RAFAEL BENITEZ INSISTS he has left behind a Chelsea side capable of challenging for the Premier League title next season after ending his six-month reign with the 2-1 victory over Everton that secured a third-placed finish.
Benitez had also masterminded last week’s Europa League final triumph over Benfica, but the interim manager’s absence from the post-match celebrations following the final-day win at Stamford Bridge highlighted his troubled relationship with the club’s supporters.
The Spaniard, though, is adamant he has succeeded in winning over many doubters among the Chelsea fans and in the dressing room during his spell at the club.
And he maintains he leaves Chelsea in a better state for his successor, likely to be Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho, than when he took over from Roberto Di Matteo in November.
“It has been a great experience,” said Benitez. “You take a team that was in transition, with young players, and now we have left a good team with more experience, more character, scoring goals, more balance.
Advertisement
“I think it will be good for the next manager, who will have a very good team, and the owner will bring in more players. This team will challenge for the title next year.
“I received a lot of messages on the website, saying thank you very much, people appreciating what we were trying to do, but it (the lap of appreciations) was for the family and players.
“I think the supporters have changed. After the Middlesbrough press conference (when Benitez criticised the travelling Chelsea supporters who targeted him with abusive chants), you could see a lot more support for the team.
“The relationship with the staff and players has been quite good. It’s something you can feel almost every week, a little bit more and more. I can’t say ‘when’ (I felt like I belonged), but when we started changing things at half-time and winning games, it gave us a more sense of union.
“I think the majority of them were very positive in the end, which is good. And I think I changed the opinion of some of them. We tried to do our best to the end.”
Chelsea’s Brazilian defender David Luiz offered support for the outgoing manager.
We want to say ‘thank you’ because he was an amazing coach for the team and for me personally,” Luiz said. I learnt a lot from him and he’s a professional guy. People said bad things about him but not many coaches can do what he does.”
There was less at stake for Moyes and Everton but they competed impressively in a game that was eventually decided by Fernando Torres’ 76th minute goal after Steven Naismith had cancelled out Juan Mata’s early opener.
Moyes is ending an 11-year spell at Goodison Park as he prepares to succeed Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager, but he plans to continue working for the Toffees for the next few days.
“I’ll go into the training ground some of the days next week to make sure everything is in place for the incoming manager, whoever it is,” he said.
“I’m due to go on holiday in a week’s time. So I’ll be doing two jobs for the next week or so.
“I’d like to think what we’ve done has been a success. It was a big shock when we were knocked out of the Cup against Wigan. We’re up there competing to be in the Europa League.
“There are regrets and things could have been better, but there were more plusses.
“We went to Arsenal a few weeks ago and drew, we’ve beaten Spurs recently. We’ve had big games, and we don’t spend as much on transfers and wages than the others. It’s a big achievement for Everton, even if we haven’t had a trophy.”
Well done Rafa hope you get a club who treats you better than Chelsea. the fans who were chanting Rafa out and saying that Chelsea only won Europa because of players and not him is an insult to the good work he did, as was the term intrim manager. hope Mourinho fails on his return and they realise what a good manager Rafa is
They’re incredibly ungrateful. I’ve been putting up with moaning about Benitez for the last few months (I work in south west London) and they literally won’t give him any credit for steering the sinking ship that is their beloved football club. Can’t see Mourinho failing there though; they clearly want to play for him and he has the expertise to turn them into a machine again.
Arsenal suffer Gabriel blow ahead of Real Madrid clash
1 hr ago
0
Freeout of sorts
'I kind of lost the love for the game' - Ronnie O’Sullivan on World Championship indecision
2 hrs ago
13
Ban
Nankivell set to miss Munster's visit to La Rochelle as appeal denied
Updated
13 hrs ago
69
Sign in or create a free account
To continue reading create a free account
Or sign into an existing account
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 161 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.Privacy Policy
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 110 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 143 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 113 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 39 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 35 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 134 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 61 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 92 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 99 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 88 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 69 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Well done Rafa hope you get a club who treats you better than Chelsea. the fans who were chanting Rafa out and saying that Chelsea only won Europa because of players and not him is an insult to the good work he did, as was the term intrim manager. hope Mourinho fails on his return and they realise what a good manager Rafa is
Chelsea fans…..the worst bunch of fans on the planet. Suits Mourinho down to the ground….both a bunch of classless idiots.
Fans = Plural, add Mourinho and you call us “Both”. Pat on the back sir.
They’re incredibly ungrateful. I’ve been putting up with moaning about Benitez for the last few months (I work in south west London) and they literally won’t give him any credit for steering the sinking ship that is their beloved football club. Can’t see Mourinho failing there though; they clearly want to play for him and he has the expertise to turn them into a machine again.
Both the fans and Both Mourinho…..!!! Classing two different sets…the fans…one and Mourinho…two….Both. !!! Is that ok for you now.
Is that the royal plural for Mourinho???
Lets be honest, Benitez hardly pulled up any trees given the talent he had available to him