Hitting out: Benitez made a comment about Chelsea fans
and their support that was made into a plaque and hung at
Liverpool's Mellwood training ground
Not a fan: Benitez hit out at Chelsea fans and their
flags
Wherever they go we’ll
follow our
team, For we are the Chelsea and we are supreme,
We'll never be mastered by no
northern b******s, And we'll keep the blue flag flying
high,
Flying high, up in the
sky, We'll keep the blue flag flying high,
From Stamford Bridge to
Wemb(er)ley, We'll keep the blue flag flying high.
'If Chelsea are naive and pure then I'm Little
Red Riding Hood.'
(2007)
'I'm sure Chelsea do not like playing Liverpool. When they
are talking and talking and talking before the game it means they
are worried. Maybe they're afraid?'
'We were good
friends until Liverpool started winning, then he started changing
his mind.' (on rival Jose
Mourinho)
'To me, Arsenal played much better football two or three
years ago. They won matches and were exciting to watch. They create
excitement so how can you say Chelsea are the best in the world?'
(after Chelsea's first Premier League title win)
'After the game, Sheila,
who was sitting right in line, said to me that the ball had crossed
the line. She is a very honest person and that was good enough for
me. It was a goal.' (on taking his secretary's word that Luis
Garcia's 'ghost goal' had crossed the line in the 2005
semi-final)
Rafael Benitez may not be too familiar with the
song but he certainly knows all about the pride Chelsea place in
their flags on those Champions League nights.
So when the club’s new interim boss arrives at the Bridge
today desperately needing to build a few of
his own, Benitez might struggle to explain comments he made in the
past about Chelsea.
For instance, how’s he going to explain this one from five
years ago?
‘Chelsea is a big club with fantastic players, every
manager wants to coach a such a big team,’ said the Spaniard. ‘But
I would never take that job, in respect for my former team at
Liverpool, no matter what. For me there is only club in England,
and that’s Liverpool.’
They loved him at Anfield and Benitez loves them too (he
still lives on Merseyside more than two years after leaving
Liverpool) which makes it all the more difficult to picture him in
charge at Stamford Bridge.
And in 2007 before one of many epic European clashes
between Liverpool and Chelsea, Benitez made a comment that was so
popular at Anfield that they stuck the words on a plaque and put it
on the training ground wall.
‘We don’t need to give away flags for our fans to wave –
our supporters are always there with their hearts, and that is all
we need. It’s the passion of the fans that helps to win matches –
not flags.’
Other versions of this quote refer to ‘stupid plastic
flags’ and end with the words ‘Chelsea fans lack passion’, but that
will be largely academic when Benitez walks out at Stamford Bridge
on Sunday.
‘I will never forgive him for the statement,’ posted one
Chelsea supporter this week. ‘Don’t forget your plastic flag at the
weekend!’ wrote another.
Flag wavers: Chelsea fans wave their flags prior to a
game at Stamford Bridge
I'll never take that job: Rafael Benitez said he would
never manage Chelsea out of respect for Liverpool
No-one has got under Chelsea’s skin quite like
Benitez, which makes his appointment all the more baffling in the
wake of the decision to axe Roberto Di
Matteo.
They produced enough controversy, bad blood and, yes,
barbed comments to make Benitez’s mission an almost impossible one
even before he has walked through the door.
There was that ‘fact’ rant at Sir Alex Ferguson and the
time he upset Everton by referring to them as ‘a small club’, but
Chelsea and Jose Mourinho became a particular hobby
horse.
When asked about his relationship with the Special One,
who twice refused to shake his hand after games between the two
clubs, Benitez said: ‘We were good friends until Liverpool started
winning, then he started changing his mind.’
Nothing got to Mourinho more than what he has always
called the ‘ghost goal’ from Luis Garcia that saw Liverpool knock
Chelsea out of the Champions League semi-final in 2005 en route to
glory in Istanbul.
Benitez risked further infuriating Chelsea and their
manager by insisting the ball had crossed the line – on the say-so
of his secretary Sheila.
‘After the game Sheila, who was sitting right in line in
the main stand, said to me that the ball had crossed the line,’
said Benitez. ‘She is a very honest person and that was good enough
for me. It was a goal.’
The former Valencia boss has always been reluctant to
credit Chelsea and Mourinho for their successes, instead making
pointed references to the financial might behind them.
‘We know Chelsea are a very good team,’ Benitez once said.
‘In the last five years they have spent big money on
players.’
It crossed the line: Benitez angered Chelsea fans when
he said that Luis Garcia 'ghost goal' in the Champions League semi
final crossed the line - say-so of his secretary Sheila
No thanks: Chelsea fan protested when Rafa
Benitez was linked in March
After Mourinho helped Chelsea to their first
Premier League title in 2004-05, Benitez merely criticised their
lack of flair, saying: ‘To me, Arsenal played much better football
two or three years ago. They won matches and were exciting to
watch.
‘Barcelona and Milan too. They create excitement so how
can you say Chelsea are the best in the world?’
Another barb followed before Liverpool knocked Chelsea out
of the 2007 Champions League semi-final.
‘I’m sure Chelsea do not like playing Liverpool,’ goaded
Benitez. ‘When they are talking and talking and talking before the
game it means they are worried. Maybe they’re
afraid?’
And as they prepared to meet in the final four once again
a year later, Benitez upset his opponents and striker Didier Drogba
by revealing that he had put together a four-year dossier on the
player’s diving antics.
Given Drogba’s cult status at Stamford Bridge
and the fact that Chelsea are now weighing up the possibility of
bringing him back on an emergency loan from his Chinese club
Shanghai Shenhua, it’s one of several issues that threaten to make
life rather uncomfortable for Benitez.
It should be an interesting few months in west
London.
