Football

Cliveo was this the piece you tweeted about earlier?

Booooo! “F*** off Benítez!” How they screamed and shouted, summoning the fans’ inalienable right to vent their fury. You pay your money, you shout what you want (in the case of some West Ham United scumbags, failing to draw the line at mocking a stabbing victim and the Holocaust).
At Stamford Bridge, Rafael Benítez learnt the brutal way what so many Chelsea supporters think of him, and football’s usual reaction is to conclude that “the fans are entitled to their opinion”.
We are brought up to believe that thousands of Chelsea fans cannot be wrong about their own club, especially not at those prices.
But what if their opinion is self-defeating, misguided, bullying and stupid? What if it is cowardice to pick on Benítez when it is Roman Abramovich who should be bearing the brunt?
Forty thousand fans can be wrong.
They poured their frustrations down on the head of Benítez on Sunday, drowning out his introduction as interim manager with jeers, and still no one has satisfactorily explained why the loathing is so intense.
Many years ago he made a catty remark about “plastic flags” that are sometimes given out at Stamford Bridge (the “stupid” part of the quote seems to have been inserted later).
And, er, that’s it. As Liverpool manager, in the midst of a fierce rivalry with Chelsea, he also said he could never imagine himself working for Chelsea, yet added that “Chelsea is a big club with fantastic players; every manager wants to coach such a big team”. As inflammatory as an April shower.
He did not launch an underhand raid to disrupt John Terry, tell the Chelsea fans to “shush” or slide on his knees across Stamford Bridge.
He did not poke anyone in the eye, call Abramovich a blight on the game or say he would knock Chelsea off their f****** perch.
At Liverpool, he accused Didier Drogba of diving — who hasn’t? — and, in some eyes, he looks like a fat Spanish waiter.
Any more? Oh yes. “The fans are extremely upset about what he said about [Frank] Lampard and [Ashley] Cole,” David Johnstone, spokesman for the CFC UK Fanzine insisted yesterday, desperately trying to whip up fresh controversy after Benítez had implied that neither player would be given new contracts.
This fuss about nothing conveniently ignores that Benítez has been in the job a matter of days, has no input in contracts and is unlikely ever to do so. He was simply relaying what he had been told by the hierarchy, ie, the owner. But why let the facts get in the way of a lynch mob?
Benítez’s “crime” was to answer a phone call offering him a way out of lonely days sitting at home. He could have turned it down for a quiet life, but he wants to work and rebuild a reputation. If he succeeds, so do Chelsea.
His desperation to return to work was not going to change the fate of Roberto Di Matteo. The Italian was out in any case. Harsh, but Benítez is hardly some mug off the streets, or Avram Grant.
Benítez did not shoot Bambi. The man with Di Matteo’s blood on his hands, the man who slayed the darling of Stamford Bridge (whose team, incidentally, had leaked 21 goals in the past ten games), is Abramovich.
It is the owner who incessantly meddles and has a flawed obsession with getting a return on his £50 million for Fernando Torres despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Had Chelsea fans shown the courage of their convictions, they would have held up banners saying, “Roman, you don’t know what you’re doing”.
They would have stood up in the Matthew Harding Stand and shouted: “It’s not your club, it’s ours.” But to upset Abramovich is to risk that he stops throwing around potloads of money or, worse still, goes back to Grant.
So they thought they would boo Benítez, hope Abramovich picked up the message, but did not take it to heart. In other words, bullying and cowardice rolled into one.
Benítez gets it in the neck, apparently with little hope of respite.
Fans groups say they expect the vitriol to continue. It is as though many Chelsea fans are willing him to fail, in which case we can add the charge of stupidity. Finishing outside the top four, without a trophy, may get rid of Benítez — but it is hardly the way to lure Pep Guardiola.
Passion over reason is not a new phenomenon for football fans, but this seemed a particularly ugly, self-defeating expression.
Perhaps the booing convinced some that they do have a say at a club where they have rolled, happily, with the owner’s whims for almost a decade.
Maybe Chelsea fans were determined to disprove the view tweeted by Danny Baker, the broadcaster, on Sunday: “Chelsea fans. You HAVE no voice. That is the price you paid to be what you are now. You are season tickets. Programme sales. Product. Face it.”
Generally, those of us who like to believe, rather idealistically, that clubs belong to supporters not oligarchs think it is a good thing when fans come together as one for the wellbeing of their club. But not in the way it happened on Sunday when thousands screamed at Benítez before he had taken his seat. This was vindictive, and for what reason or purpose? Where does all that venom flow from here?
It sloshes around Stamford Bridge, making life harder for Benítez and his squad, and if Chelsea fail the place descends into even more rancour.
So “BOOOO!” all you like, Chelsea fans. The rest of us think you are nuts.