I hated Benitez as well before he came to us and now... No nevermind I still hate him.

 

Hated him during too.

 

Hate how the media paints him. Then they started writing articles about how the EL win warmed us to him. Did it f**k.

Edited April 22, 201511 yr by Stim

Hated him during too.

 

Hate how the media paints him. Then they started writing articles about how the EL win warmed us to him. Did it f**k.

 

I think the majority of Chelsea fans would say that overall he failed. To lose the Club World Cup Final and go out of the League Cup semi-final against Swansea was woeful. 

Some fans' hate for Rafa thawed, others maintained a loathing for him throughout his tenure but I don't think he was the cause of most of our issues. Instead his hiring was a result of years of poor decisions.

 

Lowest point as a Chelsea supporter was his hiring but ultimately it was a means to an end.

Still hate the fat prick though. 

That league cup semi defeat was less embarrassing than when we got punted out to lower league opposition this season.

His time with us wasn’t a complete disaster when you look at tbh, we still won a European trophy.

I’m glad it was only a short term appointment, he should never have been here in the first place though.

It was a scandalous appointment but I wouldn't say he failed at all to be honest. His aim was top 4 which we comfortable achieved as well as winning a European trophy. 

That league cup semi defeat was less embarrassing than when we got punted out to lower league opposition this season.

His time with us wasn’t a complete disaster when you look at tbh, we still won a European trophy.

I’m glad it was only a short term appointment, he should never have been here in the first place though.

 

Difference being, this season we're the league in addition to the League Cup.

 

FSW stumbled around in the league (1-0 home loss to a woeful QPR side springs to mind) with the ambition being to just get top 4 rather than win something. Loss to mid table Swansea over two legs, with the usual lack of effort to change things in either tie with regards to formation and substitutions. 

 

A poor showing in our debut appearances in the Club World Cup, beaten following a tepid display by a weaker team than ourselves and then we stumbled through the Europea League winning by only 1 goal on aggregate against inferior opposition in the first three of our two legged ties. 

 

He was woeful. Biggest low point of my days supporting Chelsea. A charlatan of the highest order. 

I think the majority of Chelsea fans would say that overall he failed. To lose the Club World Cup Final and go out of the League Cup semi-final against Swansea was woeful. 

 

He was mediocre, lost everything but the weakest competition when we only actually played one recognisable team. Turned a 4 point gap with 1st place when Di Matteo was sacked into nearer 20 points. Lost in the League Cup semis pathetically against Swansea. Lost at home to QPR. He should have been sacked for that alone.

 

Yet oddly there was a concerted media effort to get us to accept him, constantly telling us what a brilliant job he was doing. Had AVB or Ancelotti posted similar results, they'd be running dead man walking articles. When a pathological Chelsea hater like Patrick Collins is pleading with Roman to keep Benitez, you know it's not because he thinks doing so is in the absolute best interests of Chelsea FC.

Difference being, this season we're the league in addition to the League Cup.

 

FSW stumbled around in the league (1-0 home loss to a woeful QPR side springs to mind) with the ambition being to just get top 4 rather than win something. Loss to mid table Swansea over two legs, with the usual lack of effort to change things in either tie with regards to formation and substitutions. 

 

A poor showing in our debut appearances in the Club World Cup, beaten following a tepid display by a weaker team than ourselves and then we stumbled through the Europea League winning by only 1 goal on aggregate against inferior opposition in the first three of our two legged ties. 

 

He was woeful. Biggest low point of my days supporting Chelsea. A charlatan of the highest order. 

 

In his defence we lost that League Cup because of uncharacteristic individual errors from Ivanovic. The CWC was nothing but a distraction in my opinion either but some of his substitutions were woeful.

 

My overall feeling was that he did a decent job with a poorly constructed squad. We had been through years of mismanagement that the Champions League win papered over the cracks of and he did ok to navigate us to a CL spot despite some of the worst support I've ever seen this club give the team.

 

The original mistake was hiring Robbie full-time though and waiting for Pep, but luckily it all turned out well in the end. Don't hate the guy, don't like him....just rather ambivalent and in no rush to spend time thinking about the darkest moments of my time supporting this club.

In his defence we lost that League Cup because of uncharacteristic individual errors from Ivanovic. The CWC was nothing but a distraction in my opinion either but some of his substitutions were woeful.

My overall feeling was that he did a decent job with a poorly constructed squad. We had been through years of mismanagement that the Champions League win papered over the cracks of and he did ok to navigate us to a CL spot despite some of the worst support I've ever seen this club give the team.

The original mistake was hiring Robbie full-time though and waiting for Pep, but luckily it all turned out well in the end. Don't hate the guy, don't like him....just rather ambivalent and in no rush to spend time thinking about the darkest moments of my time supporting this club.

Spot on.

He was mediocre, lost everything but the weakest competition when we only actually played one recognisable team. Turned a 4 point gap with 1st place when Di Matteo was sacked into nearer 20 points. Lost in the League Cup semis pathetically against Swansea. Lost at home to QPR. He should have been sacked for that alone.

 

Yet oddly there was a concerted media effort to get us to accept him, constantly telling us what a brilliant job he was doing. Had AVB or Ancelotti posted similar results, they'd be running dead man walking articles. When a pathological Chelsea hater like Patrick Collins is pleading with Roman to keep Benitez, you know it's not because he thinks doing so is in the absolute best interests of Chelsea FC.

 

If you aren't counting Basle as a recognisable team bear in mind that they beat us two out of two times the season after.

That league cup semi defeat was less embarrassing than when we got punted out to lower league opposition this season.

 

In the context of a season where have a ten point lead in the league, a League Cup win and only three losses in all competitions, it does soften the blow somewhat. Benitez' crap results were continuous and not offset by loads of good ones.

Benitez time here was thankfully short lived, he did what he does everywhere wins a trophy at the start then his teams begin to go downhill. Yes he did get is top three and EL but he let us down so often with his decisions. Changing the team up in the world club championship final (still don't get why he did that), stupid games in the league where he would take off or not even start Mata/Hazard and we'd drop points and the league cup semi where he wouldn't start Ba or JT. Personally I think he was a slight failure in some respects but the EL win will always be fondly remembered.

Blue Daze, CWC was not a distraction it was a chance to win a trophy that who knows when we will get to play in again. I see your devaluing of certain trophies hasn't changed.

Edited April 22, 201511 yr by Bobbywoodhogan

In the context of a season where have a ten point lead in the league, a League Cup win and only three losses in all competitions, it does soften the blow somewhat. Benitez' crap results were continuous and not offset by loads of good ones.

I never said it was a good season, I pointed out it wasn't a disaster though given we won a European trophy.

Our season was already pointing to a failure and we were pretty dire before he came in at the end of November remember, he was just a pointless appointment who was no better than those he replaced.

It's a decision I will never understand though, Roman really made a pig ears of that one and it's a good job he brought back Jose because he IMO was on the verge of some hefty abuse after hiring Rafa and not bringing in a popular choice next.

Blue Daze, CWC was not a distraction it was a chance to win a trophy that who knows when we will get to play in again. I see your devaluing of certain trophies hasn't changed.

 

It was when we needed to focus on getting to top four. It would've been nice to have won but there were far more pressing issues that faced this club in my opinion.

 

As for me devaluing trophies, I very much enjoyed the League Cup Final thank you very much.

We've won five European trophies in our 110 year history. Yes, we quite clearly have a squad to be reguarly challenging now, but for me, any season with a European trophy isn't a failure.

We've won five European trophies in our 110 year history. Yes, we quite clearly have a squad to be reguarly challenging now, but for me, any season with a European trophy isn't a failure.

Agreed.

That was a LONG season too, we played a huge amount of games IIRC.

I had a fantastic day/night watching us win the Europa and it felt great, if I didn't have that feeling in a season I'd regard it as a failure.

The season was far from great but I'd rather focus on the positives than dwell on the negatives.

I never said it was a good season, I pointed out it wasn't a disaster though given we won a European trophy.

Our season was already pointing to a failure and we were pretty dire before he came in at the end of November remember, he was just a pointless appointment who was no better than those he replaced.

It's a decision I will never understand though, Roman really made a pig ears of that one and it's a good job he brought back Jose because he IMO was on the verge of some hefty abuse after hiring Rafa and not bringing in a popular choice next.

 

We were 3rd and 4 points behind the leaders Man City when Di Matteo was sacked, and had been royally done over by Clattenburg against United. By the end of the season we were still 3rd, only the gap had increased to 14 points (and was even wider before United eased up after clinching the title). Then there was his deliberate isolation of our captain and best centre half for personal reasons, and his trademark ineffective tactic of bringing on a full back for another full back when we were losing.

 

 

It was an utterly pointless appointment, didn't improve us at all (arguably we got worse), and showed complete disregard for the views of the fans. Worst of all was him, of all people, replacing Robbie who had just won the CL and been very harshly sacked. At least it made JM's return sweeter.

We were 3rd and 4 points behind the leaders Man City when Di Matteo was sacked, and had been royally done over by Clattenburg against United. By the end of the season we were still 3rd, only the gap had increased to 14 points (and was even wider before United eased up after clinching the title). Then there was his deliberate isolation of our captain and best centre half for personal reasons, and his trademark ineffective tactic of bringing on a full back for another full back when we were losing.

 

 

It was an utterly pointless appointment, didn't improve us at all (arguably we got worse), and showed complete disregard for the views of the fans. Worst of all was him, of all people, replacing Robbie who had just won the CL and been very harshly sacked. At least it made JM's return sweeter.

 

Robbie was a one-dimensional manager who was found out after a good start and saw us eliminated from the CL, but that's not really his fault. The mistake was hiring a manager who was vastly out of his depth.

 

When that realisation dawned then it became an issue of who could get us top four at the end of the season - that was the only target and Rafa managed it. No point rehashing the past though because we ended up with the best manager in the world back and a far more focussed, organised structure going forwards.

Fed up of people from outside chelsea telling me Rafa did a good job...if you're a chelsea fan and think that then fair enough...we all have our opinion.

but as someone who watched him flounder week to week, I just can't have it...remember this was the guy that tried to get JT kicked out the club as some sort of power trip, it was painful...yes he won Europa league, but come on, who did we beat? Will never turn my nose up at winning any trophy, but we were playing the equivalent of teams from pot three and four in cl group stages...and we were gifted place straight into knockout stage.

Also remember many balls ups on way to scraping into top four...picking weak team at Southampton to save star players for fa cup replay against Utd cos he was desperate for trophy to put on own cv...top four was more important to the club and he risked it...we lost to saints, beat Utd and it was all in vain anyway...plus I was at villa when we got dicked on,,,but for Benteke getting himself sent off and lamps heroics, we would have lost that key match and been in serious sh*t for top four...again I'm reminded how he claimed he was teaching lamps new skills...unbelievable nerve of the guy

It was criminal how we lost to Swansea in league cup...yes we lost first leg with errors, but in second he waited 70 mins to make his first substitution when it was still 0-0 and that was to bring on a right back for a right back...he kept supposed 'I can get best out of Torres' on the bench till after hazard was sent off with about eight minutes left...

Plus we may never get chance to win fifa world club cup again and we lost to a very mediocre Corinthians side...I believe Benitez did the bare minimum with squad he had and despite paying price for going out of cl group stage, to very good juve and Shakhtar sides it should be said, I'm not convinced Di Matteo would have done any worse...we actually played far better football under him at start of the season, but he was still figuring out how not to do it at expense of defence...didn't help that we lost to a Utd team thanks to woeful decisions by Clattenburg

And as for media campaign, was fed up of being told we were in the wrong by how we felt about our club and who was in charge of it..

It was criminal how we lost to Swansea in league cup...yes we lost first leg with errors, but in second he waited 70 mins to make his first substitution when it was still 0-0 and that was to bring on a right back for a right back...he kept supposed 'I can get best out of Torres' on the bench till after hazard was sent off with about eight minutes left...

 

He bought on a left-back for a left-back, but I remember how people were crying for Torres to be dropped for Ba. Can't have it both ways.

 

Plus we may never get chance to win fifa world club cup again and we lost to a very mediocre Corinthians side...I believe Benitez did the bare minimum with squad he had and despite paying price for going out of cl group stage, to very good juve and Shakhtar sides it should be said, I'm not convinced Di Matteo would have done any worse...we actually played far better football under him at start of the season, but he was still figuring out how not to do it at expense of defence...didn't help that we lost to a Utd team thanks to woeful decisions by Clattenburg

 

Fair enough. I reckon we'll get another shot at it but I'm not sure Robbie would've stopped the slide. Fergie exposed those tactics and showed everyone how to beat us and I've not seen anything in Robbie's career to suggest he has a plan B, beyond parking the bus. 

 

 

And as for media campaign, was fed up of being told we were in the wrong by how we felt about our club and who was in charge of it..

 

Fact is that there supporters were divided and there were fans on both sides - some continually berating Benitez with that sh*t chant and others just wanting to get past the negativity and make it to the end of the season in a position that would allow us to build under a new manager.

 

I see no point in continuing to hate him though. I didn't want him but he came in and left us in a position to get Jose and move on. Job done.

Can people just not accept that he did his job?

 

Finished 3rd with a European Trophy. Arsenal fans would bite your hand off for that. All attained with no pre-season. A job well done in my opinion. Fair play to him.

Can people just not accept that he did his job?

 

Finished 3rd with a European Trophy. Arsenal fans would bite your hand off for that. All attained with no pre-season. A job well done in my opinion. Fair play to him.

 

No, he's a c**t!

And his job was to completely balls up a cup semi against Swansea?