Thank You Rafa!

He may have started his reign badly at Chelsea, but ended it in one of the most memorable ways, specially for the Chelsea fans. Benitez was appointed in place of the departing Roberto Di Matteo, who was sacked due to a string of losses which all began when Chelsea ‘unfairly’ lost out to Manchester United in the Premier League.

Rafa in his early days at Chelsea

When Rafa was appointed, I wasn’t entirely satisfied, considering his comments against Chelsea from the time when he was managing Liverpool. He started off with two goalless draws against Manchester City and Fulham, which was followed by a 1-3 loss to West Ham United. We finally got our first win under him, which also turned out to be Chelsea’s biggest win in Europe, but unfortunately it was the case of ‘too little too late’ as Shakhtar edged us out on the away goals rule and we were demoted to Europa League knockouts instead.

We then equaled our personal record of most goals scored against an opponent smashing Aston Villa 8-0 on boxing day. Then, towards the start of January, came two home losses against QPR & Swansea, which frustrated me a bit. But I later realised that none of this was Rafa’s fault. That loss to QPR was because of an invisible striker, who found his form just a couple of months back & played an important part in winning us the Europa League. The loss to Swansea was because of two defensive errors by Ivanovic. But he popped up with the winner in Europa League, so I forgive both Torres & Ivanovic.

Then came a couple of 2-2 draws against Southampton & Reading. That led to more frustration as we were leading 2-0 in both those games. But, we managed to produce good ‘away’ results. We came from two goals down against Manchester United in the FA Cup & then beat them 1-0 in the replay at the Bridge; we beat Arsenal 2-1 before that; also managed to beat Everton 1-2 at Goodison.

Rafa’s meltdown!

Then, one fine day, after a satisfying victory away to Middlesborough in the FA Cup, Rafa decided that he had enough. He first criticised the board for giving him the title ‘interim manager’ & then criticised the fans for not backing him. These were his heart striking words: “Someone in the board decided to give me the title interim manager, I don’t know why. And the fans, you don’t need to waste time booing me. There are always a group of fans who boo me. You want to blame me for everything, fine! But don’t worry, I will be gone by the end of this season. Instead, support the players who need your backing!”

Rotation policy worked wonders

What I liked about Rafa was that he rotated our players RDM would play MAZACAR (Mata, Hazard, Oscar) in every game. But Rafa gave game time to Benayoun, Moses & Marin too. Not just the attacking midfielders, even the defenders. Terry wouldn’t even start more than half the games. Considering such a packed schedule, I think Rafa did very well to get us the desired results. I wouldn’t blame him for our FA Cup exit either, it was Chris Foy who didn’t see that deliberate kick by Aguero on Luiz or that penalty decision when Kompany brought down Torres. He brought back Torres to his goalscoring best, gave Azpilicueta the game time he deserved, which helped him get his first international call up for Spain. It doesn’t end there, he also played Luiz in the defensive midfield position, which helped him prosper as a player even further. Just today, reports have come in that Real Madrid wants Luiz for $70 Million. These little favors, add up to a huge sum and I am very grateful for what Rafa has offered Chelsea Football Club, in his limited time.

Even after so much, if Mourinho doesn’t come to Chelsea, I would love Rafa to continue. After all he won us the Europa League, making us the only club ever in Europe, to win both of UEFA’s most prestigious competitions in back to back seasons, an achievement I will never forget. But he’s surely not going to continue, there are way too many Chelsea fans who hate him. It’ll probably be Mourinho.