing an amazing job, too. It would surely be unfair to still favour Torres over Lukaku given their vastly contrasting seasons.

Yes, they made a massive mistake. They appointed you, Rafa. You may be a good manager, but there is simply no way you could have been successful at Stamford Bridge. You never had the support. They made many mistakes.